Vital £22.6m Government fund to support carers and social care is two months overdue and could disappear, Carers Trust warns
Vitally needed £22.6m in Government funding to support adult social care and unpaid carers is nearly two months overdue and is in danger of disappearing, charity Carers Trust has warned.
The Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF) was introduced by the Department of Health and Social Care in late 2023. The fund committed £42.6m over two years to “support innovation and scaling in adult social care and kick-start a change in services to support unpaid carers.” Local authorities were invited to submit expressions of interest to receive the funding for specific projects, working in partnership with health and care providers, local carer services, and carers themselves.
Although the first half of the funding has been paid out, the second £22.6m tranche has still not been allocated, despite being due for payment in August.
Neither Carers Trust’s network of local carer organisations nor local authorities have had any indication from the Department of Health and Social Care on when the funding will come, or even confirmation that it will be paid at all. In a recent debate on unpaid carers, the Government did not mention the fund as one of its initiatives to improve support for them.
Carers Trust is demanding that the £22.6m is confirmed by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Budget later this month.
Carers Trust’s Policy and Practice Manager, Andy McGowan, said:
“The UK’s 6 million unpaid carers are struggling and in desperate need of more identification and support. The Government urgently needs to honour its commitments to them and provide the rest of this funding. At a minimum, that needs to happen at the Budget later this month.
“Without this money, more than 100 crucial projects could be scrapped. The timing would be catastrophic, coming just as we enter the winter months when pressure on social care and carers is so acute.”
In all, 97% of local authorities in England are involved in ARF initiatives. There are 122 projects currently underway, with more than half focused on supporting unpaid carers.
The projects include expanding unpaid carer support after hospital discharges, developing courses for unpaid carers who look after people with dementia, and investing in ways to give unpaid carers much-needed breaks. For example, in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, a range of new digital training sessions, videos, podcasts, and resources are being developed to help improve support provided to carers around hospital discharge and end-of-life care. In West Yorkshire, carers are being connected to hospitality, tourism, and leisure businesses to enable them to access breaks which they would otherwise miss out on.
Local authorities and carer services seeking to sign contracts or recruit staff to deliver projects have been advised to wait until they have received confirmation of the rest of the funding. There is now concern over projects which have already recruited staff and signed contracts in the expectation that the second round of funding would come.
Image depicts Carers Trust logo