Izzy Lepone 15 July 2025

Councils face pressure to cut back on prevention spending

Councils face pressure to cut back on prevention spending image
Prevention © 3rdtimeluckystudio / Shutterstock.com.

Overstretched budgets mean that care leaders have been forced to reduce spending on prevention by more than 10% this year, a new survey has revealed.

In the Spring Survey published today by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), researchers have revealed that surging care costs resulted in a national overspend of £774m by councils last year, the highest the overspends have been in a decade.

The survey outlines the three shifts proposed in the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan: ‘hospital to community, treatment to prevention and analogue to digital’, and emphasises that local authorities are ill-equipped to enact these aims due to insufficient resources and funding for adult social care.

ADASS found that councils are under increasing pressure to prioritise immediate needs and people in crisis, requiring them to scale back early care services, whilst faced with a growing demand for more ‘intensive support’.

According to the data, prevention spending has dropped to £1.3bn, reaching its lowest sum since 2021/22, and 74% of Directors of Adult Social Care have minimal confidence that their budgets will enable them to ‘meet their legal duties for prevention and wellbeing’.

The survey also highlights that more local support is required to help unpaid carers, who fill the gaps in adult social care services, ‘often to the detriment of their own health and wellbeing’.

Jess McGregor, ADASS President and Director of Adult Social Care in Camden, said: ‘We shouldn’t have to choose between helping people with complex needs now and preventing others from getting unwell – we need to support people at both ends of the social care spectrum.

‘But without more investment to keep people well and independent at home, we risk undermining the shift towards prevention and neighbourhood health that Wes Streeting, the NHS and this Government are rightly championing.’

Ms McGregor added: ‘It’s vital that adult social care leaders who are well versed in delivering support at the community level are meaningfully involved in decisions about where and how resources for neighbourhood health and care are spent. After all, acute hospitals are not best placed to deliver social care at the neighbourhood level – but councils are.’

Responding to the survey, Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA Community Wellbeing Board highlighted the importance of ‘long-term investment’ that will enable councils to ‘plan, recruit and deliver services’ effectively, with the aim of improving public wellbeing and minimising the strain on the NHS.

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea commented: ‘For years councils were repeatedly starved of funding to deal with the growing problems in social care.’

She added: ‘The sooner there’s a national care service, the better. That will drive up standards and begin to replace the profit-driven system that's failing far too many people, their families and hard-pressed staff.’

Download your free copy of GLL: Transforming Community Health and Wellbeing today to learn more about the importance of prevention.

SIGN UP
For your free daily news bulletin
Highways jobs

Chief Executive

Ebbsfleet Development Corporation
up to £165,000
Ebbsfleet is one of the UK’s most ambitious regeneration projects, a 21st-century Garden City Ebbsfleet, Kent
Recuriter: Ebbsfleet Development Corporation

Partnership Co-ordinator - Voluntary & Community

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and London Borough of Wandsworth
£43,545 - £52,767
Partnership Co-ordinator - Voluntary & ... Wandsworth, London
Recuriter: London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and London Borough of Wandsworth

Planning Support Officer

The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council
Up to £34359 per annum
Keep our planning service running smoothly, supporting the team that shapes the future of our borough.As a Planning Support Officer, you'll play a vit England, London, City of London
Recuriter: The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Council

Change Communications Lead

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
£42,839-£48,226
Having come out of government intervention after two years in 2024 Sandwell, West Midlands
Recuriter: Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Finance Officer - Debt Collection

Essex County Council
£25081.00 - £27653.00 per annum + + 26 Days Leave & Local Gov Pension
Finance Officer - Debt CollectionPermanent, Full Time£25,081 to £27,653 per annumLocation
Recuriter: Essex County Council
Linkedin Banner