Indefinite Leave to Remain: Healthcare Workers

Lisa Smart Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

I am grateful to the Petitions Committee and to the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) for this debate, and it is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Edward. It is an honour to speak on a matter that is deeply important, not just to those who signed the petition, but to every single one of us who relies on the dedication and compassion of healthcare workers.

We should be clear about the immense contribution that healthcare workers make to the UK. Those individuals form the backbone of our communities, tirelessly offering their time, skills and empathy to ensure the wellbeing of those in need. Every single day, they save lives and, in doing so, can risk their own. They also face mounting pressure, whether from record waiting times in the NHS or from staffing shortages in care homes. Other Members have mentioned hate crimes in their constituencies, and over the weekend I had an horrific incident of exactly that in my constituency. I completely agree with the comments made in that regard.

What do healthcare workers get in return? They get a system that makes them jump through hoops and that can leave them vulnerable to exploitation, as we heard clearly in Thomas’s story—about how the power sits with the sponsoring employer, rather than with the healthcare worker. Those workers deserve better. They deserve a system that recognises their sacrifices, their contributions and their humanity.

The Liberal Democrats have long championed better support for healthcare workers from around the world, because if we want to continue benefiting from their dedication, we must treat them with respect—not as mere cogs in a machine, but as valued members of our society. To us, the first step to ensuring that healthcare workers have the resources, support and respect they deserve to continue their essential work, is reversing the utterly cruel decision made by the last Government to ban those on the health and care worker visa from bringing their dependants with them. That policy places undue burden on workers who are already sacrificing so much to support our healthcare system, and it sends a clear message that our Government do not value them. By overturning that decision, we could take a vital step towards returning compassion.

I urge the Government to exempt NHS staff, and care staff too, from the £1,000 a year immigration skills charge. That fee, imposed on employers who recruit workers overseas, places an unnecessary financial strain on our already stretched healthcare system. At a time when the NHS and care sectors face significant workforce shortages and mounting demand, charges such as those are unproductive.

We must also address the exploitation of migrant workers, a problem particularly acute in the social care sector. Many of those workers face long hours, low pay and isolation from their families, a situation only worsened by the decision to ban dependants. The Liberal Democrats are committed to tackling that head on. We are calling for a single enforcement body to crack down on modern slavery and worker exploitation. That was promised by the previous Government, but unfortunately did not materialise.

Reforming policies for immigrants working in healthcare is essential, but the long-term solution surely lies in a robust workforce plan that invests in training and retaining our own talent. That was mentioned by the hon. Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes). Had the previous Government paid care workers properly and valued them as skilled professionals, they would not have needed to bring in tens of thousands of care workers from abroad.

The Liberal Democrats urge the Government to produce a long-term workforce strategy to focus on addressing those skill gaps that exist within the UK through increased training and education opportunities, and for relevant Departments to work with employers in each sector to address their specific needs. We have also called for a carers’ minimum wage to make it easier to recruit British workers to those vital services on which our country relies. The previous Government did not implement those proposals, but I urge this Government to revisit them.

There is a central point to be made here: the UK’s visa system is broken. It is not fair or fit for purpose. Our economy and, with it, our public services and—most importantly—our people, suffer for it. The Liberal Democrats are committed to building a system that is fair, practical and humane—one that recognises economic realities, values families and enables our workforce to meet the needs of this country. We need a flexible, merit-based visa system that reflects the actual needs of our economy—one that considers skills, qualifications and demand for expertise, not an arbitrary figure that is forced to fit across all industries and sectors. A key part of that flexibility should be moving work visa policy out of the Home Office, which has repeatedly shown that it does not understand the needs of employers. That policy should be placed under the responsibility of Departments better equipped to address workforce challenges. By doing so, we can ensure that policies are designed with a deeper understanding of sector-specific challenges and a focus on supporting economic growth and service delivery.

The UK’s immigration system is not working for too many people. It fails healthcare workers, it is failing employers and it fails all of us who rely on vital services. The Liberal Democrats have a plan to fix it by treating healthcare workers with the respect they deserve, cracking down on worker exploitation and building a visa system built on merit and real workforce need. We urge the Government to start delivering a system that actually works for healthcare workers, for the NHS and for the entire country.