EXCLUSIVE: Andy Burnham said to be considering relaxing tougher right to remain requirements for persons currently working in the industry
Hundreds of thousands of care workers might be left out of the home secretary’s plans to toughen up the immigration system under ideas being discussed by Andy Burnham as he seeks to ease pressure on the social care sector.
The prime minister will next week deliver a speech outlining his determination to begin establishing a National Care Service before the next general election as he seeks to speed up the process set in place by his predecessor, Keir Starmer.
Burnham will give a deeply personal speech about his experience of the care system through his father Roy, who has Alzheimer’s, and say he is bringing forward the review into the sector by Louise Casey, which was due to finish in 2028.
He is also currently weighing up widespread exemptions to Shabana Mahmood’s plans to make it difficult for immigrants to gain established status in the UK.
The policy is unlikely to be included in next week’s speech but could be announced later in the year once the Home Office has evaluated replies to a public consultation on the topic.
One person briefed on the plans said: “Andy is determined to do something about the social care system and do it fast. “This is very personal to him, and he’s going to talk about why he wants to push some of it through before the election, even if it’s at a political price.”
Burnham has placed reform of the social care system high on his list of priorities, having attempted and failed to do so as health secretary more than 15 years ago.
This week he told broadcasters: “I think it’s about being ready to grasp the nettle. I have intimate experience with the system. My dad has Alzheimer’s and you see what the workers have to put up with. They aren’t to blame. “The system is f*cked.”
“You can’t leave social care in this position,” he said. And this is part of my critique of Westminster. It has shied away from these significant judgements throughout the years.”
The prime minister has in the past campaigned for the scrapping of inheritance tax and replacing it with a 10% levy on all estates when a person dies to pay directly for a universal care system, although such plans were withdrawn after the Conservatives branded them a “death tax”.
In England, people with less than £23,250 in assets get state-funded care, while those with more pay for it themselves.
Social care providers say they are financially stretched and increasingly unable to deliver the services for which they have been engaged because of the low value of their contracts with local authorities.
Mahmood’s plans to double the length of time it takes for migrant workers to qualify for settled status, known as indefinite leave to remain, could disproportionately impact the care sector and many have bitterly complained about its likely impact.
Unison national secretary Andrea Egan said: “Vulnerable people and those with complex needs won’t get the help they deserve unless ministers focus on recruitment and retention. That includes scrapping plans to kick migrant care workers out of the UK.”
Mahmood has stated she will look at exclusions to the new ILR (indefinite leave to remain) rules, though cutting out those on social care visas would make a big reduction in the numbers affected.
The Home Office has issued almost 200,000 health and care worker visas in the previous five years, with many more coming in as dependants.
Burnham is thought to be considering exempting people already in the country but allowing the measures to apply to future immigrants.
The adjustments are unlikely to be included in his speech next week but he will outline some short-term fixes to ease the pressure on the sector.
This could include pumping more money into the £9bn Better Care Fund, a ringfenced pot of money designed to be used to boost social care where it would ease pressure on the NHS.
He is thought to be considering raising the fund to provide free short-term care for patients once they leave hospital, in a bid to prevent them from having to return to acute care.
The prime minister will also keep the door open to imposing extra taxes to support a new system in the longer term, saying financial options should be looked at as part of Lady Casey’s assessment.
Casey was commissioned by former health secretary Wes Streeting to issue an interim report this year and a final one in 2028 but people close to the process claim she might now just fast-track her final report instead.
Last month Burnham told the Guardian he would like the assessment to be published before the end of the year, though sector experts acknowledged this was likely to prove overly ambitious.
“A moment of reckoning” has arrived for the UK’s long inability to match sufficient resources and action to the demands of expanding numbers of frail elderly people and handicapped individuals, Casey has stated.
She has been scathing about the way patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s are undermined by institutional fights over whether a person qualifies for free NHS care or is means-tested and charged for social care. Smoothing the fault lines between the services is expected to be a key focus of the review.
Casey will open a public consultation in the next two weeks seeking a “challenging conversation” with the public this summer.
She wants to answer a range of questions including who should qualify for social care, how far families should give care for loved ones and how far individuals should pay for care, sources said.