BREAKING NEWS: Five-year settlement rights given to health and care workers
Care workers earning £25,000 and doctors and nurses will be given settlement rights after five years under reforms announced by the home secretary.
Shabana Mahmood (c) UK Parliament
In a statement to the Commons, Shabana Mahmood said the reforms would mean that how long someone waits will now depend on their contribution and character.
Mahmood said she was ‘providing a five-year settlement for care workers who lived up to the promise they made on coming to this country, worked hard and answered our call when we needed them’.
Five-year settlement will be offered to care workers who earn £25,000 under the condition of their visa and who arrived in the UK before May 2025.
Low-income care workers who came between 2022 and 2025 will also be offered a five-year care visa and provided support to find new roles with legitimate care providers.
They will also be offered the opportunity to apply for settlement status once their five-year visas have expired.
The same transitional arrangement will be applied to public sector workers in roles identified by the Migration Advisory Committee, in healthcare and education, such as auxiliary nurses who arrived during the same period.
Reaction
Simon Bottery, Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund, said: ‘This is an important recognition of the crucial role migrant workers play in maintaining the social care services people and families rely on. It was also unfair to invite people to come and work in social care only to change the terms on which they came to the UK after they had arrived.’
Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, said: ‘The home secretary’s concession for care workers will no doubt be welcomed by those who answered this country’s call in its hour of need. Asking them to wait 15 years was never right.’
Ben Morrin, chief executive of NHS Employers, said: ‘NHS Employers are pleased with today’s announcement which sees over 10,000 current NHS healthcare support workers, working alongside nurses, midwives, physiotherapists and doctors, treated the same as their colleagues in terms of the immigration rules.’
