Care home firm's 'dismay' at visa changes

Samantha Woosnam from Coverage Care Services said she worried how the company would maintain its workforce

A crackdown on visas for lower-skilled workers has caused "dismay" and "major frustration" for one care home group.

Samantha Woosnam, the human resources director for Shropshire's Coverage Care Services, said: "Without this pool of migrant workers I can't see how we are going to be able to maintain our workforce to the levels that we require."

And Joyce Pinfield from Bromsgrove, vice chair of the National Care Association, described the move as "yet another blow to the care sector".

The government said it would be requiring firms to hire British nationals or extend visas of overseas workers already in the country.

Ms Woosnam said her reaction to the news was "dismay, major frustration".

She said the industry cared for "the most vulnerable people in our communities and we need skilled people to do this".

But she believed the change in the rules would mean "the tools are being removed to enable us to do this properly".

Her company employs staff from India, Africa and the Philippines who she said played "a vital part in replacing those hard-to-recruit positions, particularly night-workers".

In the past the industry had difficulties attracting British people, she said, and these problems had not gone away.

"We had a reduction in the number of young people wanting to come and have a career in care and we had an ageing workforce," she said.

Ms Pinfield said: "We just seem to fail to get (British) people in."

She said paying more was "very difficult".

"Unfortunately, if you are reliant on the fees paid by local authorities, it is very difficult to pay more," she explained.

'Back to drawing board'

The government plans are part of a wider push to reduce the amount of immigration into the UK.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government expects these changes will "lead to a reduction of up to 50,000 fewer lower-skilled visas over the course of the next year".

Ms Woosnam said: "It feels like we have to go back to the drawing board and re-look at our strategies but with really little to do that with."

She added part of her dismay was because her company had helped overseas workers settle in Shropshire and that work was now in question.

Ms Pinfield said the industry had been "So pleased when we were allowed to bring in care workers from overseas".

But she said a lack of clarity meant many firms had "brought people in from abroad that didn't really have the jobs ready for them".

She believed this had partly led to the government crackdown.