Care England Warns Of Misaligned Narratives Around Social Care Capacity And NHS Pressures
Care England challenges recent assertions that a lack of capacity in social care is driving NHS delays, citing data from the Capacity Tracker that highlights significant available care home beds across the country.
The “corridor care crisis”, has been reportedly caused by difficulties finding care homes or community care packages for elderly and vulnerable individuals, exacerbating delays in emergency departments and overcrowding.
However, data from the Capacity Tracker reveals that care home occupancy for older persons nationally remains stable at around 85%, with over 43,000 beds currently available for admission.
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said:
“This is not a capacity issue; it’s a planning, funding, and coordination issue. Care homes across England have been reporting admittable vacancies, yet the system is unable to utilise this capacity effectively. We warned the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) about the risks of inadequate winter planning before. These warnings were ignored, leaving hospitals struggling to manage the entirely predictable pressures of winter.”
Systemic Failures Exacerbate Delayed Discharges
The failure of health and social care commissioners to engage and work with the sector has been compounded by insufficient funding from the Government. For example, the Improved Better Care Fund (iBCF) has remained at £2.14 billion since 2022-23, despite rising inflation and increased costs – eroding the of purchasing power of local authorities who are now unable to meet the critical objectives of the iBCF policy framework, including:
- Supporting timely hospital discharges.
- Providing the right care in the right setting to promote independence.
Professor Green added:
“The absence of real-term funding growth in the iBCF has forced local authorities and providers into untenable decisions, reducing service availability when it is needed most. However, this is just one example of how the Government has introduced unfunded policies that undermine the sector. They must urgently address their entire approach to funding the sector to prevent further strain.”
Winter Pressures Are Not ‘Business as Usual’
Care England has voiced serious concerns over the lack of proactive winter planning, warning that the absence of such measures downplays the urgency of the situation and risks exacerbating pressures on the sector.
“The absence of winter planning signals a ‘business as usual’ approach, which is both dismissive and dangerous,” Professor Green continued. “It fails to recognise the cascading effects of delayed planning, chronic underfunding, and systemic inefficiencies that leave the NHS struggling to cope.”
In response to this escalating and unnecessary crisis, Care England is calling on the government to:
- Develop a recurring national winter strategy for social care to prevent repeated failures and guarantee consistent readiness across the health and social care ecosystem during peak demand periods.
- Commit to adequate and sustainable social care funding, by increasing the iBCF in line with inflation to address immediate financial pressures, and establish a long-term, sustainable funding settlement for adult social care.
“Social care is the backbone of the NHS, and its underfunding is crippling the entire system. Without swift and decisive action, the consequences for individuals, who deserve the right care, will be severe,” Professor Green concluded.
