The number of work visas given to overseas care staff fell by 81% over the last year, Home Office figures have shown.
Just 5,189 health and care worker visas were granted to care workers in the year to September 2025, compared with 27,941 over the previous 12 months, according to quarterly immigration statistics published last week.
The 2023-24 figure itself marked a reduction from 103,403 visas granted to care workers in the year to September 2023, with the cuts reflecting a series of measures designed to tighten immigration policy in relation to the social care sector.
Immigration restrictions
This started with the Conservatives' decision to stop care workers from bringing family dependants with them and prevent providers not regulated with the Care Quality Commission from sponsoring staff, which came into force in March 2024.On the back of this, the number of visas granted to staff fell from 20,439 from October to December 2023 to just 3,432 in January to March 2024 and 1,575 in April to June 2024.
The Labour government then tightened policy further from April 2025, by requiring English providers to recruit from a pool of international staff who were already in the country and had lost their visa sponsorship, before seeking workers from abroad.
This saw a further reduction in the number of visas granted, from 1,784 in January to March 2025 to 1,063 in April to June 2025.
Ban on overseas recruitment
It then announced an outright ban on providers recruiting care workers or senior care workers from overseas, which came into effect on 22 July 2025.This was reflected in the latest quarterly figures, for July to September 2025, when just 303 visas were granted for care staff. Until July 2028, providers will be able to obtain health and care worker visas for overseas staff already in the UK for other reasons, such as family or graduate visas.
The precipitous fall in the number of care workers hired from overseas follows a period in which international staff have played a key role in driving down vacancy rates, from a high of 10.5% in 2022 to 7% in 2025.
The government is hoping that the introduction of fair pay agreements for the sector, along with rights to better sick pay and guaranteed hours of work, through its Employment Rights Bill, will make the sector more attractive to staff from the UK.
Fair pay agreement concerns
However, as well as the first fair pay agreement not coming into force until 2028, sector bodies have been at one in saying that the £500m allocated by the government to fund it is inadequate.This was reflected in reaction to the drop in the number of visas allocated to care staff, which, said Nuffield Trust researcher Cyril Lobont, had "huge consequences for the fragile care sector".
"Health and care worker visas were once the main source of overseas social care workers, but the number of visas being granted has now fallen to close to zero," he added.
“The government intends to account for this by attracting more domestic recruits into the sector through its fair pay agreement for adult social care. However, this won't take effect until 2028 and the £500m pledged for the first year of implementation is far from what is needed to drive an influx of British nationals into this vital sector."
There are also fears that the government's plan to triple the settlement period for care staff from five to 15 years will lead many to leave the UK, increasing the sector's workforce shortages.
