Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of support for displaced care workers.

The Department of Health and Social Care has made up to £12.5 million available this financial year for 15 regional partnerships to continue to support displaced international care workers. The international recruitment regional fund aims to prevent and respond to exploitative employment practices of internationally recruited care staff. This includes support for individuals impacted by their sponsor’s license being revoked to find alternative, ethical employment.

As of July 2025, over 1,600 people have been directly supported into new sponsored employment by the regional partnerships. This data has not been independently verified by the Department or UK Visas and Immigration, and these figures do not provide a complete picture as workers are under no obligation to report their employment outcomes back to their regional partnership. Regional partnerships are also currently supporting thousands more displaced workers, including support with CV writing and interview techniques, introducing workers to ethical providers with appropriate vacancies, and offering pastoral support to workers who have experienced unethical or exploitative practices.

We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce to undertake an independent evaluation of the 2024/25 international recruitment regional fund. We expect the final report of this evaluation to be published by King's College London in 2026.