Select committee: Health and Social Care Committee
Conclusion 8
2nd Report - Adult Social Care Reform: the cost of inaction
Published 5 May 2025
Addressed to Department of Health and Social Care
Health and Social Care Committee Adult Social Care Reform: The Cost of Inaction All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Local authorities are buckling under the strain of the costs of providing adult social care. The current system is unsustainable. Failure to reform adult social care, especially the funding structure, comes at a significant cost to local authorities. The increasingly high proportion of spending on adult social care is crowding out spending on other services, such as fixing potholes, keeping libraries open and providing youth services, forcing many to provide only the bare minimum to residents. It is also preventing councils from reducing future demand for adult social care through investment in prevention activities. There is a growing disconnect between what is paid for and what residents expect to be delivered, risking an erosion of faith in democracy. There needs to be a more open public conversation about what is driving a reduction in council services and how adult social care contributes to that. (Conclusion, Paragraph 60)
From: Health and Social Care Committee, 2nd Report - Adult Social Care Reform: the cost of inaction (HC 368), 5 May 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 9 July 2025 (deadline 5 July 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government shares the committee's view that adult social care is under significant pressure and needs reform, responds to each recommendation, and says it does not accept some, including a new cross-government impact assessment, while referring others to the independent commission led by Baroness Casey.
- On unmet need, the government says it would be "challenging to publish an annual assessment of the level of unmet care needs", citing limitations in existing data and the complexity of defining care needs.
- It says it "does not, therefore, accept" the recommendation for a new cross-government impact assessment on workforce policy changes, preferring existing impact assessment procedures. It also does not intend to commission a dedicated study of the cost of inaction, and does not think a separate growth strategy for the sector is "proportionate or necessary".
- On the Fair Pay Agreement, it will "begin the Fair Pay Agreement consultation this year", with secondary legislation and the negotiating body to follow in 2026. It is committed to establishing the first agreement within this Parliament.
- It agrees that publishing delayed discharge cost estimates would "in principle" improve transparency, and will "explore how best to publish cost data" with caveats. It will set out the Better Care Fund approach for 2026 and beyond "in due course".