The Spending Review
Our Summary
The Government Spending Review took place on Wednesday 11 June and the SCA team have put together a summary of the key takeaways from the Review. Said Surrey Care Association CEO, Nicola McLeish: ‘Sadly once again there is little recognition of the importance of social care. The announcements included:
- NHS funding will go up by 3% over the next three years – reaching £226bn by 2029
- Social Care referenced on Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) work in the sector
- Commitments to defence, social housing, transport
- 2.3% increase per year on some departmental spending.’
Added Nicola: “In response to the continuing financial pressures put upon the care sector Surrey Care Association have set up a series of webinars focused on different aspects of financial resilience form leading industry experts which are available exclusively to our membership.’
Fair Pay Agreement
In her speech the Chancellor devoted just one sentence to adult social care with reference to funding reform in social and gaining a Fair Pay Agreement for the sector.
Professor Vic Rayner OBE Chair of the Care Provider Alliance said: “It’s imperative for a Fair Pay Agreement to work that long term and sustained ringfenced funding is provided, otherwise the moneys will inevitably need to be taken out of allocations elsewhere, which will lead to difficult decisions on how to fund fairer pay for our amazing care and support workers.”
Additional funding for Adult Social Care?
Despite the the lack of much mention of adult social care in the speech, The Spending Review document says that over £4bn of funding has been allowed for adult social care in 2028-29, compared to 2025-26.
The Independent reports that collectively: ‘In real terms, the Health and Social Care budget, which already represents the biggest proportion of government spending, will increase the most, with £58.2bn more in 2028/9 compared to 2023/4.
We are grateful to our national colleagues The National Care Forum who are working to clarify as to what this means for the sector.
The National Care Forum has said that they ‘…expect spend on ASC to be more than £4bn higher in 28/29 than it will be in 25/26,’ so currently this part of the Spending Review document is only stating the rate of increase.
Said Professor Rayner: “The government has said that the Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care and support in 2028-29 compared to 2025-26, but it is not clear what exactly that comprises.”
The Spending Review document says that the £4 Billion available includes: ‘…increase to the NHS’ minimum contribution to adult social care via the Better Care Fund, in line with DHSC’s Spending Review settlement. This will support the sector to improve adult social care, with further details to be set out shortly.’ As soon as we get further clarification on this narrative, we will be updating members on this.
SCA running Master Class Financial Sustainability sessions
Running for the next 6 weeks, SCA will be resourcing it’s members during this period. Said Nicola: “Whilst we acknowledge that more needs to be done at a national level to ensure social care is adequately funded, we hope that these sessions will offer practical support to our members in challenging times.” Click here to book
Funds for NHS Plan announced
The Chancellor announced that NHS funding will go up by 3% over the next three years. She said: ‘There will be an extra £29bn per year for the day-to-day running of our health service.’
Other announcements to note were:
- A new ‘Affordable Homes Programme,’ – an investment of £39bn in the next decade
- 1.2bn a year on training to support over a million young people into training and apprenticeships
- Reference to banning Zero Hours contracts and current Statutory Sick Pay terms (all part of the FPA work)
- Reference to ‘shifting care back into the community’
- The Chancellor also referenced the 10 Year Health Plan -it is understood that this may come out at the beginning of July.
Find National Care Forum, Care Association Alliance, Home Care Association (via LinkedIn, Care Provider Alliance (via LinkedIn) and Care England’s statement in response to the Spring Statement.
Coverage of The Spending Review
Reeves says chancellor job not a ‘popularity contest’, as Badenoch accuses her of waging ‘war on private sector’ – The Guardian
Spending review 2025: Six key things we learned from Rachel Reeves’ announcement – Institute For Government (Comment)
Spending review in five charts: Who are the winners and losers in Rachel Reeves’ plan? – The Independent
Winners and losers: Who got what in the spending review? – BBC
Spending Review speech sees £29bn increase for NHS while social care barely mentioned – Home Care Insight