On 11th May 2025, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, sat in an interview with Trevor Phillips of Sky News and detailed the government’s new immigration white paper and the decisive plan to end the overseas care worker visa route. This interview has certainly sent ripples through the nation, with care providers across the country calling for a reversal of the plan to axe the Care Visa.
However, for those of us who have long championed the vision outlined in “The Heart of Care: Nurturing Our Domestic Workforce for a Sustainable Future,” the stated aims of reducing reliance on international recruitment and investing in our UK-based talent resonate deeply. On the surface, this appears to align with our core belief: that the long-term health of our care sector is intrinsically linked to how we cultivate, value, and support our own workforce.
Ms Cooper’s assertion that “what we should be doing is concentrating on the higher-skilled migration and we should be concentrating on training in the UK” touches upon a sentiment we wholeheartedly share. For too long, perhaps, the focus has shifted away from building robust, appealing career pathways within the UK for care roles. The idea of rectifying a “broken system” where, as she describes, “overseas recruitment soared, while training in the UK was cut” is, in principle, a welcome correction.
While the government’s vision may align with our aspirations, the proposed route of abruptly ending the care worker visa raises serious concerns. Will this change truly lead to the “sustainable future” we hope for, or could it instead trigger a deeper crisis that undermines that very goal?
The immediate, stark warnings from organisations like Care England and Unison, highlighted in reports from The Guardian and Sky News, cannot be ignored. Describing the move as “kicking us while we’re already down” or a “crushing blow” to an already fragile sector underscores a critical point: nurturing a domestic workforce takes time, significant investment, and a fundamental shift in how care work is perceived and rewarded. It’s not a switch that can be flipped overnight simply by closing the door to international recruits.
From the perspective of “The Heart of Care,” several pressing questions arise:
1. Where is the “nurture” in this abrupt change?
Our vision is predicated on nurturing our domestic workforce. This implies careful planning, substantial investment in training infrastructure, improved pay and conditions to attract and retain UK workers, and a societal effort to elevate the status of care work. Cutting off a vital staffing stream, which leaders say has been a “lifeline,” before these foundational elements are firmly in place, feels less like nurturing and more like a shock tactic that could destabilise the very services we aim to secure.
2. Is the investment commensurate with the challenge?
While Ms Cooper speaks of prioritising UK workers and training, the white paper’s success hinges on the scale and immediacy of any subsequent investment that must be pledged to meet this need. As Nadra Ahmed of the National Care Association pointed out to Sky News, the preference to recruit domestically often hits the barrier of inadequate funding for competitive wages. Will these new measures be accompanied by the treasury commitments needed to make care roles genuinely attractive to a wider domestic pool, beyond merely suggesting employers recruit from those already here or extend existing visas?
3. Are we addressing the root causes, or just the symptoms?
The reliance on overseas workers, as we’ve argued in “The Heart of Care,” has often been a symptom of deeper, unresolved issues within the UK care system: chronic underfunding, low pay, demanding conditions, and a lack of clear career progression. Simply restricting one source of labour without a comprehensive, fully-funded strategy to tackle these root causes risks exacerbating the staffing crisis. The concern, as voiced by Christina McAnea of Unison, is that the sector could have “collapsed long ago” without these workers. What immediate, concrete steps will prevent that collapse now?
Read our exploration of the mental health challenges often faced by UK healthcare workers.
4. What is the true measure of success?
The government aims to reduce low-skilled worker visas by around 50,000 this year. While migration figures are one metric, the ultimate success from “The Heart of Care” perspective is a robust, high-quality, and well-staffed care system, supported by a valued and thriving domestic workforce. Will this policy achieve that, or will it lead to increased pressure on remaining staff, potential service failures, and ultimately make care work even less appealing to those in the UK?
The ambition to build a self-reliant, domestically powered care sector is one we champion. However, the journey towards that “sustainable future” must be paved with strategic investment, genuine support for our workers, and a realistic transition plan. The fear is that this policy, as it stands, focuses more on the “pulling out” than the “building up.”
We urge the government to ensure that this white paper is not just about immigration numbers, but about laying the vital groundwork for the thriving, domestically-staffed care sector our nation deserves. The principles of “The Heart of Care” demand a holistic approach; one that truly nurtures our workforce from the ground up. This approach will ensure that when one door closes, another, more sustainable and supportive pathway is already wide open for our people. Without that, this move could unfortunately prove to be a painful step backward for the very services and people we all seek to protect.
