Social care spending: worrying trends

Potential increases in social care spending face a number of complications according to IFS researcher, Polly Simpson.

Spending on adult social care in England fell 8 per cent between 2009–10 and 2016–17. Several parties may, in their manifestos, promise further money for social care in England. However, potential commitments to increase social care spending are associated with a number of tensions. After determining where this money will come from, how much it amounts to, how it will be targeted at social care and how it will be distributed across the country, this article also addresses a number of other complications. These include the ability of central government to influence spending choices at a local level and the role of planned reforms to the local government finance system.

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