Minister for Social Care and Mental Health Alison McGovern says the government will 'prepare the ground now' for a National Care Service for England with free personal care, rather than wait for Baroness Casey's review next summer, but no cost or start date has been set out.
MHA chief executive Sam Monaghan and UNISON General Secretary Andrea Egan want care workers' wait for settlement to stay at five years, warning that the proposed 15 years risks pushing providers back to costly agency staff.
Councils in England paid an average £25.37 an hour for state-funded homecare in 2026-27, according to the Homecare Association, against its minimum price of £34.42, and it puts the extra funding needed for sustainable homecare at National Living Wage level at £2.3 billion.
The Care Association Alliance wants young people not in education, employment or training brought into adult social care in England, but its paper also reports that more than half of care workers under 20 leave within a year.
Care England argues that Carers UK's findings on people cutting hours, turning down training and leaving jobs to care for relatives also describe the care workforce, though the survey does not count care staff separately.
Care worker turnover falls from 34.3% to 15.3% where employers in England combine pay, hours, training, qualifications and full-time work, Skills for Care says, but its own figures show that package is far from common.
Care workers at Sunderland Care and Support have voted overwhelmingly for strike action in an indicative ballot, and GMB is moving to a formal ballot and widening the fight to other council staff.
Policy and reform · Unpaid care
People aged 5 and over providing unpaid care, by hours a week (age-standardised) · 2011 and 2021
Note: Census 2021 asked the unpaid care question differently from 2011. ONS compares the two years only in these three broad bands.
Source: ONS, Unpaid care, England and Wales: Census 2021 (opens in a new tab) Published 27 September 2026
CQC's annual report on its 2025 to 2029 equality objectives claims first-year progress on equality data and hearing from seldom-heard people, and sets out next year's priorities.
Health and social care minister James Frith told a Commons debate that respite was the need every MP raised, and pointed to the government's cross-departmental action plan for carers.
Norfolk County Council has dropped the sale of 20 homes and their operator, Norse Care, to Stow Healthcare, with Nick Taylor, its cabinet member for commercial assets, saying it will weigh alternatives.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the Commons that decades of failure on social care reflect badly on every party, and promised a national care service built on co-operative principles.
DHSC says it is still weighing what the Supreme Court's AGNI ruling means for Liberty Protection Safeguards, so a consultation due by mid-2026 has slipped, while ADASS urges a firm decision.
Skills for Care's annual workforce report says only 37% of England's care and support workers held a social care qualification at level 2 or higher in 2025-26, compared with 48% in 2018-19.
CQC has cut Dedicated Care East Anglia, a home care and supported living provider in Norfolk, from outstanding to inadequate and put it in special measures after finding five legal breaches.
A blog for ADASS, written from Wigan, argues that a National Care Service should keep local leadership and relationships at its heart, warning that consistent rights must not become identical services.
Voyage Care has bought Orchard Healthcare Group and its 23 homes in central and northern England, with Chief Executive Mike McKessar pointing to Orchard's Reconnect model for complex dementia.
NHS Employers and health unions say stretching the wait for settlement from five years to as long as 15 could add at least £169m to NHS costs and unsettle 12,000 healthcare workers.
At Prime Minister's Questions on 14 October, Prime Minister Andy Burnham urged MPs of all parties to stop point scoring and help build a national care service, recalling his parents' experience.
Baroness Sherlock, a Work and Pensions minister, told peers the government plans to rework the triple lock's earnings element from April 2030, keeping its three guarantees but ending the ratchet.
MPs in the House of Commons held a debate on a National Care Service on 15 October 2026, according to the official parliamentary record published by Hansard.
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