Government announces reforms, £86m DFG funding and independent commission to transform social care

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced action to improve adult social care, which includes a new £86 million funding boost to the Disabled Facilities Grant, harnessing the power of care technology, and an independent commission into social care.

According to the government, these raft of measures to overhaul the current social care system will help disabled people remain in their homes, support the care workforce, and ease pressure off the NHS.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, will confirm an £86 million boost to the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) for this financial year to allow 7,800 more disabled and elderly people to make vital adaptations to their home, allowing them to live more independent lives and reducing hospitalisations. This is in addition to the £86 million announced for the next financial year at the Autumn Budget 2024, taking the annual total for DFGs to £711 million.

Alongside the funding, the government is also harnessing the power of care technology to transform care and support older people to live at home for longer.

The DHSC says it is cutting red tape to ensure billions of joint NHS and social care funding is keeping people healthy and taking pressure off the NHS, as well as offering improved career pathways for care workers and new national standards to ensure providers and families use the best care technology.

Care workers will be better supported to take on further duties to deliver health interventions, such as blood pressure checks, meaning people can receive more routine checks and care at home without needing to travel to healthcare settings, the DHSC states.

The national career structure for care staff will also be expanded, ensuring there are opportunities for career progression and development pathways.

Additionally, the government will develop a shared digital platform to allow up-to-date medical information to be shared between the NHS and care staff, including when someone last took their medication, to ensure people receive the best possible care.

The government is also kickstarting long-term reform to the social care system. It says this deep reform will include the creation of a national care service underpinned by national standards, delivering consistency of care across the country.

As a first step, the government will launch an independent commission into adult social care, to be chaired by The Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB, to inform the work needed to deliver this.

The commission, reporting to the Prime Minister, will work with people, drawing on care and support, families, staff, politicians, and the public, private, and third sector, to make clear recommendations for how to rebuild the adult social care system to meet the current and future needs of the population.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “In the first six months of this government, work has already begun on stabilising the care sector, investing in prevention, and in carers and care workers. The investment and reforms we’re announcing today will help to modernise social care, get it working more closely with the NHS, and help deliver our Plan for Change.

“But our ageing society, with costs of care set to double in the next 20 years, demands longer-term action.

“The 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.

“I have written to opposition parties to invite them to take part in the commission’s work, and asked Baroness Louise Casey to build a cross-party consensus, to ensure the national care service survives governments of different shades, just as our NHS has for the past 76 years.

“We are appointing one of our country’s leading public service reformers, and Whitehall’s greatest do-er, to finally grasp the nettle on social care reform.”

Split over two phases, the commission will set out a vision for adult social care, with recommended measures and a roadmap for delivery.

The first phase, reporting in 2026, will identify the critical issues facing adult social care and set out recommendations for effective reform and improvement in the medium term.

It will recommend tangible, pragmatic solutions that can be implemented in a phased way to lay the foundations for a national care service. The recommendations of this phase will be aligned with the government’s spending plans, which will be set out at the Spending Review in the spring.

The second phase, reporting by 2028, will make longer-term recommendations for the transformation of adult social care. It will build on the commission’s first phase to look at the model of care needed to address the UK’s ageing population, how services should be organised to deliver this, and how to best create a fair and affordable adult social care system for all.

Opposition parties have been invited to take part in the commission, with the aim of building a cross-party and national consensus on the responsibilities the state and individuals have for social care, how to meet the rising demands caused by an ageing population, and how best to structure the national care service.

Baroness Louise Casey of Blackstock commented: “Millions of older people, disabled people, their families and carers rely upon an effective adult social care system to live their lives to the full, with independence and dignity.

“An independent commission is an opportunity to start a national conversation, find the solutions and build consensus on a long-term plan to fix the system. I am pleased the Prime Minister has asked me to lead this vital work.”

Separately, the government will publish a new policy framework for the Better Care Fund in 2025 to 2026. The framework has been developed collaboratively between the DHSC, NHS England, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and local government. It will support local systems to deliver integrated health and social care in a way that supports patients and delivers better outcomes.

The new framework will focus £9 billion of NHS and local government funding on meeting two health priorities: moving care from hospital to the community and from sickness to prevention. It will cut red tape for the NHS and local authorities but will also hold local leaders accountable for improving care, the government underlines. They will be expected to make improvements on emergency admissions, delayed discharges, and admissions to long-term residential care.

The commission is expected to begin in April 2025.