Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled a £600mn grant funding to support social care during her Budget announcement yesterday, but did not provide further detail on how the government plans to reform the sector.
The new social care funding is part of the additional £1.3bn new grant funding for local authority services under the local government budget for 2025-26.
The £600mn grant is also being provided alongside an £86mn increase to the Disabled Facilities Grant to support 7,800 more adaptations to homes for those with social care needs, intended to reduce hospitalisations and prolong independence.
During her Budget speech, Reeves said investment alone would not fix the current state of the NHS.
The government’s 10 Year Health Plan is intended to focus on the “hard work of reform, increasing productivity and ensuring every pound of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely” through three shifts in how healthcare is delivered.
One of those is shifting care from hospital to community. The government said it wanted to see more care delivered through Neighbourhood Health Services.
Other than the new grant funding for social care, the Budget was light on detail around the long-awaited reform to social care - something the industry has been calling on.
Jamie Jenkins, director of policy and communications at Royal London, said: “The Budget certainly marked a shift in funding for healthcare generally, but we still lack any solid policy detail on funding social care in England and Wales.
“We have to assume that this will be addressed separately at some point, rather than continually kicked down the road.”
