HUNDREDS of care workers are turning up the pressure on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood by urging her to scrap plans that will punish migrants and worsen the sector’s staffing crisis.

The social care workforce relies on hundreds of thousands of employees from overseas.

But proposed visa changes will slow recruitment and force many to consider leaving, Unison said today.

The union is calling for the plans to be scrapped so that millions of vulnerable people who rely on care are not left without vital help and so that staff are properly valued.

The issue was highlighted in Ms Mahmood’s Birmingham Ladywood constituency today with extensive leafleting, urging the community to raise concerns directly with the Home Secretary.

Care workers and other Unison members went door to door to distribute 20,000 flyers calling for residents to write to their MP.

Dozens of health and care workers who have migrated to Britain to fill essential jobs are due to meet MPs tomorrow to enlist their support.

Under the government’s original proposals, migrant workers will need to have worked in Britain for 15 years to qualify for indefinite leave to remain, a permanent right to settle.

Currently, the period is five years and many workers took jobs on that basis.

Moving the goalposts is morally wrong, Unison said, and will deepen the staffing crisis in social care and leave workers more vulnerable to exploitation.

International staff make up almost 30 per cent of the care workforce, but recruitment of migrant staff is down more than 80 per cent, according to the latest figures.

Unison said the government’s wider plans to improve pay and standards risk being undermined if migrant workers are forced into prolonged insecurity.

The union is also urging the government to introduce measures to enable workers to move between employers more easily and speed up the new fair pay agreement to improve wages.

Unison general secretary Andrea Egan said social care is already under immense strain with tens of thousands of vacancies, saying: “The sector’s been reliant on overseas staff willing to do this essential work, but the Home Secretary is closing the door on them.

“If the government’s serious about fixing social care, it must match its ambitions on pay and standards with fair treatment for the workforce.

“But the best way to start is by scrapping these cruel, unnecessary proposals.”