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- Adult Social Care Newsletter | Volume 59
Adult Social Care Newsletter | Volume 59
Plus: Is social care still overlooked in the 10-year health plan?
Rafe Houston
July 17, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Welcome to Adult Social Care, your weekly newsletter offering the latest insights, strategies, and innovations empowering leaders to navigate challenges and drive excellence in the UK’s adult care sector. We're committed to keeping you informed and inspired with fresh ideas to tackle the year ahead.
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This Week in Social Care
Across the country, Adult Social care teams are grappling with back-to-back meetings and mounting admin - leaving less time for direct support and relationship-building. A new digital tool is helping to tackle this head-on.
Designed with frontline needs in mind, the UK GovTech team explored the Agilisys meeting minutes tool and whether the tool capture key information — from decisions and actions to outcomes and responsibilities — all in one place.
We saw in example social care meetings how the tool, reduces duplication, ensures consistency, and makes it easier to share updates across multi-agency teams.
By cutting down on time spent writing up notes and chasing actions, the tool is already freeing up capacity and improving continuity of care.
Explore the Agilisys Meeting Minutes tool and the 10+ councils already using it here.
Quick Reads📖
SOCIAL CARE FUNDING
Councils in England face mounting financial pressure, forcing them to cut preventative care spending significantly. This shift undermines long-term wellbeing goals and places greater strain on unpaid carers, exacerbating their health issues. Immediate action is necessary to realign resources towards community-based preventative measures. |  The Carer UK |
SOCIAL CARE FUNDING
Economist Andrew Dilnot highlights the chronic underfunding of means-tested social care by UK governments over the past two decades, raising concerns about the impact on families. The lack of a detailed plan for social care in Health Secretary Wes Streeting's 10-Year Health Plan exacerbates pressures on the NHS, as Baroness Casey's independent care commission report is pending until 2028. Immediate policy reform is crucial to stabilise social care and support NHS recovery. |  |
WORKERS RIGHTS
The UK Government will outline a timetable this autumn for reviewing Carers Leave, moving towards a potential statutory right to paid leave. A public consultation in 2026 will gather input from carers, businesses, and charities. This initiative seeks to support carers at work while considering employer impacts.
SOCIAL CARE SYSTEM
Social care remains unprepared for another pandemic due to inadequate PPE guidance, insufficient inspections, and lack of sick pay, argues UNISON's Christina McAnea. Despite government efforts like a workforce forum, urgent action is necessary to address these critical shortcomings and ensure sector readiness.