The number of British people working in adult social care continued to fall ahead of the government's ban on providers recruiting staff from abroad, Skills for Care has revealed.
While the sector vacancy rate fell to pre-Covid levels and the numbers working in adult social care in England reached a record high in 2024-25, these trends were driven by international staff, as had been the case with workforce growth over the previous two years.
By contrast, the number of staff of British nationality fell for the third time in four years, according to Skills for Care's annual report on the size and structure of the workforce in England.
It was published a week after the government's ban on providers recruiting care workers or senior care workers from abroad on health and care worker visas came into force.
Skills for Care's figures revealed that providers were now recruiting international staff predominantly through routes other than the health and care worker visa.
Record numbers working in sector
In 2021-22, following the height of the pandemic, the number of vacancies in adult social care in England hit a record high, while there was an unprecedented fall in the number of filled posts in the sector.
Since then, the number of vacancies has fallen and the number of filled posts increased in every subsequent year, a trend which continued into 2024-25.
The number of filled posts hit a record level - 1.6m - in March 2025, while the number of vacancies fell from 126,000 to 111,000 during the previous 12 months.
This took the vacancy rate down to 7%, in line with pre-Covid levels and down from 8.3% in March 2024 and a high of 10.5% in 2022.
Fall in number of international recruits
The 2024-25 figures cover the first year since the previous government imposed significant restrictions on providers recruiting care staff on health and care worker visas in March 2024.
Under these, only Care Quality Commission-regulated employers were allowed to sponsor care staff from abroad, the salary threshold was increased for employing them and workers were prevented from bringing dependants with them to the UK.
This was reflected in Skills for Care's figures, with the estimated number of people starting direct care roles in the independent sector having arrived in the UK during the year falling from 105,000 in 2023-24 to 50,000 in 2024-25.
An estimated 10,000 were recruited through the health and care worker visa, with the majority having come through other routes such as student visas or being family members of immigrants on other visas.
Continuing reliance on overseas staff
However, despite the reduction in international recruitment, the data revealed that overseas staff were continuing to drive the growth in the size of the workforce.
The number of posts filled by staff of a non-EU nationality rose from 295,000 to 375,000 in the year to March 2025, the fifth consecutive annual rise and three times the level seen in March 2022.
This includes people already in Britain who started roles in adult social care in 2024-25, as well as those who immigrated to the country during the course of the year.
Declining employment of British workers
By contrast, the number of staff of British nationality working in the sector fell by 30,000 in the year to March 2025, to 1.13m, 85,000 below the number employed in 2021.
The latest fall comes despite the national living wage (NLW) - which many care workers are paid - having risen by its largest amount ever, in April 2024, when it increased from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour, a 9.8% hike. By comparison, inflation rose by 2.6% from April 2024 to March 2025.
The wage floor has since increased by a further 6.7% to £12.21 an hour.
Impact of ban on international recruitment
The government expects its ban on providers recruiting care workers or senior care workers on health and care worker visas to reduce immigration by 7,000 a year.
Staff on the visa will be able to continue working under sponsorship in the UK, either with their existing employer or a new provider, up until 22 July 2028.
Providers will also be able to sponsor overseas staff who are in the UK under another immigration route, such as a graduate visa, so long as they have been working for the employer as a care worker or senior care worker for at least three months. However, this option will also end on 22 July 2028.
At the same time, the government is also tightening access to visas for students and dependants, and reducing the length of the graduate visa from two years to 18 months, further cutting the potential supply of overseas recruits into adult social care.
Fair pay agreement
Reversing the decline in the number of British staff working in adult social care, including by making it a more attractive sector in which to work, is a key aim of government policy.
Despite the vacancy rate having fallen to 7% in adult social care, this remains well above the rates in the wider economy (2.3%) or in comparably paid sectors, such as accommodation and food services (3.1%) or retail (2.1%), according to Skills for Care.
The government's key mechanism for tackling this, alongside annual rises in the NLW, is its proposed fair pay agreement for adult social care, which will be enacted through the Employment Rights Bill.
The legislation would create an Adult Social Care Negotiating Body, with representation from employers and unions, which would set terms and conditions for the sector, with sign-off from ministers.
However, with the bill still going through Parliament, there is no planned start date for the body.
At the same time, ministers have not allocated any resource to funding the implications of the negotiating body's settlements for councils, who pay for 70% of care delivered by the independent sector.
Sector 'must build resilience' in workforce
Responding to its data, Skills for Care chief executive Oonagh Smyth said it was encouraging to see the sector continuing to grow and the vacancy rate falling.
But she warned that some of this was down to a reduction in vacancies in the wider economy, which she said always benefited adult social care.
"We need to protect ourselves from the wild swings in vacancy rates driven by the wider economic picture," Smyth added.
“Building resilience means investing in stable recruitment and retention and making roles more attractive to the domestic workforce over the long term. "That includes improving development opportunities, improving the quality of roles and supporting positive cultures within organisations."
Adult social care 'still propped up by international recruitment'
The Nuffield Trust warned that the sector continued to be "propped up by international recruitment", while the government was "now taking multiple measures that kick away that support strut".
"As well as the specific block on visas for care workers, the wider tightening on immigration is likely to mean there will be fewer migrants on other types of visas who might work in the sector," said Camille Oung, a fellow at the think tank.
“With these barriers in place, there is a strong case for delivering better terms and conditions for care workers to attract and retain more homegrown staff, but the Employment Rights Bill measures aimed at achieving this are both some way off, and not clearly funded.”
High rates of poverty among non-UK staff
Fellow think tank the Health Foundation, meanwhile, highlighted the relatively high rates of poverty among non-UK staff in the care sector.
More than 1 in 3 residential care workers born outside the UK lived in poverty in 2023-24, compared with 1 in 10 born in the UK, according to a recent analysis by the foundation.
"Caring for older people and disabled people is vital and rewarding work but has long been underpaid and undervalued," said policy fellow Lucinda Allen.
"Making jobs in social care more attractive and tackling high levels of poverty among workers requires significant improvements to pay, career progression and employment conditions. It’s vital that the government delivers on its plans for a fair pay agreement’ for social care."
Variation in vacancy rates within sector
The Skills for Care data revealed an ongoing variation in vacancy rates within the sector, despite the fall overall.
Residential care homes had a vacancy rate of 4.1% and nursing homes a rate of 4.7%, as of March 2025, with both rates having fallen from 5% in March 2024.
There was also a fall in the vacancy rate in home care, however, this remains much higher, at 10.1% in March 2025, down from 11.9% 12 months earlier.
'Not a question of will, but of funding'
The Homecare Association, the representative body for domiciliary care providers, has long maintained that they are significantly underfunded by councils and NHS commissioners for the care they deliver.
In response to the Skills for Care data, its chief executive, Jane Townson, said: "Providers want to offer better pay and conditions and stand ready to implement a Fair Pay Agreement with the hope it improves recruitment and retention.
"However, without meaningful investment from the government, they simply cannot do so. It’s not a question of will; it’s a question of funding."
