Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to raise awareness of vacancies in the care sector resulting from COVID-19-related international travel restrictions; and the opportunities that this may provide people who will be made redundant during the pandemic.

We are working closely across Government with local authorities and providers to make sure the adult social care sector is prepared and able to respond to COVID-19. We know that the adult social care sector will need to recruit more people to ensure it can operate at maximum capacity, both to fill existing vacancies, but also to ensure there is sufficient cover for those in the workforce who will need to self-isolate because they are unwell, or who need to undertake more stringent social distancing measures because they are in a high risk group. We are planning to adapt our current national recruitment campaign ‘When you care, every day makes a difference’ for the current context, while continuing to highlight opportunities for career development and progression.