On 23 June 2016, the British public voted to leave the EU in a landmark referendum. The decision, which could see restrictions on free movement within the EU, has filled the social care sector, already beset with recruitment and funding problems, with dread and uncertainty. So what could Brexit mean for social care professionals?
Workers from the EU may leave
EU workers currently make up 6% of the UK social care sector – amounting to 80,000 jobs in England alone – while one in five members of staff are from outside Great Britain. Some parts of the country will be hit harder by Brexit. In London, for example, nearly three in five of the adult social care workforce were born abroad.
“Brexit adds to the existing worries of the sector,” says Patrick Hall, a fellow in social care policy at leading thinktank the King’s Fund. “You’ve got a sector that is already struggling to recruit. Brexit adds to the uncertainty of providers being able to pull in the staff they need.”
There are an estimated 1.3m jobs in adult social care, according to the National Minimum Dataset for Social Care. UK nationals fill 82% of the roles while non-EU citizens account for a further 12%. Meanwhile, one in 20 (4.8%) of positions in adult social care in England are vacant – nearly twice the vacancy rate in the UK’s labour force as a whole.
At the same time, the sector is faced with a rapidly ageing population and significant cuts to social care funding. According to the Moved to Care report, the number of people over 80 is expected to double in size to over 5 million by 2037 and social care funding has been reduced by nearly 11% in the last five years.
Until the UK extracts itself from its obligations under EU treaties, the policy on freedom of movement remains the same. “However, given the current shortfalls in the social care sector, the government must clarify its intentions on the ability of EU nationals to work in social care roles in the UK, not least to avoid EU staff deciding to leave to work in other countries,” writes senior policy advisor Helen McKenna for the King’s Fund.
However, Hall worries that the UK is now seen as a less attractive destination for those abroad seeking work. He says that migrants might feel anxious over issues such as their right to stay and long-term rights in the UK.
Anecdotally, he has heard of instances of racism since the referendum result which he says jeopardise the relationship between professional and service user: “Social care is reliant on good relationships between a care worker and the person who’s having them in their home. Anything that threatens that relationship is a big worry.”
The UK will struggle to retain staff
Will the possible upheaval mean more jobs for UK workers then? Hall suggests that recruiting more UK workers should be part of any strategy, regardless of what happens to free movement. “We should be investing more in training, apprenticeships and career development to boost recruitment for people here and investment overall in the social care sector.”
There has been a longstanding problem of retaining people in social care jobs. There is an overall turnover rate of 25.4% (equating to around 300,000 workers leaving their role each year) and Hall says many go into care work as a stepping stone to a career in nursing, seen as a higher esteemed job. Social care providers also struggle to get people into the lower end of the workforce because “people would rather go and work in retail or the service industry,” says Hall.
Peter Beresford, professor of citizen participation at Essex University, says Brexit is the latest in a string of disasters that has hit social care jobs. “It’s a bit difficult to focus on Brexit in isolation. It’s like any sort of situation where it’s just hanging on by a thread. When anything happens to disorganise it, then everything is much more chaotic that you would expect.” He talks of an event he went to recently where Dr Dan Poulter MP said that Brexit was going to be the biggest challenge and destabiliser for the workforce going forward.
Non-EU migrants may take more jobs
Beresford thinks if there’s a reduction in the number of people from EU countries able to work in social care, this will be compensated for by people from non-EU countries. He laments the 15-minute visits to service users and zero-hours contracts that seem to characterise jobs in the sector.
“The real point for me is that it is such a chaotic field, where it could be important and wonderful. It is given such low priority … We have a labour force that people don’t want to work in unless they have to because the terms and conditions are so poor.”
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