ADASS publishes Spring 2025 Survey findings

Figures published by ADASS this week show the state of adult social care in England. An overarching finding is that people are needing more complex care and support due to illness and disability, but local councils are struggling financially to meet people’s higher-level needs. As a result, it finds that those people needing low-level, early support at home are at risk of missing out or having their needs escalate..

The results also reveal that at a local authority level:

the proportion of councils taking a positive investment strategy has dipped - substantially in the case of housing / accommodation models of care and support, falling from 50% to 43%, with an increasing number of councils disinvesting (6% from 3%)
for the period Nov 2023 to May 2025, there was an increasing trend to hand back extra care contracts for planned care – an increase of 3% to 18%
The proportion of councils positively investing in digital and tech remains high - 65% - but has fallen from 72% in 2024/25
there is little to no additional funding to deliver on the Government’s three shifts set out in the recent NHS Plan - hospital to community, treatment to prevention and analogue to digital
but, on a more positive note, Directors of Adult Social Care believed it would be beneficial to align housing, including through the Disabled Facilities Grant, and greater integration with community health and care services.

Commenting on the latest ADASS survey, Jeremy Porteus, the founder and CEO of the Housing LIN, commented:

“The survey results make for concerning reading as local adult social care services are increasingly focused on those more in high cost, acute needs at the expense of those who would benefit from more low-level, preventative interventions at home. Most startingly, for the housing sector, is the downward trend in contracting housing with care, including extra care housing, and the procurement of other at home care and technology-enabled support solutions due to revenue pressures. And, at a time when the government has committed substantial capital over the next 10 years to build affordable housing, including specialist/supported housing provision, we need to ensure that investment is better aligned within health, housing and care economies so we can best plan, commission and meet the care and housing needs of our ageing population now and into the future.“