How can the UK solve the adult social care crisis?

The government has announced its first steps towards tackling the adult social care crisis in England. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that an independent commission "will work to build a national consensus around a new National Care Service able to meet the needs of older and disabled people into the 21st century".

Baroness Louise Casey is to lead the commission, which will begin work on a two-stage report this spring, with the second phase slated for completion by 2028.

What did the commentators say?

Fixing social care will be "no-nonsense civil servant" Casey's "toughest challenge yet", said Andrew Gregory in The Guardian. "Leading voices in the sector" have already warned the government that social care provision is facing collapse, with high employment costs and lack of funding "threatening its overall sustainability".

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Many care providers are "struggling to keep the lights on", said Steven Swinford and Poppy Koronka in The Times, and the industry is "chronically understaffed". A House of Lords report last September found that, in 2023 to 2024, there were more than 130,000 vacant posts. Services once "relied heavily on overseas workers" but the previous government's policies preventing carers from overseas bringing their families to the UK have made the problem worse. Pay is poor, and the widespread use of zero-hours contracts means there is little job security for people who are "expected to comfort our loved ones during some of their lowest moments in old age", said Daniel Keane in London's The Standard.

"Three things are needed" to get the sector back on track, said Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King's Fund policy think-tank, in the Financial Times. The government must first address the financial challenges, then "take forward long-term reforms" that address the current reality of "people with modest means" having to pay for care – "previous administrations have frozen in the face of this challenge". Thirdly, they should "get on with putting in place the building blocks" that will make these reforms possible. These could include Streeting's already-mooted NHS transition "from analogue to digital", and shift in focus "from sickness to prevention".

Streeting has already announced an extra £86 million for the Disabled Facilities Grant in this financial year, to help 7,800 more elderly or disabled people adapt their homes – widening doors or installing stairlifts, for example – to better fit their needs.

Care workers will also be given "guidance and support" to perform routine at-home health monitoring, such as blood-pressure checks, on the people they're looking after, to reduce strain on GP services. Confronting the problem of care-worker pay, however, will take time. "We need to get to a position where pay rises are possible," Streeting told ITV's Good Morning Britain. "The government's only been in for six months; give us a chance."

What next?

The first phase of the commission, which will identify the critical issues facing adult social care, begins in April and is due to report back with its recommendations in 2026. The second phase, reporting by 2028, will make longer-term recommendations for the transformation of adult social care. Opposition parties have been invited to take part in the commission.

Care bosses have criticised the length of time the recommendations will take."The people in care today cannot afford to wait any longer," Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England told Care Home Professional. "Their lives depend on action now."

But Streeting defended the timescale and said he would "go faster", if possible. "Louise Casey isn't known for being backwards in coming forwards," he told Good Morning Britain.