£22.6m Fund To Support Social Care Is Two Months Overdue And Could Disappear, Carers Trust Warns

Vitally needed £22.6m in Government funding to support adult social care and unpaid carers is nearly two months overdue and is in danger of disappearing, charity Carers Trust has warned.

The Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF) was introduced by the Department of Health and Social Care in late 2023. The fund committed £42.6m over two years to “support innovation and scaling in adult social care and kick-start a change in services to support unpaid carers ”.

Local authorities were invited to submit expressions of interest to receive the funding for specific projects, working in partnership with health and care providers, local carer services and carers themselves.

Although the first half of the funding has been paid out, the second £22.6m tranche has still not been allocated, despite being due for payment in August.

Neither Carers Trust’s network of local carer organisations or local authorities have had any indication from the Department of Health and Social Care on when the funding will come, or even confirmation that it will be paid at all. In a recent debate on unpaid carers, the Government did not mention the fund as one of its initiatives to improve support for them.

Carers Trust is demanding that the £22.6m is confirmed by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Budget later this month.

Carers Trust’s Policy and Practice Manager, Andy McGowan, said:
“The UK’s 6 million unpaid carers are struggling and in desperate need of more identification and support. The Government urgently needs to honour its commitments to them and provide the rest of this funding. At a minimum, that needs to happen at the Budget later this month.”

“Without this money, more than 100 crucial projects could be scrapped. The timing would be catastrophic, coming just as we enter the winter months when pressure on social care and carers is so acute.”