CONSERVATIVE spokesman Mark Formosa has chaired two mini-conferences in Taunton and Wellington to address a shortage of nursing home care workers in the area.

He toured the facilities in Netherclay House, in Bishops Hull, and Chelston Park Nursing and Residential Home, at Chelston, Wellington, where more than £4 million has recently been invested in extensions.

During the visits, Mr Formosa held round table discussions with Richard and Patrick Allistone, who own the two care homes, and with groups of care workers who travelled from around the South West.

Mr Formosa said: "We have a situation where the Government is willing to allow unskilled agricultural and catering workers from Eastern European countries to come into the UK, but at the same time refuses to allow highly-qualified nursing care staff to come here despite not having enough local people to do the work.

"I have written to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, who is responsible for the work permit system, to highlight this anomaly.

"I am also asking the Somerset Skills and Learning Council to look at measures which could help to equip local people with the skills needed to do this kind of important and sensitive work.

"Many of the staff employed by Richard and Patrick Allistone come from the Philippines, where they are well-educated and highly-skilled as midwives and nursing carers, but come to the UK because of the shortage of such labour here."

"We need a work permit system which properly reflects the needs of employers such as Richard and Patrick Allistone, perhaps along the lines of Australia and Canada, where there is controlled immigration on a points-based system which allows in people who have the skills required by the labour market."