Responding to the Home Secretary’s announcement on Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) today, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said:
“It is right that nurses working in the NHS won’t see their ILR qualifying period extended and we have fought hard for that. However, scratch beneath the surface and it’s clear these proposals could have serious consequences for other sectors such as social care, for both nurses and nursing support workers. There is a need for joined up thinking on this and it is concerning that while a nurse in the NHS will rightly face no extension, one working in social care could face many more years of uncertainty before being able to settle.
“Increasing the qualifying period for nursing support workers and care workers is a betrayal of those who have kept our social care system afloat, including those who came to provide support during the COVID-19 pandemic. If the proposals are implemented, it could prevent migrant nursing staff from being joined by their children for over a decade. It’s hard to fathom why a government would create so much uncertainty for those who make such a vital contribution to society.
“Likewise, these proposals don’t provide clarity for nurses' families, with the government saying that their partners and children may not enjoy the same qualifying settlement period. Proposing to remove access to public funds for people with settled status is beyond cruel and would be unprecedented. It risks pushing more migrant nursing staff into financial hardship.
“These immigration proposals by government are telling hundreds of thousands of vital nursing staff that they are not welcome and will directly impede the government’s ability to deliver their own reforms to health and social care in England.”
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Notes to editors
Earlier today, in an exclusive story with The Guardian, the RCN warned that changes to the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain could risk up to 50,000 migrant nursing staff could leave the UK over the proposals.
