UK to Scrap Care Worker Visas, Ghanaians Among Those Likely to Be Affected

By Praisebell Rosemond Larbi

The United Kingdom has announced plans to phase out the Health and Care Worker visa in the coming months, a decision that is expected to significantly impact thousands of foreign workers, particularly from Ghana and Nigeria, who have relied on this route to gain employment in the UK’s health and social care sector.

The announcement was made on Sunday, May 11, 2025, by the UK Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, during an interview with the BBC. Cooper stated that the removal of the visa category is part of a broader government effort to reduce overall migration numbers and reform immigration policies targeting lower-skilled jobs.

“This move will help us reduce the high numbers of people entering the country through routes that were not originally intended for long-term settlement,” Cooper explained. While she did not commit to a specific net migration target, she indicated the reforms aim to cut annual migrant arrivals by approximately 50,000.

The UK’s net migration hit a record high of 906,000 in June 2023 and, despite a modest decline, stood at 728,000 last year. These figures have added pressure on the government to take stricter control of immigration, particularly in sectors where it believes domestic labour can fill the gaps.

The Health and Care Worker visa was introduced in 2020 to address chronic shortages in the UK’s social care system, allowing foreign nationals to work as carers, support workers, and in other essential roles. The scheme proved particularly popular among Ghanaians, who formed a significant portion of the workforce in care homes and private health services across the UK.

At its peak, the UK Home Office recorded 18,300 applications for the Health and Care Worker visa in August 2023. However, numbers have plunged dramatically since the government introduced a ban on visa holders bringing dependents into the UK. By April 2025, monthly applications had fallen to just 1,700.

Further restrictions were introduced on April 9 this year, requiring care firms to demonstrate they had made substantial efforts to hire from within the UK before seeking workers from abroad. Now, with the impending end of the visa programme altogether, care providers will be forced to recruit exclusively from within the domestic labour market or rely on a backlog of over 10,000 foreign care workers already in the UK—many of whom, according to reports, arrived for jobs that never materialised.

For Ghana, the decision marks a major blow, as many citizens had looked to the care visa as a reliable pathway to gainful employment abroad, support their families back home, and contribute to remittances—an essential component of the Ghanaian economy. The move also raises concerns about the welfare of existing Ghanaian workers in the UK care sector, many of whom may now face greater job insecurity and uncertainty about their immigration status.

The UK government is expected to detail the full scope of the immigration reforms in its forthcoming White Paper, anticipated early next week. Until then, stakeholders in both the UK and countries like Ghana are watching closely for further clarity on the implications of the policy shift.

In the meantime, labour analysts and migrant advocacy groups have raised red flags about the impact of the decision on care delivery in the UK, warning that domestic recruitment may not be able to adequately fill the labour shortages that foreign workers had helped to ease over the past few years. As the UK recalibrates its immigration strategy, the ripple effects of these changes will be felt across borders—particularly in developing nations whose citizens have historically filled critical roles in the British economy.