An older man with a walking stick is sitting on a sofa having his temperature taken with a thermometer in his ear by a female nurse in uniform

This time must be different: Overcoming barriers to social care reform

Article

Adult social care services across England are struggling to keep up with increased demand, let alone improve. But failure is not an option.

Every one of us, and those we love most, will rely on someone else’s care during our lives. 

Despite this, we are perpetually stuck between social care crises, using sticking plasters instead of reimagining what a reformed care system that supports independent and healthy lives might look like. 

Adult social care services across England currently constitute a patchy web of provision failing to support many with care needs, their loved ones, care workers, and providers. Annual care requests now exceed 2 million, with requests among working age adults up 30 per cent over eight years to 658,000 in 2023/24, while those among older people rose almost 10 per cent to 1.43 million. Services are struggling to keep up, let alone improve.

This government committed to establishing a ‘National Care Service’ prior to the election, a pledge that has now led to the announcement of an independent commission under Louise Casey. Yet we have been here before, with aspirational goals and commissions held back by recurrent barriers to effective action.

This time must be different. This briefing paper focusses on adult social care reform, and sets out the following key points:

  1. why failure is not an option
  2. learning from previous barriers to change
  3. a way forward through the care deadlock.

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