Westminster visa rethink is urged

The UK Government is being urged to “do the right thing” and make care workers from outside the UK eligible for visas.

Scottish ministers said they were “dismayed” their counterparts in Westminster had disregarded key sectors relied on in the pandemic when drawing up their post-Brexit immigration policy.

Holyrood migration minister Ben Macpherson also complained that the UK Government had “inappropriately and inaccurately labelled several key sectors as ‘low-skilled’.”

The Scottish Government is calling for social care workers to be eligible for the UK Government’s proposed new Health and Care Visa.

Holyrood ministers also want social care workers to be included on the Shortage Occupation List set by the UK Government, allowing overseas staff to come and work here in such roles.

In Scotland an estimated 16,000 workers from other European nations are employed in health and social care, with a further 10,000 from other overseas nations also employed in the sector.

Mr Macpherson said: “Care professionals from all over the world have played a vital role in caring for our communities during the Covid-19 crisis.

“It is mind-boggling that the UK Government has introduced a ‘Health and Care Visa’, intended to show the UK’s gratitude to frontline workers in these sectors, but that this initiative bizarrely continues to exclude and disregard the huge contribution of social care workers.”

He said if social care was added to the Shortage Occupation List, care providers could recruit overseas staff at the lower salary threshold of £20,480.