The Care Workers’ Charity (The CWC) expresses profound disappointment following the Autumn 2025 Budget. Despite the Chancellor’s assurances that she is ‘not turning a blind eye to unfairness’, adult social care was not mentioned once; an omission that is both alarming and unacceptable.
Despite funding being found for numerous priorities, adult social care did not receive a single mention or penny, even as investments included:
- £300m for NHS technology
- 250 new Neighbourhood Health Centres
- £860m for NHS structural reforms
- £1.5bn for defence munitions
- A rise in the National Living Wage to £12.71 in 2026
While the rise in the National Living Wage is welcome, it cannot be the only source of improved pay for care workers. Resource DEL for Health and Social Care will increase to £231.2bn by 2028–29, yet none of this is specifically allocated to adult social care.
This silence comes at a time when vacancies remain at crisis levels and care workers are facing rising workloads, low pay, unsafe staffing levels and expanding clinical responsibilities through delegated healthcare tasks. Care workers are supporting people with increasingly complex needs while dealing with burnout, financial insecurity, and limited progression opportunities. To offer nothing, not even acknowledgement, is indefensible.
This Budget follows a series of measures that disproportionately affect migrant care workers: extended settlement times, restricted family rights, and escalating barriers to stability. Migrant care workers are a vital part of the sector, yet the government has now delivered a Budget that offers them, and the entire workforce, nothing. To overlook adult social care entirely, so soon after policies that directly harm migrant care workers, sends a troubling message about how little the workforce is valued.
Without investment, the entire sector suffers:
- Care workers will experience even heavier workloads, poorer conditions and rising burnout.
- Recruitment and retention will deteriorate further, deepening the workforce crisis.
- Unmet needs in communities will continue to grow.
- Providers will face closure or be forced to cut services.
- Pressure across NHS services will intensify as social care capacity shrinks.
A sustainable NHS cannot exist without a stable, well-supported adult social care workforce. Yet today’s Budget offers no measures to protect, invest in or retain the care workers who keep the entire system functioning.
Karolina Gerlich, CEO of The Care Workers’ Charity, said: “Today’s Budget was a missed opportunity. While the Chancellor spoke of fairness, care workers – who provide essential, skilled work every single day – were once again left without the investment they urgently need. Adult social care is the backbone of our society, yet the workforce continues to shoulder rising pressures with little recognition or reward. Care workers need real investment today: fair pay, safe staffing levels and long-term stability. Without them, our entire care system is at risk.”
The CWC calls on the Government to take urgent action by committing to:
- A fully funded workforce plan for adult social care.
- Fair pay and clear progression pathways that recognise care work as skilled, essential work.
- Investment to reduce vacancies and stabilise the workforce.
- Long-term reform, not temporary fixes.
www.thecareworkerscharity.org.uk
