The King's Fund wants a single national assessment and national funding for most long-term care in England, but the cost estimates it cites run from £4bn to £18.5bn by 2036, depending on the size of co-payments.
Pensions consultancy LCP proposes enrolling people in England aged 40 and over in an opt-out care premium, but even on its own sums the scheme would meet only about a fifth of what a full National Care Service would cost.
An analysis by the comparison website What Care Costs, reported by The Carer, found 4,438 older people's care homes in England display a CQC rating more than five years old, including 391 last rated Requires Improvement or Inadequate.
Workforce · Pay
National Living Wage, hourly rate (for workers aged 25 and over until March 2021, 23 and over until March 2024, 21 and over since) · April 2019 to April 2026
Note: The age the National Living Wage applies from fell over this period: 25 and over until March 2021, 23 and over until March 2024, then 21 and over.
Source: GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates (opens in a new tab) Published 27 September 2026
University of New South Wales researchers, writing in JAMA Neurology, expect yearly new dementia diagnoses worldwide to double to nearly 25 million by 2050, falling hardest on women and poorer countries.
The Department of Health and Social Care has asked CQC to regulate services that diagnose autism or ADHD without also treating them, which the regulator says closes a gap in oversight.
CQC has cut Woodland House, a Bedfordshire home run by Really Flexible Care for people with a learning disability and autistic people, from outstanding to inadequate and put it in special measures.
Care England says the health department's GOV.UK collection on digitising adult social care, published 29 September, mostly rehouses existing guidance rather than setting new requirements, though some wording has changed.
DHSC says it will revise six England outcome measures in its 2024 to 2025 ASCOF release after some councils sent in flawed figures, though national results barely shift.
Community Care says Prime Minister Andy Burnham's national care service, giving older people in England free personal care after the next election, leaves out working-age adults and care home board costs.
Each item links its source at the point it relies on it; the articles carry their full sources.
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