The main body of this report considers expenditure on adult social care services by the social services departments of Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs) in England. Estimates of expenditure therefore do not include public expenditure funded through other routes (e.g. NHS expenditure on adult social care services).
As a consequence of changing government policy, responsibility and funding for providing certain adult social care services often shifts between different public bodies, most commonly between the NHS and local authorities. This means that it is not always meaningful to compare expenditure on adult social care over time if based only on expenditure by social services departments.
Table 4 below provides information about net public expenditure on adult social care services by social services departments[27]and other organisations and gives an estimate for total net current expenditure on adult social care services in England. The sources of funding included are not exhaustive (for example, expenditure by local authorities from budgets other than social services, such as housing, are not included) and only include those for which expenditure can be readily quantified. The sources included are thought to cover those considered necessary to be able to provide a comparable time-series on public expenditure on adult social care. Data have not been adjusted for inflation.
National expenditure includes data from 152 local authorities.
The figures in Table 4 below show that in 2018-19 the total net expenditure estimate was £17.9 billion, an increase in cash terms of 4.6% from the 2017-18 figure and an increase of 16.7% from the lowest recorded figure in the time series of £15.4 billion spent previously in 2012-13. This table can also be seen in the Public spending on adult social care section of this report.
Table 4: Net current expenditure1 on adult social care services in cash terms: by source of funding