National standards of care could be the key to ending the stark variation in social care across England, according to a new report.

The report from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), supported by The Access Group, argues that clearly defined, outcomes-focused standards would help ensure people can rely on a consistent baseline of support, regardless of where they live.

Currently, access to care, quality of support and outcomes are shaped as much by local capacity and interpretation as by need. This ‘postcode lottery’ leaves some people facing long waits and unmet needs, while unpaid carers absorb rising pressures.

As the Government’s Casey Commission works towards a National Care Service, SCIE says standards should define what good care delivers for people — dignity, independence and control — without imposing one-size-fits-all services.

Kathryn Marsden OBE, chief executive of SCIE, said: ‘It is indefensible that, in this country, two people with the same social care needs, living only a few miles apart, can experience completely different levels of support. That postcode lottery undermines people’s dignity, independence and safety, and it places intolerable pressure on families and unpaid carers who are left to fill the gaps.

‘National standards of care offer a practical way to close that gap – not by imposing a one-size-fits-all model, but by making clear what people should be able to expect from the system wherever they live. Done well, they can translate long-standing values in social care into clearer, outcomes-focused expectations that are rooted in lived experience and backed by accountability.’