Despite the fact that the EU has limited legal jurisdiction over the ways in which health and care services are organised in member states, the UK’s vote to leave the UK is still going to have wide-reaching implications for health and social care in England.
The main issue within the care industry will be with the recruitment and retention of the appropriate staff, something that is imperatively important if it is to run in the way that it needs to in order to support the people of the UK that rely on the care sector for help and support.
Read on to find out more about how Brexit is likely to impact on the care industry.
Shortages of staff
It’s no secret that care providers up and down the country are experiencing staff shortages, and this could be set to get significantly worse following Brexit, especially when it comes to retaining EU nationals in some parts of the workforce.
Currently, EU nationals make up 7% of the adult social care workforce in England, They are most prevalent in care worker roles (7%) and as registered nurses in nursing homes (13%), with 5% in social work.
In adult social care, 90,000 of the 1.3 million workers employed by local authority and independent sector employers come from elsewhere in the EU.
The policy of free movement is still in place until the EU finalises its exit from the EU, but it seems the impending Brexit is already having an impact on staffing within the care industry.
The number of EU nationals registering as nurses in the UK has fallen by 96 per cent since the referendum and there has also been a fall in the number of EU nationals taking jobs in the social care sectors.
If the care sector loses vital numbers of its workforce, who will take care of the increasing aging population in the UK?
