I’m angry.
The new immigration white paper drops yet another hammer on the adult social care sector. Apparently, care work isn’t “skilled enough” to justify more flexible visa routes. With over 150,000 vacant care roles, the sector is already on its knees. Slapping barriers on migrant workers who make up 20% of the workforce. As if compassion, resilience, trauma-handling, medication oversight, CQC compliance, and being the emotional rock for people at the end of their lives is something “low-skilled” people just casually do.
Honestly, I can’t wrap my head around it. Care isn’t just a job. For most of the people I speak to - carers, nurses, care managers - it’s a calling. But instead of being treated with dignity and investment, the workforce is treated like a budget line that’s just too expensive to respect.
And who pays the price?
Our care managers.
Our service users.
Our system.
Care Manager SOS: It’s Not Just About Staffing
Care Managers in our network - and we speak to thousands - are running on fumes.
Let me paint the picture:
- No time to lead, because they’re drowning in paperwork
- No funding to support complex service users properly
- No staff because recruitment is broken and the job is seen as disposable
- No support from local authorities that are themselves barely functioning
- No mental bandwidth to think strategically — just constant firefighting.
Add a government telling them the people they do manage to recruit from overseas aren’t “skilled enough”?…Please.
Migrants Are Not the Problem They’re Holding Us Up
This industry would collapse tomorrow if we removed migrant workers. That’s not an opinion — that’s a fact. Migrants workers make up to 20% of the workforce and from them, undeniable impact is the order of the day. Ask any care home or domiciliary service. So when the government talks about “reducing migration” while doing nothing meaningful to attract local talent into care roles, it tells me they don’t understand (or don’t care) about what’s really going on.
Instead of calling care work “low-skilled,” how about:
- Investing in training, so people can see a future in care
- Offering career progression routes that matter
- Paying carers as the essential workers they are
- Supporting managers with proper funding, digital tools, and staff incentives.
You don’t solve a care crisis by making the job less desirable.
You solve it by recognising the bloody value of the work.
We Don’t Need Soundbites – We Need Solutions
At Care Wizard, we see the heartbreak behind every job post:
- “I just need someone reliable.”
- “We can’t find staff, so we can’t take on new clients.”
- “We’ve had to close rooms because we can’t safely staff them.”
Meanwhile, brilliant care professionals are being blocked at the border or told they’re not valuable enough to stay.
I don’t know about you, but I’m done with the disconnect. I want policy that reflects reality, not some spreadsheet fantasy cooked up by people who’ve never set foot in a care home.
This Is Why Care Wizard Exists
We built Care Wizard to give care managers one less thing to stress about. To help them find the right people, faster. To tell real stories from the frontline. To push back when the sector is being ignored or insulted.
Because if we don’t speak up, who will?
If you’re a care manager or provider struggling right now, we see you. You’re not imagining it. You’re not failing. You’re trying to lead through a perfect storm.
Let’s start calling it what it is - Not a staffing issue. Not a skills shortage. A respect crisis.
And we’re done playing nice about it.
Connect with Care Wizard to streamline recruitment and share your frontline story. Let’s demand better for adult social care.