Cambridgeshire care workers 'struggling' after agency closure

Carers on work visas are "struggling" after a care agency announced it was to close last month.

Beaumont Healthcare Limited was the fifth care provider to hand back contracts to Cambridgeshire County Council this year.

New care is in place for the majority of the 150 affected clients, the council said.

However staff, many of whom were reliant on work visas, say the future is still uncertain.

In October, Beaumont, which is based in St Neots, told clients it would cease all council-contracted care from 23 November.

Of the 120 staff affected, public service union Unison estimated about 100 may be on work visas and the majority had arrived from the Philippines.

TJ Jimenez, 43, worked as a senior healthcare worker at Beaumont for 18 months, having travelled from the Philippines to take up the job.

He is facing having to move and uproot his family again for a new job and said other Beaumont carers were worried about maintaining their work visas.

"Everybody is struggling, everybody is thinking about their contingency plan, especially with those who have families, they have to think about locations of schools, accessibility of work for their partners and whether it's conducive for everybody," he said.

"It's really difficult especially as I'm not local, I don't know much about the legalities and I'm relying on advice from other people but still I hope this will be sorted."

He and other carers were on "tight budgets" and were worried about Christmas after being "caught unaware" by the company closure and they feared it could happen again at other companies, he said.

Tamsin Olney, whose 19-year-old son Oscar was receiving care for his complex needs, said care had still not been found despite the council's efforts.

Ms Olney said the care support they received was vital to her family as it allowed them to "step away and switch off for a while - top ourselves up".

"I'm not always going to be able to pick up this tab when there's a break in care. It worries me what's going to happen when I can't," she said.

"Oscar needs that continuity, that stability in care. It worries me families are just relied on too much."

Another care provider did come forward but had to pull out, while another agency had assessed Oscar's needs but it was unclear if they can fulfil his care package.

"Even if they are able to work with us, it will take months of training and getting to know Oscar to get back to where we were," said his mother.

"I love Oscar to bits and I love spending time with him, but when you're always 'on', waiting for the next challenge to come in, giving all the time just erodes your physical and mental well being after a while."

The county council said it had been "working hard" alongside the Integrated Care Board to find alternative services for the 150 clients affected by Beaumont's closure.

A spokesperson said the authority had assured people "the service they receive will continue as seamlessly as possible" and it hoped to find care for the remaining affected people by the end of the Beaumont contract on Thursday.

Unison has said it had been working closely with staff, particularly those from the Philippines who were at "significant risk of deportation" if they could not find new jobs.

A union spokesman said it had also been working with the council to help staff find alternative employment.

Unison hoped most staff would find a sponsoring employer, and said any deportations would be "a tragic loss of the skill and expertise of this highly educated workforce".

Some staff members had loan agreements for cars to use for work with the company and were unsure what would happen if the money for this was "claw backed" in their last pay packets, the union added.

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