A loss of overseas workers due to increased red tape could have a "severe and dramatic impact" on social care, according to a report which reveals that some care providers in Scotland are wholly reliant on international recruits.
A survey by Scottish Care found that two thirds of its members - which represent a mix of private, not-for-profit, and charitable care organisations - are currently recruiting staff from overseas.
In seven local authority areas, more than 25% of care staff were international recruits, while some care providers reported that 95-100% of the people currently working in their services had come from outside the UK, posing a "significant risk to the sustainability of those organisations".
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In its analysis of the findings, Scottish Care added: "Should staff either decide to leave the sector or have no ability to access the required Certificate of Sponsorship this would immediately put these organisations at risk of continuing to deliver their current level of service provision.
"The percentages of staff that we now understand to be working in social care organisations who are from outwith Britain is much higher than previously evidenced in workforce data reports.
"These percentages rise to very significant levels in certain local authority areas...due to the current level of vacancies and lack of capacity being experienced within the social care sector, this additional potential loss of staff could have a severe and dramatic impact on overall social care delivery throughout Scotland."
The research was carried out by Scottish Care after its independent sector lead in Fife raised the alarm over an increase in the number of applications for Certificates of Sponsorship which were being rejected by the Home Office.
The certificates are issued to organisations such as care homes to enable them to sponsor the visas for care workers they want to bring to the UK, or to continue to employ.
A year ago the Home Office began cracking down on overseas recruitment by demanding that employers who wanted to hire visa-holding migrant care workers provide a much higher level of detail and documentation around contractual arrangements when applying for Certificates of Sponsorship.
Scottish Care said this had also coincided with communications issues, whereby providers were unable to contact the Home Office except via email.
Many providers "began to receive rejections from the Home Office who advised that the contractual paperwork provided was insufficient to prove job vacancies with these organisations", said Scottish Care.
The survey of members was commissioned by Scottish Care to "pull together evidence of the numbers of staff from overseas who are currently working in the social care sector whose employment would be at risk".
A total of 75 providers responded - equivalent to 23% of Scottish Care's membership, and covering a mix of care homes, home care services, and housing support.
Two thirds (68%) of respondents said they are not considering recruiting internationally in future.
Scottish Care said recent events mean it is no longer seen as a "sustainable and financially viable route" for staffing.
The report added that the findings have enable it to "highlight certain areas where we believe there to be a higher risk due to the number of staff being employed from overseas and being potentially impacted in their ability to continue to work within the social care sector".
The report did not disclose which local authority areas were most reliant on overseas staff.
It comes after new immigration changes which took effect in March mean that overseas care workers granted visas to work in the UK are no longer entitled to bring their families with them.
The UK Government has said the recent reforms were necessary to bring down "unsustainable levels of legal migration" and tackle "care worker visa abuse" after a "disproportionate" 120,000 dependants accompanied 100,000 care workers into the UK last year.
It added that there was also "clear evidence that care workers have been offered visas under false pretences, travelling thousands of miles for jobs that simply don’t exist or to be paid far below the minimum wage required for their work, exploiting them while undercutting British workers".
However, there has been criticism that the system is now overly strict and will exacerbate staff shortages across the social care sector.
Darren Stapelberg, CEO of Grosvenor Healthcare, said the situation had "gone from one extreme to the other".
He added: "It was very, very easy to sponsor people to come over, but the system has been abused so now they are making it almost impossible to get new people in and staff who are already here can’t get renewals.”
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