Family ban Very little to lure care staff to UK if dependants are shut out

It's sunnier in Dubai, the visa lasts longer in the US and the wages are better in Canada. Many foreign care workers were already thinking of quitting Britain for similar jobs elsewhere before the home secretary announced on Monday that dependants of new applicants would no longer be welcome.

- Robert Booth

Experts say the move - effective from next spring - will only make England's severe care staff shortage worse amid international competition for people willing to look after society's most vulnerable on low pay.

And, sure enough, Annie - a care worker from Botswana who was one of the first to arrive last year under the scheme inviting foreign care staff and their families - is already filling in the forms to switch to Canada.

"I wouldn't have come," she said, when asked about James Cleverly's new ban on bringing dependants. "It will affect a lot of people. Some of us are already looking at going to Australia, Canada or America because of the living conditions here, the amount of money I am paid, the rent."

Annie has been working 15-hour days in Wiltshire and Somerset caring for elderly people. She makes about £1,500 a month and spends two thirds of that on rent. She brought her husband and daughter with her - some of the 120,000 dependants who accompanied 100,000 care workers on the scheme in the year to September.