Care firms say they face struggle to hire locally

Care companies in Lincolnshire fear they will struggle to hire enough workers if the government stops them recruiting from overseas.

The prime minister unveiled plans to ban recruitment of foreign care workers and tighten access to skilled worker visas, among other measures, on Monday in an effort to curb the level of legal immigration.

Melanie Weatherley, who chairs the Lincolnshire Care Association, said her company, Walnut Care, began hiring overseas workers three years ago because it was unable to recruit locally "however hard we tried".

The shortfall in staff had led to "waiting lists getting longer for people needing care".

"If we've got 10,000 vacancies in Lincolnshire, we can't go to the Department for Work and Pensions list of economically inactive, find 10,000 people and automatically assume they can do care," Ms Weatherley said.

"You need to ask yourself, would you want them caring for your nearest and dearest">The new nursery will have capacity for 35 toddlers, 32 pre-schoolers and 21 babies.