Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the availability of non-UK EU nationals to work in the social care sector.

The Government hugely values the contribution of all the European Union staff working across health and social care. The Government is committed to ensuring a clear pathway to permanent residency for these EU citizens.

The Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across social care, and the Secretary of State has made it clear that there will continue to be sufficient staff to deliver the high quality services on which the public rely following the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU.

We are aware that our challenge, working alongside stakeholders in the adult social care sector, is to ensure the workforce has the right number of people to meet increasing demand, with the right skills, knowledge and values to deliver quality, compassionate care.

That is why we have set out a plan to attract and retain talented staff, backed by an additional £2 billion investment in the sector over the next three years and a commitment to publishing a Green Paper by summer 2018, setting out proposals for reform to ensure sustainability in social care in the long term.