The latest ADASS Spring Survey sets out the challenges and opportunities for adult social care from the perspective of Directors of Adult Social Services.
Key findings include:
- The Government’s ambition to shift from hospital to community through new neighbourhood care centres will not be realised if adult social care is not adequately funded. 94% of Directors agreed that NHS pressures are resulting in adult social care taking on responsibilities that were previously arranged or delivered by the NHS—up from 91% last year. Nearly two-thirds of Directors (64%) reported that there has been an increase in social care staff providing clinical oversight to people with primary health needs in the absence of Clinical Healthcare agreements.
- Directors of Adult Social Services have little to no additional funding to deliver on the Government’s three shifts- hospital to community, treatment to prevention and analogue to digital. 84% of councils have increased council tax by the maximum allowance of 2.99% in 2025/26. 99% of councils increased the adult social care precept by 2% in 2025/26. 66% of social care grant funding (shared between adults and children) will go to adult social care in 2025/26, up from 60% in 2024/25.
- Spending on prevention – to help people live independent, healthier lives for longer – is at its lowest level since 2021/22. Spending on prevention has fallen to £1.3bn because of financial pressures and the need to prioritise those people with the highest level of need. Consequently 74% of Directors either have partial or no confidence that their budgets are sufficient to meet their legal duties for prevention and wellbeing.
- The need to make substantial savings to adult social care budgets will impact the choice and quality of care and support that people can access at a local level. Directors have modelled savings of £932mn for 2025/26 to support their councils to deliver a legally required balanced budget, the highest level since 2016/17.
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The needs of people accessing care and support are becoming increasingly complex which requires more intensive support. The average size of care packages for people coming from community-based settings and hospital continues to increase in the majority of councils. In 2024/25, people needed an average of 14 hours and 23 minutes of homecare per week — up from 13 hours and 40 minutes in 2021/22, reflecting a rising trend over time.
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More unpaid carers are asking councils for help and they continue to fill the gaps in adult social care support, often to the detriment of their own health and wellbeing.
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Directors have little confidence that their adult social care budgets are sufficient to fully meet their legal duties to promote the efficient and effective operation of the care market. 85% of Directors have either no or partial confidence that their budgets are sufficient to meet their legal duties for care market sustainability in 2025/26. The funding pressures set out in this report, coupled with council funding pressures in areas such as Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) services, means that there is not sufficient funding to raise care provider fees in many council areas to fully meet employer National Insurance and National Living Wage costs.
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Directors are least confident that their adult social care budgets will be sufficient to meet their legal duties for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLs) in 2025/26 compared to other legal duties.
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The report finds 'some improvement' in care market stability. 56% of council areas have seen providers closed/ ceased trading or heanded back contracts in the past 6 months, compared to 66% last year.
VODG Press Release
Social care must be recognised as an essential public service we all rely on
Responding to the ADASS Spring Survey 2025, Dr Rhidian Hughes, Chief Executive of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) says:
‘Across the country there is a wealth of good practice, partnership and innovation delivered by councils, disabled people and third sector organisations, showing care and support at its very best.
‘Yet the latest survey of directors of adult social services once again highlights that the ability of councils to invest in early intervention, foster new ways of working and encourage innovation in social care is severely limited when up against successive years of central government underfunding and unsustainable overspends. As the report states, the numbers just do not add up.
‘The government’s shifts for the NHS and recently published 10-year health plan are welcome but will only become a reality in the lives of disabled people and their families when councils fully fund the care and support people rely on.
‘Social care offers huge potential for economic growth, community cohesion and social impact, but this will only be fully realised once social care is recognised as an essential public service we all, at some point, rely on, rather than a burden more easily kicked into the long grass.’