Urgent investment is needed to meet the need for social care, local government leaders have warned as a new study reveals the demand for publicly-funded social care is at a record high.

David Fothergill, chairman of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) community wellbeing board, said £13bn was needed to meet the pressure for social care and enable councils to meet their statutory duties.

Responding to a report by The King’s Fund on demand for adult social care, Cllr Fothergill said the sector remains under ‘enormous strain’ and is struggling to recruit and retain high quality staff.

The report, Social Care 360, says there are now more requests for publicly-funded social care in England than ever before yet the number of people receiving it continues to fall.

The authors say the most likely reason for this is the financial challenges facing local authorities who pay for publicly-funded social care, while the cost of commissioning care is rising.

The latest figures show that requests for support from older people, and particularly working age adults, have increased to around 1.98 million.

Yet the number of people receiving long-term care has fallen to 818,000 in 2021/22, a 55,000 drop from 2015/16.

Requests for adult social care had been steadily rising since 2015 but then sharply fell in 2020/21, most likely reflecting a reluctance for people to come forward for services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Requests have now bounced back to reach an all-time high, the report says.

Simon Bottery, senior fellow at The King’s Fund and lead author of the report, said: ‘It’s likely that local authorities will see the number of new requests for adult social care pass the two million mark for the first time this year but, on current trends, fewer people will end up receiving long-term support. That means that more people will have to pay themselves, rely on family and friends – or go without care entirely.’

Cllr Fothergill said: ‘We fully support the findings in this report on the crisis in the social care workforce, the sector remains under enormous strain, and is struggling to recruit and retain high quality staff.

‘Of the funding needed for social care, £3bn is needed to secure an uplift pay for social care staff.

‘Councils and providers always strive to reflect, learn and improve, but it is becoming increasingly hard to fund even statutory services.

‘We need to see urgent investment in adult social care that will ensure the best possible care for those that need it.’