Mahmood Signals Retreat on Care-Worker Settlement Rules
The Home Secretary is considering softening her plan to make permanent residence harder to obtain, amid demands for a reversal from cabinet colleagues and unions. “I know that, throughout our consultation process, some have said elements of these reforms are not fair,” she told the conference. “We will come to a position that balances fairness for those who came here legally, and fairness to British citizens across this country.” The policy arrives later this year.
As drafted the plan takes the wait for indefinite leave to remain from five years to fifteen for those who arrived on health and social care visas, and it applies to people already living here. Her defence is that the route was abused, with providers stripped of sponsorship rights, and that it never worked as intended. The counter-argument is a workforce one: England has about 96,000 social care vacancies, international recruitment has collapsed from 105,000 in 2023/24 to 30,000 in 2025/26, and over the same period the number of social care jobs filled by British workers fell by 70,000. Adult social care contributed £77.8bn to the economy last year. Angela Rayner went public against the plan in July and has not moved since. Watch whether the softening survives contact with the Home Office.