Social Care Must Become Platform for Health Improvement, Says RSPH Report

A new report has called for urgent transformation of adult social care to prioritise health outcomes, warning that years of underfunding have left the system unable to meet population needs.

The Royal Society for Public Health has published research examining how social care services impact the health of adults who use them, revealing significant shortcomings in the current approach.

Analysis of Care Quality Commission data shows that just half of care services effectively support people to live healthier lives highlighting the scale of the challenge facing the sector.

The report argues that social care should move beyond functioning merely as a safety net, instead becoming a comprehensive platform for wellbeing, inclusion and independence that engages with individuals, families and communities.

Prolonged budget cuts and underfunding have rendered the system inadequate for supporting people with diverse conditions and disabilities the organisation warns. This has resulted in unpaid family carers increasingly filling service gaps by providing care themselves.

The report highlights that care workers frequently deliver essential health support, but this role remains unrecognised and inadequately supported Training provision is inconsistent, with high staff turnover due to poor working conditions leading to loss of expertise.

Care staff often identify early warning signs of health problems but lack support to intervene or make timely referrals to health services before situations reach crisis point the research found.

The RSPH is calling for several key reforms:

• Care staff should receive comprehensive training in health promotion, with government rolling out delegated healthcare activities to carers as recommended by Skills for Care
• The process of accessing care must be simplified to reduce burden on mental wellbeing for individuals and families
• To enable genuine personalised care and prevention, the report calls for abolition of 15-minute care visits, with packages funded according to individual needs
• Government must improve pay and working conditions for the care workforce to enable other reforms to succeed

The report found that both care recipients and providers are experiencing significant emotional strain and anxiety, with staff struggling due to overwork and low pay in emotionally demanding roles

Professor Lord Patel of Bradford OBE, RSPH President, said transformation should be central to government reform efforts. “With the right political will and investment, we can move beyond short-term fixes and build a social care system that genuinely enables people to live with dignity, independence, and better health,” he stated.

A reformed system would deliver multiple benefits beyond improved individual outcomes, according to the RSPH. These include reduced NHS pressure, stronger community-based care, reduced health inequalities, and local economic development through the care workforce and voluntary sector.

“The solutions exist. We now need to act,” Professor Lord Patel added.

The report positions social care as an integral component of preventative health services and calls for integration between care staff and formal health services to enable appropriate referrals.