Queen's Speech 2021 - Social Care Reform

“Proposals on social care reform will be brought forward. ”

• The Adult Social Care sector has never been under as much pressure as in the last year. Throughout the pandemic we have been working to ensure all recipients of care receive the support they need. We know there is more work to do so that everyone receives high-quality, joined-up care.

• The Government is committed to improving the adult social care system and will bring forward proposals in 2021.

• The Health and Care Bill included in the Queen’s Speech will include provisions to improve the oversight of how social care is commissioned and delivered, and facilitate greater integration between health and care services by placing Integrated Care Systems on a statutory footing across the UK, putting more power and autonomy in the hands of local systems.

• The Bill will include provisions to allow us to get much better data and evidence about the care that is delivered locally.

• Our adult social care workforce underpins improvement of the social care system, and it is critical to support their development. We will listen and engage with staff groups about how to best support them.

• More widely, we will continue to work with local and national partners to ensure our approach to reform is informed by diverse perspectives, including those with lived experience of the care sector.

  Key facts

  • Demand for social care is rapidly growing. In 2019-20, there were 1.9 million requests for adult social care support from new clients, an increase of 6 per cent since 2015-16.

  • The UK has a growing and ageing population. Over the next 20 years the population in England is expected to grow by almost 10 per cent. The number of people aged 75+ is expected to grow by almost 60 per cent - an additional 2.7 million people.

  • The number of people aged below 65 who have care needs is also growing. In 2018-19 over half of the public spending on adult social care was on those who are under 65.

• Care costs are unpredictable and can be very high, which can make it difficult for people to prepare. There is normally no way to predict a person’s future care costs and not all the risk is shared across society.

• Evidence suggests that areas with more integration between social care services and the NHS leads to increased patient satisfaction and access to care.

• There are around 1.5 million people working in adult social care.