Tightening immigration policies won’t fix our country’s social disconnection problem, explains Paul O’Rourke of Next Stage Group, the issue lies deep rooted in communities’ care services.
Prime minister Keir Starmer recently warned the UK risks becoming an ‘island of strangers.’ While this was contentious statement that evoked a myriad of public response it can be argued that it captures the deep social disconnection many people are feeling today.
However I don’t believe that immigration is the cause of this fragmentation. The root problem lies closer to home in the steady erosion of the community support systems, particularly social care, that once connected people to each other, opportunity, and to a shared sense of belonging. In 2024 alone, there were 131,000 vacancies recorded across the adult social care sector, a figure three times higher than the national average. Frontline teams are stretched thin, early intervention services are depleted, and housing supports are under mounting strain.
If we are serious about reconnecting society, then we must start by rebuilding care, trust, and community at the local level.
Two decades of decline
Over the past 20 years, we have steadily dismantled the foundations that once held our communities together. Cuts to early years services, the closure of Sure Start centres, the decline of youth clubs and after-school activities have all have contributed to a slow but profound loss of connection.
In supported housing too, many young people today are placed in environments that fail to offer the basic standards of safety and nurture that were once the norm. Issues such as damp, poor maintenance, and lack of life skills support are far too common, compounding the disadvantages that young people are already facing.
Alongside the hollowing out of services, we have seen a shift in the social care workforce itself. As conditions deteriorated, respect for care work did the same. Fewer UK nationals saw social care as a viable or valued career. Successive recruitment drives fell short, leading to a growing reliance on overseas workers to fill critical gaps. This dependency has been crucial – without it, many services simply could not have survived. Yet it also reflects a deeper failure to sustain care work as a respected, rewarding profession within the UK itself.
Disconnection, overstretched carers and isolated communities
Today, support workers and carers are stretched to their limits. The Government’s decision to restrict the care worker visa scheme, without providing viable alternatives, will only intensify the pressures facing our services.
When care and community services are stripped back, the loss is not just individual – it is collective. Vulnerable people lose trusted faces, families lose essential support, and communities lose the spaces where connections are built and nurtured. Over time, without sustained opportunities for contact, neighbourly ties erode. The community fabric frays and people become strangers to one another.
For those who come to the UK to contribute to find a place in and contribute to our economy, the lack of community hubs, youth services, and integration programmes only makes it harder for them to establish relationships and a sense of belonging. This, in turn, creates walls between those people and their neighbours, heighted further language barriers and cultural differences. This disconnection will always breed isolation, no matter where you were born.
Having worked in social care for decades, I know that trust is not created by policies or slogans. It is built in everyday moments – through presence, patience, and shared experiences. Sometimes it starts with something as simple as a cup of tea and a chat. But without that human connection, we become isolated individuals living parallel but separate lives and facing increasing pressure on our everyday lives with less and less access to crucial services.
If we limit overseas recruitment without first rebuilding the social care workforce at home, we risk not only exacerbating service collapse but deepening the very social disconnection we say we want to address.
Rebuilding trust and connection from the ground up
There is another path forward but it demands decisive action now.
We must start by professionalising and empowering the care workforce. Care work should be recognised alongside allied health professions such as nursing – a career of skill, immeasurable value and personal progression. We need national recruitment campaigns, funded training pathways, and a commitment to direct employment that offers fair wages and job security. Only by valuing care work properly can we create the sustainable workforce that communities urgently need.
We must also rebuild the relationship between care and community. Schools should not simply be places of education, they must become centres of community support that house youth workers, family liaison officers, social workers and healthcare professionals. Alongside this, we should be investing in year-round life skills programmes, mental health services and holiday activities, ensuring that young people and families are consistently supported, not just during term time.
Finally, it is critical that we move away from crisis management toward stabilisation and a preventative approach. We do not need more consultations or government papers. We already know what works – stable relationships, trusted community hubs, and a strong, valued workforce. It is time to act on what we know, before more of the social infrastructure that holds communities together disappears.
A call for decisive action
If we are serious about avoiding a future where Britain becomes an island of strangers, then we must start by rebuilding social care at its foundations.
Real community is not created through legislation alone. It is built through the type of trust, consistency, and care that is only possible with the daily presence of support workers, teachers, youth workers, and volunteers who weave connection into the fabric of everyday life.
The future of a connected, compassionate society can start today if we choose it. We have the knowledge, we have the frontline experience, what we need now is the leadership and investment to act.
Paul O’Rourke is the Managing Director of Next Stage Group – a leading social care provider for adults in the North West.
Images: Paul O’Rourke and Ron Lach
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