Care England Issues Caution As Council Care Spending Falls Further Below The Cost Of Delivery, Despite Increased Funding
Care England has responded to the King’s Fund’s Social Care 360 report by issuing a caution to government bodies that the social care system remains fragile as workforce cost pressures and demand continue to grow faster than real-terms increases in funding for councils have been able to keep up with.
While real-terms funding has increased by 4.1% in 2024/25, increases in the National Living Wage and the changes to employers’ National Insurance Contributions have meant that the cost of care for that year, and subsequent years thereafter, has vastly outpaced the money given to councils to address these unavoidable costs. This gap has grown significantly, with the report identifying that councils are paying nearly 50% less than what those funding their own care are paying. This is despite a smaller proportion of people meeting the eligibility criteria for public funding. This gap has had to be bridged by a number of different methods, which has reduced provider sustainability.
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said: “Government continues to focus on the size of the funding increase, but the real test is what that funding delivers. Right now, the outcome is clear. Councils are being placed in an impossible position, with adult social care consuming the majority of their budgets while costs continue to rise faster than funding. That forces difficult trade-offs with other local priorities, and those pressures only intensify as elections approach. If funding does not match the true cost of care, it does not deliver sustainability. Success should be judged on whether councils can meet their duties and whether providers can operate sustainably, not on the headline figure announced at the Budget. That is where the system is currently falling short.
The report also shows that fees for working-age adult services have increased at a slower rate than those for older people since 2015, despite the higher complexity and intensity of support required. At the same time, the Care Quality Commission has raised concerns about the financial viability of some specialist services operating within current commissioning arrangements. Together, this points to a growing structural risk in how care for working-age adults is funded and delivered.
Professor Martin Green continued: “Support for working-age adults is often complex, specialist, and resource-intensive, yet funding trends suggest it is not being prioritised accordingly. That creates a clear risk to the stability of these services. This is not a marginal pressure. It goes to the heart of whether people with the most complex needs can access consistent, high-quality support, both now and in the future.”
