8 October 2025
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has today, Wednesday 8 October, responded to The King’s Fund’s report, ‘Fixing social care: the six key problems and how to tackle them.’
The report presents an overview of the policy issues, options, conundrums and difficult choices that the Casey Commission will be grappling with as it sets out plans for fixing the social care system in England. There are clearly no easy fixes. SCIE looks forward to working with the Casey Commission and sector colleagues to debate these issues further.
This report offers a striking and sobering reminder that the social care system is falling far short of the standards we all expect from it.
Social care can empower people of all ages and circumstances to live with dignity, independence and choice. It ought to be the cornerstone of a fair and inclusive society; what we are seeing instead is a system characterised by challenges.
The report highlights that deep reform—reform that is principled and strategic—is necessary. The Casey Commission offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver this, but it can’t become just another report that disappears into Whitehall’s ‘too hard’ box. The Casey Commission must deliver where others have failed and provide answers to the difficult questions which have led to public and political stalemates, not least how we fund our social care system.
The report makes the case for a national system of assessing people’s needs. Bold solutions are required to address the challenges facing the social care sector, in particular those related to access, quality and fragmentation. The government has committed to underpinning its National Care Service with national standards of care. At SCIE, we look forward to working with sector partners and people with lived experience to develop a framework for these standards.
Kathryn Marsden OBE (formerly Kathryn Smith)
Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
About SCIE
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) improves the lives of people of all ages by co-producing, sharing, and supporting the use of the best available knowledge and evidence about what works in practice. We are a leading independent social care charity working with organisations that support adults, families and children across the UK.
If you have any questions regarding this submission, please do not hesitate to contact Molly Pennington, Press and Media Relations Officer, at molly.pennington@scie.org.uk