Providers Unite for Social Care Funding

25/02/2025

Today marked a historic occasion as social care providers from across the nation came together to march in opposition to the Chancellor’s decision to increase employer National Insurance contributions (NICs).

Unlike GPs and hospices, social care has tried and failed to acquire an exemption to the autumn budget’s proposed NICs increase. The Government responded to a petition lobbying for this (currently with 38k signatures) saying “the Government is providing a real-terms uplift to core local government spending power of around 3.2% which includes £1.3 billion of new grant funding for 2025-26.”

Many providers are having to close care facilities or consider other dramatic money-saving measures to absorb these costs. We heard from people via our adviceline as early as November whose care homes had cited the employer NICs increase as a reason to increase their fees by over 10%.

Though it is an excellent feat to see such unity across the sector, it has been providers at the centre of the campaign. It was reassuring to see the number of providers bringing with them people with lived experience of receiving care.

We are increasingly concerned about the impact this will have on people who access care every day. When care homes close, they can often find themselves in inadequate placeholder placements as a result, where their care needs are not met. A woman we supported described it as feeling like ‘the ground had opened up at [her] feet’. It is also incredibly detrimental to the health and wellbeing of residents.

Where care providers are reducing their workforce in order to absorb their costs, it can cause a decrease in personalised care, often coming at a cost of the individual’s dignity.

It is imperative that the Government understand that the care sector is not just businesses - there are real people at the heart of each service who have often already had to battle to get the care they deserve.

The support of the Liberal Democrats was appreciated, with Daisy Cooper (co-leader), Helen Morgan (spokesperson for health and care) and Alison Bennett (spokesperson for care and carers) backing the sector and calling for reversal of the Chancellor’s decision.

Many placards today emphasised that without care, the NHS will fall. Though the two sectors are inextricably linked, we hope that cross-party support can be developed for social care in its own right. The sector provides support to hundreds of thousands of people every day, and we cannot afford to be second best to the NHS any longer.

With it being announced today that cross-party talks have been further postponed, its difficult to see social care as a priority. We urge all parties to see the demonstration today as a motivation to remember each person this affects, and to take action to value social care urgently.