27 Oct 2026
Growing demand, financial pressures and changes in the social care market risk leaving people without the support they need, according to a new report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The state of health care and adult social care in England 2025/26 finds that improvements in services are struggling to keep pace with rising demand and increasingly complex needs. Access, quality and outcomes continue to vary significantly depending on where people live and who they are.
A Changing Social Care Market
CQC highlights two different trends in adult social care:
- Homecare is becoming more fragmented, with growing numbers of smaller providers.
- Care-home provision is consolidating, with a greater share of beds in larger homes and increased property ownership by institutional investors.
The regulator warns that financial pressures and weaknesses in local planning are allowing the market to change without sufficient strategic direction.
Providers are also increasingly seeking people who can pay for their own care to remain financially viable. The CQC warns that this risks reducing choice or capacity for people relying on council-funded support.
The report recognises that community-based care can help people live more independently. However, a more fragmented market can make arranging and coordinating services harder.
Why This Matters For Rural Areas
This is an England-wide report, rather than a study of rural care. However, its findings raise important questions about the future availability of services in rural communities.
For rural communities, these findings raise concerns about whether care will remain available close to home.
Where there are few alternative providers, the loss of a service could leave a significant gap. Delivering homecare across dispersed communities also requires planning and funding that recognise travel time and workforce pressures. If suitable residential care is unavailable locally, people may face moving further from family, friends and familiar surroundings.
Kerry Booth, Chief Executive, Rural Services Network:
People should be able to access the care they need without losing their connection to family and community.
While this report is not specifically about rural areas, its findings raise important questions about the resilience of local care services.
Social care reform must recognise the costs of delivering care across rural communities and help councils sustain provision close to home.
