Councils must remain central to the future of adult social care, with reforms nationally supported, but locally led, and person-centred with a strong focus on prevention, the Local Government Association (LGA) says today.
In a new report shared with the Casey Commission on the future of adult social care reform, the LGA said there is strong cross-party consensus and across the sector for a future system of adult social care that is place-based, preventative, and grounded in lived experience. One where national and local government work together but have clear and distinct responsibilities, helping to speed up the system, and reduce inefficiency and inconsistency.
Successful reform will be measured by whether people who draw on care and support can live the independent and dignified lives they want to lead, with the people and in the places they know.
Published on the first day of its Annual Conference in Bournemouth – where Baroness Casey will give a keynote speech to more than 1,700 councillors, council leaders, senior officers, politicians and organisations – the LGA report follows a sector-wide consultation with council members and officers, people with lived experience, the social care workforce, providers and other stakeholders across the care and support sector.
Resources available to councils have not kept pace with population growth, demographic change and rising complexity of need. The sustainability of local care systems is increasingly vulnerable with one in five social care councils needing Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) arrangements from government in 2026/27 to balance the books.
Following decades of political indecision and delay to address social care funding, the report calls on the Government to make the case to the public for a national funding solution for adult social care.
Sustained and predictable funding and infrastructure will be essential for the future of adult social care, if councils are to successfully meet growing demand, deliver on their duties under the Care Act and support people to live the independent lives they want to lead.
Among a series of recommendations drawing on engagement with the sector, the LGA is calling for government and the Casey Commission to:
- Lead a national public campaign to change how the public thinks about social care. Reform will fail unless the public narrative changes.
- Make prevention a core national infrastructure, funded like the NHS with a dedicated national prevention and transformation fund focused on early intervention, housing, community support and independence.
- Ensure a National Care Service strengthens consistency and entitlement, not replace local democratic leadership of social care.
- Explore how greater consistency can be delivered within assessment processes and frameworks, and whether elements of assessment or financial assessment could be undertaken nationally if it makes the system faster and more efficient.
- Return oversight of integration and place-based delivery to local government.
Establish a national programme of work to improve transitions from children’s to adult services. - Explore the role of council tax in funding adult social care, with all options on the table including how reforms might lessen the reliance on it and whether it remains a suitable mechanism for funding adult social care in the future.
- Recognise housing as a core component of care, prevention and independence and develop a National Care, Wellbeing and Housing Plan for England.
- Develop a new national approach to recognising, identifying and supporting unpaid carers and develop a package of practical support measures.
- Review whether CQC’s market oversight powers should extend to a wider range of medium and large providers to improve transparency around provider ownership, financing, and the role of private equity within adult social care.
Cllr Louise Gittins, Chair of the Local Government Association, said:
“Adult social care is vital national infrastructure that touches all of our lives – it must be built around people, not services.
“Structural reform alone will not deliver better outcomes without greater public understanding of adult social care’s value, the way we talk about it, and changes to commissioning, market shaping and workforce policy.
“Success will require a new partnership between national government, local government and citizens. It will ultimately be judged by whether people are better able to remain connected to the people, places and passions that matter most in their lives.
“Our report reflects the views from our sector-wide engagement and sets out a clear, evidence based case for long term reform built on prevention, stronger rights and entitlements, and a sustainable national funding settlement. This is the starting point of further exploration of key areas by the LGA.
“Local government and its convening powers are essential to making adult social care reform work and stick. We look forward to working closely with government and the Casey Commission exploring all options for system reform and helping to co-design and lead this change.
“This is an opportunity for successful lasting reform that we don’t want to miss.”
