- Immigrant Times
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Britain’s care system depends on Filipino workers — Immigration policy is putting that at risk
Filipino men and women have been part of the UK’s health and care workforce since the 1970s, when Britain actively recruited Filipino nurses to alleviate shortages in the NHS
By The Immigrant Times
Estimates suggest that there are some 90,000 Filipino carers working in Britain. (Photos: Filipino UK Nurses Community and Docolad Healthcare)
January 2026: Britain’s care system is held together by people whose work is intimate, essential and often invisible. Among them, Filipino care workers stand out as one of the most enduring and stabilising forces in a sector that has been under strain for years. Their presence is so woven into the fabric of British social care that it can be easy to overlook how indispensable they have become, and how vulnerable the system is to the immigration policies that govern their ability to work and settle in the UK.
Filipino men and women have been part of the UK’s health and care workforce for decades. The migration pipeline began in the 1970s, when Britain actively recruited Filipino nurses to alleviate shortages in the NHS. Over time, as the country’s population aged and demand for long-term care increased, Filipino immigrant workers also entered the adult social care sector. Their reputation for professionalism, compassion and reliability is rooted in both formal training and cultural values. Concepts such as malasakit (a deep sense of empathy and responsibility) and pakikipagkapwa (shared humanity) shape the way many Filipino carers approach their work. These values translate into the kind of relational, person-centred care residents and families often describe as indispensable.
Filipinos in Britain’s health and care sectors
The scale of Filipino participation is significant, even if precise official counts are hard to pin down. In the NHS alone, Filipino nationals are one of the largest non-British groups among nurses and midwives, with over 31,000 Filipino nurses registered in England in recent workforce data, second only to Indian nationals.
Community-based estimates suggest that around 90,000 Filipino care workers are working in adult social care in England, extrapolated from data showing that approximately six per cent of roles in the sector are filled by people of Filipino ethnicity.
Across the UK’s adult social care sector more broadly, migrant workers make up a substantial part of the workforce: around one quarter of care workers in England were born outside the UK.
Organisations such as Filipinos in Care CIC, a UK-based community group, reflect this reality. They provide training, networking and advocacy for Filipino carers and nurses, offering both professional development and a sense of belonging. Their existence underscores an important point: Filipino care workers are not isolated individuals filling temporary gaps. They are part of a structured, organised community that contributes stability to a system defined by high turnover and chronic understaffing.
New immigration policies affect Filipino carers and employers
Understaffing has become one of the defining challenges of British social care. Even before the most recent immigration changes, providers struggled to recruit and retain staff. The Health Foundation reported that the government granted around 90 per cent fewer work visas to adult social care staff in 2024 than in 2023, a dramatic reversal from earlier years when ministers had encouraged international recruitment to address shortages.
This contraction has immediate consequences: as migrant workers make up a significant share of the workforce, any disruption to migrant recruitment directly affects staffing levels, continuity of care and the well-being of residents.
In immigration policy, the landscape for care workers has shifted rapidly. Under the previous Conservative government in early 2024, restrictions were introduced banning care workers from bringing dependants and tightening sponsor requirements, contributing to steep declines in new care visas. When Labour came to power, the 2025 immigration white paper, Restoring Control Over the Immigration System, signalled a decisive shift away from international recruitment for social care roles, including ending access for new applicants from abroad while still allowing current overseas staff to remain and switch roles.
These changes represent a profound restructuring of the migration system. They signal an intention to reduce reliance on overseas workers even as the care sector continues to face chronic staffing shortages. Analysts and immigration law firms warn that the reforms could fundamentally reshape the workforce.
For Filipino workers, the consequences are immediate and deeply personal. Many migrate to support families back home, often sending remittances that are economically significant for their communities, even if exact figures on remittances from UK care workers alone do not exist in official data. The inability to bring dependants, rising salary thresholds and the closure of key migration routes increase emotional strain and reduce the attractiveness of UK roles for potential migrants.
For employers, the restrictions make recruitment more difficult at a time when demand for care is rising. Chronic vacancies in social care, at times exceeding 130,000 unfilled roles, have been widely reported, and the sector’s longstanding reliance on overseas workers means any disruption to that pipeline will be felt not only in staffing numbers but in the quality and continuity of care.
Fazit
Beyond the statistics, Filipino care workers contribute something intangible yet deeply felt. They bring continuity to homes where staff turnover is high. They provide emotional labour that supports residents and families through illness, decline and end-of-life care. They create a sense of cultural warmth and stability that shapes the atmosphere of care environments. Their presence often becomes the emotional anchor of a home, the people who remember birthdays, who stay late when a resident is unsettled, who build relationships that last for years.
The Immigrant Times is currently researching the role of Filipino international remittances, including the contribution of care workers in the UK. UK-specific data on remittances by occupation is limited, but we aim to publish a more detailed analysis later this year, subject to the availability of reliable figures.
Sources: UK government report on adult social care and immigration; Pinoy Portal Europe; CIPD report on migrant workers and skill shortages in the UK; House of Commons Library – Statistics, NHS staff from overseas; Anglia Ruskin University: Health Foundation; UK/Filipino Migrant Nurse Research Network; The Guardian; Homecare Association; The Migration Observatory; Business Mirror (Philippines)
Further reading: Foreign doctors in Europe || The fiscal impact of immigration in Britain || Britain’s new asylum proposals threaten refugee families ||
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