There was a tweet that summed things up very well from Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.
He wrote: "I can see the recruitment ad now. Come and care for our old, our sick, our vulnerable… But leave your kids and loved ones at home."
Merseyside native Mr Nowak was responding to what some commentators have labelled as Britain's biggest ever immigration clampdown, which saw Home Secretary James Cleverly announce a five-point plan to reduce the numbers of those coming to this country.
The changes include raising the minimum salary for skilled overseas workers from £26,200 to £38,700 and raising the minimum income for family visas to £38,700.
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The package of stringent measures will also include a ban on health and care workers bringing family dependents to the UK, something that has raised serious fears of even bigger staffing shortages in our already crisis-hit healthcare sectors and elsewhere.
If you or your family members have had any recent experience within the NHS or social care system, the chances are you will have been cared for at some stage by someone who is not from the United Kingdom. These two sectors, which mean so much to our nation, are seriously reliant on foreign workers.
This is a particular concern for our chaotic care sector, where there are now more than 150,000 vacancies and where care providers are struggling each and every day to recruit vital workers to care for the nation's elderly and vulnerable.
It was in his first speech as Prime Minister in 2019 that Boris Johnson confidently announced that he had a plan to fix the country's social care crisis. Naturally, like a lot of what he said this was just hot air, and two Prime Ministers later the sector is in more turmoil than ever before.
So without any sign of a plan to address this crisis, the government is instead pushing forward with a plan that will create an even more gaping gap in the workforce and leave providers and those needing care in a more difficult position. After all, who is going to travel to our country to work in an underpaid, overwhelmed sector if they cannot even bring their spouse or children to be with them?
To announce this clampdown without even a sniff of a plan for fixing social care is morally bankrupt and shameful. As Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England said: "If the government now wants to move away from international recruitment as the solution to fixing the social care workforce crisis, it must act swiftly and invest in improving the pay and conditions to drive domestic recruitment."
And it's not just the social care sector that will suffer. The National Health Service itself is highly reliant on foreign workers and with around 120,000 vacancies across the service, the idea of further measures putting people off entering the sector will be met with dismay - particularly as the NHS heads into another traumatic winter period.
It's clear now that this is a government that is simply not thinking about the problems that exist in the country, many of which it has created - or how to address them. Everything we now hear coming out of a minister's mouth is geared towards a short-term boost to the Prime Minister's tanking ratings ahead of a general election next year.
When it comes to worsening the crisis in our nation's health and care services, that is not just cynical or opportunistic, that is dangerous.
The Liverpool Daily Post newsletter delves into the biggest stories on Merseyside.
Cynical Tory immigration plan is the last thing our struggling health sector needs
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05.12.2023
There was a tweet that summed things up very well from Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.
He wrote: "I can see the recruitment ad now. Come and care for our old, our sick, our vulnerable… But leave your kids and loved ones at home."
Merseyside native Mr Nowak was responding to what some commentators have labelled as Britain's biggest ever immigration clampdown, which saw Home Secretary James Cleverly announce a five-point plan to reduce the numbers of those coming to this country.
The changes include raising the minimum salary for skilled overseas workers from £26,200 to £38,700 and raising the minimum income for family visas to £38,700.
READ MORE: Brianna Ghey live court updates as murder trial continues
READ MORE: Try Liverpool Echo Premium for 99p with no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features
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