As social care enters a new year, Kari Gerstheimer, Chief Executive and Founder of Access Social Care, a charity offering free legal advice to those navigating care needs—asks: should we focus on fixing what’s broken, or dare to reimagine the system entirely?
Access Social Care is a legal rights organisation that exists to make sure we all receive the social care we are entitled to. Our latest State of the Nation report, drawing on data from national helpline organisations, laid bare the challenges in adult social care, highlighting rising levels of unmet need, persistent legal breaches in care provision, and growing barriers for families seeking justice. These issues reflect more than just cracks in the system; they suggest a disturbing culture of resignation, where unlawful practices go unchallenged and have even become normalised.
We believe that access to legal support is not an optional extra, but central to building a fair, lawful, and sustainable social care system. The data is frightening: 90% of directors of adult social services admit they lack confidence in their ability to meet legal duties. Dig deeper and critical service failings emerge. 57% lack confidence in meeting safeguarding responsibilities, and 73% doubt their budgets are sufficient to meet eligible needs under the Care Act.
Behind these numbers are individuals whose rights are being breached by local councils. When a public body acts unlawfully, the traditional recourse is to challenge the decision or failure in law. For people on a low income, this means relying on Legal Aid. But since 2010, access to justice has been decimated. Today, if you are on a low income and being unlawfully denied access to social care, it is virtually impossible to find a lawyer to help you.
Local councils are caught between two competing duties: delivering a balanced budget and meeting people’s eligible needs. Budgetary pressures often lead to councils managing demand by setting targets that reduce reliance on the social care system. Without access to justice to hold public bodies accountable, there has also been a divestment in legal literacy. This results in council leaders who may not fully understand Care Act duties or individual rights, leading to reduced compliance and poorer outcomes for those in need.
The failure to hold the system accountable disproportionately affects some more than others. Communities facing intersectional barriers, such as race, disability, age, or geography, often struggle more to access information about their rights and secure justice. This deepens health and social care inequalities. Those who face the greatest challenges navigating the system are also those whose rights are most frequently violated.
At Access Social Care, we know legal support is a vital lever for systemic improvement. We provide guidance through a free 24/7 digital service called AccessAva, and in person through our community hubs. By helping people use rights-based language, we support smoother navigation of the system, better first-instance decision making, and reduced long-term costs and stress. Our hubs also ensure that those experiencing inequality know their rights and can use them to secure better outcomes. We provide data insights to inform policy and practice, helping ensure limited resources are targeted where they’re needed most.
We urge all actors in the social care system to see legal challenge not as a threat, but as an opportunity for improvement, collaboration, and early intervention. Working with us can bring real financial returns for providers—ensuring lawful personal budgets, up-to-date assessments and care plans, and securing funding that helps people remain in the place they call home. For councils, early independent help reduces the administrative burden of conflict, prevents escalation to the Ombudsman, and helps rebuild relationships that have broken down.
The data from projects like ours helps triangulate hard evidence and citizen voices, elevating individual complaints to reveal systemic themes and deep insight. This can prompt targeted training and policy changes. Our work surfaces issues that councils may not have identified elsewhere, providing a vital quality assurance mechanism.
Through our digital service, AccessAva, alongside research, casework, and our State of the Nation report, Access Social Care is driving change by providing a necessary counterbalance to a failing system. By focusing on the rights enshrined in the Care Act, we are challenging the normalisation of unlawful care and pushing the sector toward a future where every person receives the care they are legally entitled to.
