• Prime Minister Theresa May invokes Article 50 triggering the start of negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU
• Cavendish Coalition sets out priorities for government to maintain safe and high quality health and social care services post-Brexit
• The Coalition, of which NHS Providers is a member, calls for post-Brexit immigration policy based on “public service value” and guarantee of the status of EU staff working in health and care

The Prime Minister has invoked Article 50, thereby commencing negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union

The Cavendish Coalition, of which NHS Providers is a leading member, has set out what the government needs to focus on during negotiations to maintain safe, high quality health and social care services after Brexit.

The Coalition, a group of 34 social care and health organisations working to ensure the system is properly staffed after the UK leaves the EU, has written to the Secretaries of State for the Home Department, the Department for Exiting the EU and the Department of Health to offer to work with the Government to help inform a future immigration system and seek guarantees the status of EU staff already working in health and care.

The Coalition released the following statement:

We have today written to the Secretaries of State for the Home Department, Exiting the European Union and Health making clear our offer to work with the Government to help inform a future immigration system where public service value is used as a key assessment of ‘skill’ as opposed to salary, and which guarantees the status of EU staff already working in health and care.

We are also calling for a straightforward and responsive transitional system for people from the EEA during the period between any ‘cut off’ date after which EU nationals coming to live and work in the EU will not be guaranteed leave to remain and having a new and operational immigration system.

Cavendish Coalition co-convener Danny Mortimer said:

“It is absolutely critical that the Government takes all possible measures to safeguard the supply of health and social care workers needed to continue delivering safe, high quality care.

“We are ready and available to support the Government in a way which allows it to plan a future immigration system which assesses skill levels based on public service value, as opposed to salary. This will be central to the PM's commitment to make the UK a magnet for global talent.

We are ready and available to support the Government in a way which allows it to plan a future immigration system which assesses skill levels based on public service value, as opposed to salary.

“It is also vital that any transitional system provides clarity and certainty so that people entering the UK are clear on their status - as certainty supports stability and sustainability in health and social care.

“Such a system must be flexible enough to allow social care and health to recruit from Europe when staffing needs cannot be met through additional domestic recruitment and training.”

The statement from the Cavendish Coalition has been reported by the HSJ on 29 March 2017