Sixteen English councils spent more than 80% of their core funding on adult and children’s social care last year, highlighting the growing financial pressure on other local services.
Guardian analysis of government figures found that councils responsible for social care spent a net £42.8bn on adult and children’s services in 2025-26, equivalent to a record 71.9% of their combined core spending. Adult social care took 44.5% and children’s services accounted for 27.4%. In 2017-18, care costs made up 62.4% of councils’ core spending.
The overspending, which is driven by an ageing population with increasingly complex care needs, rising inflationary pressures and growing children’s social care demand, is pushing many councils to the brink of bankruptcy.
These challenges have led Andy Burnham to make reform of the care system key to his government’s ambitions.
Speaking at the Labour conference on Tuesday, the prime minister announced that the government would begin laying the groundwork for a National Care Service to be introduced after the next election, paid for in part by changing the earnings element of the triple lock.
He has already accelerated a government-commissioned independent review of adult social care carried out by Louise Casey, which initially was due to be published in 2028 but is now expected next year. That review will now shape the form the new care service takes.
Lady Casey delivered a withering critique of the state of the English social care system earlier this year, describing it as held together by “sticking plasters and glue”. She said the country faced a “moment of reckoning” over its failure to meet growing care needs.
Halton in Cheshire had the highest net spending on social care relative to its spending power at 92.9% in 2025-26. Just over half of its core spending was spent on adult social care and 42% was spent on child social care, which includes fostering services.
An official audit of the council published last month found its finances were unsustainable, despite it making cuts and selling off council assets. Halton received £35m in government-approved exceptional financial support this year.
A spokesperson for the council said the demand for services continued to place pressure on their finances. “The council is making necessary changes to drive down spending and improve its long-term financial sustainability,” the spokesperson said. “This includes introducing new ways of working that reduce costs while continuing to deliver good outcomes for vulnerable residents.”
Many of the 16 councils spending the largest proportions of their budgets on social care were forced to apply to the government this year for permission to borrow money to meet the day-to-day costs of running services and balance their budgets. Some cover among the most deprived areas in England, including Blackpool, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.
Adult care alone consumed more than half of core spending power at 19 councils. That number has more than tripled since 2017-18, when six authorities crossed the same threshold.
Core spending power is the government’s measure of the money councils can use to provide services, combining locally raised income such as council tax and business rates with central government grants. It is not ringfenced, meaning councils can choose how to use it.
Councils in England overspent their 2025-26 adult social care budgets by £715m, and in response have drawn up plans to save £909m, according to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services. These will include higher charges for care and cuts to adult care services such as daycentres.
Analysis by the King’s Fund found that the recent rise in spending reflected a rise in the number of people being supported – contrasting with 2015-20 when, during a period of cuts to council budgets, increased social care costs were mainly going on the fees to social care providers. As of March this year, 684,920 adults were in long-term care, up from a low of 613,360 in 2021-22.
The King’s Fund’s senior fellow for social care, Simon Bottery, said demand for social care had risen due to England’s ageing population as well as more adults living longer with complex needs.
He said: “Councils are meeting some of the extra costs faced by care providers, while also supporting more people. Those two factors combined account for the extra expenditure and the rising proportion of council funding going on care.
“A higher proportion of council budgets is being spent on adult social care than a few years ago, which means services such as refuse collection, libraries and roads get squeezed. Only about 2% of the population receives adult social care in any one year, but councils are spending a huge proportion of their budgets providing it.
“We need to move to a national system for funding social care to avoid the variation we’re seeing. At the moment, someone may receive support in one local authority but not in the next.”
Dr Wendy Taylor, the chair of the Local Government Association’s health and wellbeing committee, said: “Overall overspend has decreased slightly this year, but it remains high and is impacting spending on other council services. At the same time, councils’ capacity to spend on planned prevention is shrinking, with knock-on effects elsewhere in health and care services.
“Sustained and predictable funding and infrastructure will be essential for the future of adult social care, if councils are to successfully meet growing demand, deliver on their duties under the Care Act and support people to live the independent lives they want to lead.”
The Guardian excluded six councils that had not submitted their spending data for 2025-26.
