Care services could close due to immigration plans and tax increases, warns minister

Areas of Scotland could be left without access to social care unless the UK Government changes course on immigration and National Insurance (NI) contributions, a minister has warned.

Maree Todd, Scotland’s social care minister, said the proposal to end new visas for people working in social care would be “devastating” to the sector.

She also hit out at the decision to increase employer NI contributions, dubbing this a “reckless decision” which was putting huge financial pressure on social care providers.

But the Scottish Tories and Scottish Labour accused the government of refusing to accept its own failures.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled a white paper on immigration which included a plan to “end overseas recruitment for social care visas”.

This has been criticised by several third sector organisations, including Scottish Care. In a statement, the charity warned it would be “profoundly damaging” given about two-thirds of its members actively recruit from overseas.

Todd said it was a “devastating and needless proposal” and criticised the Home Office for offering “no substantive engagement” with the Scottish Government on the white paper.

She also said it was “demeaning and disrespectful” to label the work of carers as low-skilled.

The minister warned this comes at a time when the sector is already struggling with rising costs, in part to do with the recent increase to employer NI contributions. She said this was costing the sector more than £84m.

Urging the UK Government to fully fund the NI increase, Todd said: “Without swift action from the UK Government, I fully anticipate that more care services will close and there will be areas of Scotland without access to social care.

“For some, this will mean difficulty in securing a care home placement or individuals being cared for many miles away from their friends, family and the community. That is not a future I want to see and why I find it heartbreaking that the UK Labour government are prepared to accept that.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Sandesh Gulhane said the Scottish Government was “passing the buck” and not accepting responsibility for the problems.

While he criticised the Labour government’s NI decision, he said a lack of workforce planning and investment and a failure to end delayed discharge had occurred under the SNP.

On recruitment issues, he said unemployed Scots should be used to “plug the gap instead of relying on immigration”.

Todd replied it was “somewhat insulting” to say people can come out of unemployment and “straight into a social care job”.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said unemployed Scots “could be trained”, going on to criticise low pay in the sector and poor terms and conditions.

She also said there was a £560m “blackhole” in social care funding, adding: “The SNP simply blames someone else for their own failures.”