Adult Social Care Reform: The Cost of Inaction

The Health and Social Care Committee has delivered a stark warning to Government: without fully understanding and addressing the true cost of inaction, efforts to reform England’s social care system risk inevitable failure.

In its latest report, Adult Social Care Reform: The Cost of Inaction, the cross-party Committee emphasises that continuing to do nothing is an active decision—one that is no longer tenable. MPs highlight that a lack of robust data and a failure to measure the financial and human cost of the current broken system are major barriers to achieving meaningful reform.

Key findings from the Committee include:

• The adult social care system costs the Government and taxpayers £32 billion a year but still fails to meet the needs of millions.
• Over 3.5 million people are living without the care they require, with unpaid carers filling the gap—providing care valued at a staggering £184 billion annually, equivalent to a second NHS.
• The strain on local authority budgets is crowding out other vital services, with adult social care consuming an increasing share of council spending, often at the expense of libraries, youth services, and road maintenance.

The Committee calls for the Government to urgently commission research that quantifies the full economic and social cost of inaction, including the impact of delayed hospital discharges on the NHS and the growing levels of unmet care needs.

The report estimates that every £1 invested in social care returns £1.75 to the wider economy, with a £1 billion investment creating 50,000 jobs. Despite this, the social care workforce remains under-resourced, and opportunities for economic growth in these areas are being missed.

Layla Moran MP, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, commented:

"We are living with a broken social care system. It harms those who need care, the people delivering it, the NHS, local government, and the economy. Yet, the social care sector also offers enormous potential to contribute to economic growth and employment. Reform is no longer a choice—it is a necessity".

The Rural Services Network supports the Committee’s call for a fundamental change in how social care is viewed and valued.  This is not simply as a cost to the public purse but as a vital enabler of healthier communities, a stronger economy, and more resilient public services.

Read the full report here