The latest survey from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) reveals that councils are being forced to cut back on early care and support to prevent people’s health and wellbeing deteriorating, as they struggle to meet the rising cost of more complex and expensive social care.
The ‘ADASS Spring Survey 2025’, which surveyed social care leaders in local authorities across the country, shows that despite a government focus on neighbourhood health and prevention, overstretched budgets mean care leaders have reduced spending on the latter by more than 10 percent this year as they are forced to prioritise immediate needs and people in crisis.
ADASS warns this could throw the UK Government’s ambition into jeopardy.
The ADASS annual survey estimates that collectively directors were left with little choice but to overspend on their budgets by £774 million last year to meet their legal duty to provide care and support, the highest the overspends have been in a decade.
The association says this is likely to result in councils further tightening the eligibility criteria for social care, so they can deliver their legal obligations leaving very little left for preventative measures that would likely save the state money in the longer-term and, most importantly, improve outcomes for people.
Spending pressures include an increase in the size of people’s care packages, indicating the growing cost of providing complex care as people live longer but often with multiple illnesses, conditions, and disabilities. For example, this could mean people are requiring multiple visits per day, sometimes with more than one carer or adaptations to their home.
Three quarters of directors continue to see increasing numbers of people with some of the most complex care needs approaching their councils for support, who would have previously had their care funded free of charge through NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC).
A recent Freedom of Information request from Winston Solicitors uncovered stark regional disparities in NHS CHC spending, despite a single national eligibility framework.
In addition, the trend of care workers increasingly being asked to carry out health tasks that would normally have been covered by NHS staff continues despite this often being unfunded. 100 percent of those directors surveyed believe increased pressure on the NHS will, in turn, increase pressures for adult social care into next year.
Jess McGregor, ADASS President and Director of Adult Social Care in Camden, said: “The maths simply doesn’t add up – more people are coming to councils for help and their care is complex and costly, which means we don’t have funds left to provide the early support and prevention that would stop people’s health from deteriorating and help them avoid spiralling into crisis, where they frequently end up in hospital.”
ADASS says that the increase in costs has not been accounted for by the government in the latest Spending Review. It saw social care receiving up to £4 billion additional funding by 2028/29 (compared to 2025/26).
However, the association underlines that there is still uncertainty around what this amount covers, including the potential for it to need to be used to pay for measures like a “much needed but costly” Fair Pay Agreement for care workers.
It comes after costly increases in employers’ national insurance contributions (NIC) and the national living wage, plus inflation, which have pushed the cost of care up, ADASS states . It also assumes that every council will increase council tax by five percent to fund that additional spending.
Jess added: “We shouldn’t have to choose between helping people with complex needs now and preventing others from getting unwell – we need to support people at both ends of the social care spectrum. But without more investment to keep people well and independent at home, we risk undermining the shift towards prevention and neighbourhood health that Wes Streeting, the NHS and this Government are rightly championing.”
In February 2025, the House of Lords voted to exempt health and care providers from the employer NIC increase.
However, this decision was “devastatingly” voted against by the House of Commons on 19 March 2025, which meant that care providers still had to pay the employer’s NIC hike from April 2025 onwards.
Commenting on the ADASS Spring Survey 2025, Kathryn Marsden OBE, Chief Executive at the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), said: “The ADASS Spring Survey offers further evidence of a system under profound strain. When local authorities are forced to divert limited resources into crisis management, the opportunity to invest in preventative, early intervention is lost. This not only undermines outcomes for people who draw on care and support but also the Government’s own ambitions for both social care and the NHS.
“A sustainable health and care system relies on a rebalanced model—one that moves resources into community settings to enable support to be delivered earlier, closer to home, and in ways that promote independence. The Government’s Ten-Year Plan rightly looks to address this—but largely overlooks the essential role of social care.
“Social care plays a vital role in facilitating safe hospital discharge, supporting individuals to maintain their wellbeing at home and enabling them to lead independent and fulfilling lives. Although the sector is in desperate need of reform to unlock its full potential, it has already done the work to identify what the problems are through reports such as this one. It has also been developing solutions that can be deployed now to improve the efficiency, integration and quality of care through projects like the ones funded by the Department of Health and Social Care’s SCIE-supported Accelerating Reform Fund.
“It is now up to the Government, working in partnership with social care leaders, to ensure the preventative role of social care is not sidelined but prioritised in our health and care system reforms.”
The post Councils overspent on social care budgets by £774m last year appeared first on AT Today – Assistive Technology.