Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Tony Vaughan (Labour) on Wednesday, 19 March 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 2 April 2025 (named day). It was answered by Stephen Kinnock (Labour) on Wednesday, 2 April 2025 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Care Workers: Migrant Workers

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department of 22 January 2025, Official Report, column 414WH, how many displaced international care workers whose sponsor’s licence had not been revoked have been supported by regional partnerships since they were established.

Answer

In 2024/25, £16 million has been made available through the adult social care international recruitment fund for 15 regional and sub-regional partnerships to prevent and respond to exploitative practices of internationally recruited care staff. Between July 2024 and February 2025, approximately 8,800 people have contacted the regional partnerships for support. To date, approximately 550 of these individuals have been supported into new employment, according to self-reported data provided by the regional partnerships. This data has not been independently verified by the Department or UK Visas and Immigration. We do not hold data on the number of care workers supported into new employment whose sponsor has not had their licence revoked.

A primary aim of the 2024/25 fund is to facilitate in-country matching of overseas recruits who have been displaced by unethical practices or by their employer’s sponsorship licence being revoked. However, in some instances, regions are also providing support to care workers not impacted by sponsor licence revocation. To support regional partnerships, we have published guidance on implementing the aims of the fund, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-recruitment-fund-for-the-adult-social-care-sector-2024-to-2025/international-recruitment-fund-for-the-adult-social-care-sector-2024-to-2025-guidance-for-local-authorities

We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce to undertake an independent evaluation of the 2024/25 international recruitment regional fund. We expect the final report of this evaluation to be published by King's College London in 2026.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
39615
Session
2024-26
Related items
Certificate of Common Sponsorship
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Proceeding contributions
House of Commons
Care Workers: Migrant Workers
Thursday, 25 September 2025
Written questions
House of Commons
Registered interest declared
Yes
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Migrant workers Sponsorship Care workers
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk