The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has today, 29 July 2025, responded to Skills for Care’s annual ‘Size and structure of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report.

The report found that the number of filled posts continued to increase in 2024/25 (by 3.4% or 52,000 filled posts) following increases in 2022/23 and 2023/24. This increase contributed to a decrease in the number of staff vacancies from their peak of 10.5% in 2021/22 to 7.0% in 2024/25. However, the vacancy rate remains higher than in most other employment sectors.

The fall in vacancy rate is cause for optimism, but the picture overall is still one of high turnover, persistent recruitment difficulties and a sector held together by the goodwill of overstretched staff.

The system is precariously dependent on overseas workers, who make up a growing proportion of new starters. This overreliance is not a sustainable strategy, and it leaves the entire care system vulnerable to policy changes and political headwinds beyond its control.

SCIE welcomes the sector-wide collaboration led by Skills for Care in shaping the Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care. It provides a strong, shared foundation to tackle urgent challenges around recruitment, retention and workforce stability. We now call on the government to work with the sector to prioritise and implement key elements of the strategy, particularly around pay, career progression, training and wellbeing. Achieving parity of esteem with the NHS is not only fair but essential, given the critical role the adult social care workforce will play in enabling the success of the 10-Year Health Plan and ensuring people receive care closer to home.

There are reasons to be hopeful. The proposed Fair Pay Agreement has the potential to be a transformative step forward – recognising the skills of care workers, improving their economic security and creating conditions that encourage people to stay and build their careers in care. High turnover affects care quality and continuity, disrupts relationships and ultimately harms those who draw on care and support services.

But a Fair Pay Agreement must be implemented as part of a broader commitment to workforce reform. It cannot be another isolated policy fix. We must ensure the voices of care workers, providers and people who draw on care are central to designing a future-proof system.

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

Yesterday, 15 July 2025, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) published its annual Spring Survey.

The ADASS Spring Survey offers further evidence of a system under profound strain. When local authorities are forced to divert limited resources into crisis management, the opportunity to invest in preventative, early intervention is lost. This not only undermines outcomes for people who draw on care and support but also the Government’s own ambitions for both social care and the NHS.

A sustainable health and care system relies on a rebalanced model—one that moves resources into community settings to enable support to be delivered earlier, closer to home, and in ways that promote independence. The Government’s Ten-Year Plan rightly looks to address this—but largely overlooks the essential role of social care.

Social care plays a vital role in facilitating safe hospital discharge, supporting individuals to maintain their wellbeing at home and enabling them to lead independent and fulfilling lives. Although the sector is in desperate need of reform to unlock its full potential, it has already done the work to identify what the problems are through reports such as this one. It has also been developing solutions that can be deployed now to improve the efficiency, integration and quality of care through projects like the ones funded by the Department of Health and Social Care’s SCIE-supported Accelerating Reform Fund.

It is now up to the Government, working in partnership with social care leaders, to ensure the preventative role of social care is not sidelined but prioritised in our health and care system reforms.”

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

The tenth annual Co-production Week, hosted by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), has revealed compelling new insights into how co-production is reshaping adult social care. With the theme ‘Innovation through co-production’, the week, which ran from 30 June – 4 July 2025, served not just as a celebration, but as a turning point and call to action.

At the heart of the week’s activities was the launch of SCIE’s new report, Embracing change: scaling innovation in care in practice, setting out how urgent action is needed to scale up innovation in adult social care and meet the growing demands on services, particularly for unpaid carers. The report draws on England-wide evidence from a rare, extensive practice-based testbed for social care innovation, sharing invaluable learnings for the social care sector from SCIE’s hands-on support provided to local authorities via the Department of Health and Social Care’s Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF). The Fund has supported over 120 projects requesting co-production from the start, aiming to improve adult social care through innovation and scaling, with a particular emphasis on supporting unpaid carers.

A key learning from the week has been that co-production is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but is a necessary means for innovation. Local and national leaders should be looking to build innovation into policy reform, starting with co-production with people and communities; people with lived experience want genuine, transparent co-production that includes their voices at the start in the planning stages of projects, in delivery and throughout, leading to visible change. People seeing the impact and the difference co-production is making means including ongoing feedback about how their insights and expertise are being used to improve services.

This week has shown us that innovation and co-production go hand in hand. While huge strides have been made up and down the country, there is much more work to do in embedding co-production in policy and practice and creating equal partnerships to develop better ways of doing things in social care. Co-production offers the chance to transform health and social care into a model that offers people real choice and control.

The strength and creativity that comes from genuine collaboration is clear from our report, webinars and online conference sessions. We’ve seen bold ideas emerge, grounded in the real experiences of people drawing on care and support, unpaid carers and professionals alike. What’s been most powerful is the shared willingness to challenge assumptions and rethink how we work together. That spirit of curiosity and openness is what will drive real, lasting change.

Now is the time to act. Together, we can reshape social care into a system that is fairer, more inclusive, and fit for the future.

Kathryn Marsden OBE (formerly Kathryn Smith)

Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

National Co-production Week is where we celebrate what has been achieved and recognise what still needs to happen. Co-producing the week ensures that the things which matter to people who draw on services, including carers, are kept front and centre. The projects we have seen are innovative because they have been co-produced and have changed culture. Co-produced projects not only provide better outcomes, they are scalable and spreadable, reach more people and the lessons learnt can be applied to other projects.

Kevin Minier

Co-production Network Member at SCIE

Key moments from the week included:

  • Our Co-production Week online conference with Think Local Act Personal (TLAP). Through six high-impact and diverse workshops, we highlighted tools measuring the impact of co-production, shared innovative commissioning practice through the development of lived experience commissioner roles, stimulated debate around the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in social care, explored complex issues and uncovered new insights around supporting unpaid carers in assessing their own needs by spotlighting ARF projects in Brent and Worcestershire Association of Carers.
  • The parliamentary reception in Westminster attended by over 100 leaders, decision makers and changemakers, marking a step forward in bridging innovation and co-production.
  • The announcement of the winners of SCIE’s Social Care Impact Awards, celebrating small and micro organisations that are driving practical, meaningful change, with a strong emphasis on community leadership and co-production.
  • A webinar with Lincolnshire County Council on its SCIE-supported Accelerating Reform Fund project, which uses arts, heritage and nature-based activities to improve unpaid carer wellbeing and resilience.  
  • A webinar run by and for people with lived experience to discuss how people with lived experience can play a meaningful role in shaping innovation and what it means to them.

The week’s packed programme of activity was co-produced with people with lived experience and SCIE staff. To find out more about what went on during the week, please visit the SCIE website.

SCIE supports a range of organisations with co-production, so any organisation wanting advice or help with their co-production approach should contact us sciebusinessdevelopment@org.uk, to hear more about how we can support you.

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

Yesterday, 7 July 2025, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) welcomed the publication of Dr Penny Dash’s Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape and its clear recognition of the critical importance of raising quality and safety standards in adult social care.

The review calls for a national strategy for quality in adult social care, underpinned by clear evidence. Dr Dash highlights long-standing concerns about the lack of consistency in how care is assessed, the absence of clear outcome metrics in social care, and a missed opportunity to embed innovation and best practice across the system. Her review recognises SCIE’s role, alongside the CQC, in helping lead the way in defining and supporting quality in adult social care.

This review couldn’t be clearer: we need a national strategy for quality in social care, one that both assures quality and enables improvement. Too often, excellence is localised and fleeting. What we need is a sustainable, system-wide commitment to safe, high-quality care that everyone can rely on.

SCIE stands ready to support the government’s reform ambitions, including the proposed National Care Service and the work of the Casey Commission. We know what good looks like. We’ve seen it. Our job now is to help the sector build on it, scale it, and make it stick.

We also welcome the review’s recognition of the central role culture plays in supporting safety, especially in safeguarding. A positive, values-driven culture isn’t a ‘nice to have’. It’s the foundation of effective, dignified care.

If we want better outcomes, we need better data, clearer standards, and a shared language for quality. But most of all, we need the will and the leadership to make that vision real. This review is a timely reminder of what’s at stake, and what’s possible.

Kathryn Marsden OBE (formerly Kathryn Smith)

Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

SCIE will continue to provide leadership in evidence-building, innovation, and best practice as the sector prepares for significant national reform.

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

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is delighted to announce the winners of its inaugural Social Care Impact Awards, unveiled today as part of SCIE’s annual Co-production Week, which celebrates the transformative power of co-production and lived experience in shaping better care and support. 

The awards were established to recognise outstanding individuals, teams and organisations across the country who are making a lasting impact through better outcomes for people who draw on care and support. The awards spotlight innovation, high-quality co-produced practice and effective partnerships between people with lived experience and care professionals in the sector. The awards seek to elevate the profile of those working in care and affirm their critical contribution to the lives of people up and down the country.  

We are incredibly proud to celebrate the winners of the SCIE Social Care Impact Awards in what has already been a transformative year for co-production and the wider care sector. In social care, where work is often demanding and complex, recognition isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. These awards are about recognising the incredible work happening in our communities every day – work that is often unseen but deeply felt.

The winners and finalists represent what’s possible when innovation, lived experience, and care come together. Their stories are powerful reminders of why we do what we do at SCIE. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Kathryn Marsden OBE (formerly Kathryn Smith)

Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

Nominations were judged by a panel, including people with lived experience, sector leaders and practitioners. Entries were evaluated based on demonstrable impact, the meaningful involvement of people who use services, and the ability to inspire or influence wider change.  

The response to the awards has been remarkable. Entries showcased a wide range of initiatives, from grassroots community projects to innovative workforce models, all driven by the belief that good care changes lives. 

Holly Baine, Programme Development Lead, The Rayne Foundation, who match-funded one of the first prizes, said:  

The Rayne Foundation is delighted to support the Social Care Impact Awards as part of our funding for the social care workforce. The awards celebrate the innovative work being driven by grassroots social care organisations and carers that change lives every day. With additional support from SCIE, we hope they continue to grow and share their best practice.

Holly Baine

Programme Development Lead, The Rayne Foundation

Claire Cosgrove, SCIE’s Partnerships and Development Manager and one of the judges, reflected on the journey: 

These awards feel like the start of something special. We’ve heard stories that are deeply moving, incredibly inspiring, and full of practical learning. It’s been a joy to witness how people and organisations across the sector are embedding co-production in real and meaningful ways.

The winners will receive tailored support from SCIE, including consultancy, access to training, and opportunities to collaborate with the SCIE team to further share and develop their work. This support aims to help scale their impact and inspire wider sector learning.

Claire Cosgrove

Partnerships and Development Manager, Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

Award winners: 

Micro Category (organisations with <£10k income) 

First Prize: Tresacare 

Second Prize: Chitter Chatter Club 

Third Prize: Inclusion GG 

Small Category (organisations with <£100k income) 

First Prize: Shaping Our Lives 

First Prize: ProActive Community 

Second Prize: Team2Gether Suffolk 

Hear from the winners:

Micro Category 

First prize  

The Treascare team said:  

“We’re incredibly grateful for this support – it allows us to stand by displaced care workers and invest in the wellbeing of those holding up our care system. In a time of crisis, it helps us turn urgency into action. This recognition is a vote of confidence in our mission to care for the people who care for others.” 

Second prize 

Anne Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Chitter Chatter Club, said:  

“I believe we’ve found one of many ways to help people recover from loneliness and isolation, by planting hope and reaching out worldwide. In just three years, 4,800 people in Dorset have benefited, with 73% reporting better confidence, mental health, safety, and connection to services, all from volunteers simply saying hi, being friendly, graceful and empathetic. 

“With SCIE’s support through the Awards, we can raise awareness and inspire others nationwide to replicate models like the Chitter Chatter Club or Brew Crew. This low-cost, high-return approach could ease pressure on doctors, hospital beds, and even prisons.” 

Third prize 

Mandy-Jayne Lace, Founder of Inclusion.gg, said:  

“This support enables our leadership team to receive vital, high-quality training in a key area of governance, while also strengthening the confidence and capability of our volunteers, individuals, and community groups, ensuring we all act with clarity, care, and accountability.” 

Small Category

First prize (sponsored by the Rayne Foundation) 

Peter Beresford, Chair of Shaping our Lives, said: 

“Shaping Our Lives is really pleased and proud to receive this award. Not only does it symbolise our efforts over the years as a user-led organisation to address issues of inclusion and diversity with equality, but it will also help enable us to take forward key work we are committed to, to support more inclusive approaches to the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is one of our priority areas for future work because AI seems to have fallen short in this area. The SCIE award provides a great opportunity to develop our skills and understanding.” 

First prize  

The ProActive Community team said:  

“Winning the SCIE Social Care Impact Award for small organisations is an incredible honour for the Pro-Active Community. As a small user-led charity, it means so much for our work to be recognised nationally. This award shines a light on the power of lived experience to drive real change. The prize of consultancy from SCIE will be instrumental in helping us refine our strategy and measure our impact more effectively. Most importantly, it gives our members — many of whom are autistic people and people with learning disabilities — the recognition and platform they deserve.” 

Second prize  

The Team2Gether team said:  

“Team2Gether is thrilled to be receiving second place in the small organisation category! Led by Caron Cantor, our team got to work in 2016 to create what is now Team2Gether, and we are grateful for this recognition. Winning this award means we can move forward with our mission of reaching as many people within our community as possible. Our goal is to widen areas. The consultancy and training we will receive for winning this wonderful award will give us the springboard to do just that and continue ‘empowering every ability’.” 

Notes to the Editor  

Further details about the Social Care Impact Awards can be found on the SCIE website. The SCIE Social Care Impact Awards were launched in early 2025 to highlight and reward outstanding contributions to social care across the UK. 

The awards were judged by a panel comprising SCIE Trustees, team members, and the SCIE Co-Production Steering Group. 

The announcement forms part of SCIE’s Co-production Week 2025, taking place from 30 June to 4 July, with this year’s theme: Innovation Through Co-production. 

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  

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has today welcomed the publication of the government’s 10-Year Health Plan and its ambitions for a more preventive, digitally enabled and community-based NHS.

However, SCIE has expressed concern about the lack of clarity on how the Plan will interface with the social care system, an omission that risks undermining the Plan’s transformative goals.

The Plan’s emphasis on shifting care closer to home, and building a Neighbourhood Health Service, reflects a promising shift towards putting people who need care at the heart of decision-making. Yet SCIE warns that without a robust, clearly defined role for social care, these ambitions risk stalling. Neighbourhood-level care can only succeed if built on a strong foundation of local care and support systems; this means placing social care on equal footing with healthcare.

With health and social care so deeply interdependent, success hinges on clear alignment, shared accountability, and sustained investment across both sectors.

Health and social care are two sides of the same coin. You cannot deliver meaningful reform in one without sustained, strategic attention to the other.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out a welcome ambition to move care closer to home, to focus on prevention, and to invest in digital tools, but these aims will fall short unless they are matched by a coherent, long-term vision for social care. While SCIE has welcomed the Casey Commission and its forthcoming work, the Commission is not due to report until 2028. By then, healthcare reform will be three years ahead of a roadmap for social care reform.

Social care supports people to leave hospital safely, helps them stay well at home, and to live meaningful, independent lives. That’s why the success of the Neighbourhood Health Service rests on the strength and stability of our social care infrastructure. Neighbourhood working, at its best, is about trust, shared decision-making and holistic, person-centred care. If we want a future NHS that is proactive rather than reactive, social care should be recognised as a driver of wellbeing and prevention in our communities.

The government has set an ambitious mission of building an NHS fit for the future. SCIE calls on government and NHS leaders to bring the care and health sectors together as equal partners to deliver the Plan’s aims for prevention, wellbeing, community support and tackling inequalities.

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 George Appleton, Head of External Affairs, at george.appleton@scie.org.uk

Urgent action is needed to scale up innovation in adult social care and meet the growing demands on services, particularly for unpaid carers, according to new insights from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)’s report launched today, Embracing change: scaling innovation in care in practice.

Drawing on work with over 120 local projects funded through the Department of Health and Social Care’s Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF), the findings highlight a rare, extensive practice-based testbed on how innovation can be effectively developed, embedded and scaled within adult social care.

Over 70% of these projects are directly supporting unpaid carers, a group vital to the sustainability of the social care system, but too often left without the help they need. According to Carers Trust, 80% of local unpaid carer services report an increase in unmet need.

The learnings on barriers to and enablers of innovation emerging from SCIE’s work are invaluable for the wider sector, as they provide a clearer understanding of what approaches people use, and what works in practice. Given the limited evidence and learning on this topic at this scale in adult social care, these findings should be seen as the beginning of a significant journey towards improvement.

The work demonstrates that scalable solutions already exist, but these need leadership, long-term investment and supportive policy to become business as usual.

Urgent action is required on social care reform. We cannot wait for the Casey Commission report in 2028; immediate solutions are necessary to deliver for unpaid carers and stabilise the sector. The projects funded by the ARF have the potential to achieve this, as they are:

  • creating a pipeline of scalable innovation to improve the efficiency, integration and quality of care
  • in line with the Government’s missions, delivering learning to solutions that address the 10 Year Health Plan’s three shifts: hospital to community,
    analogue to digital, sickness to prevention
  • enshrining ‘home first’ principles that enable people to live independently for longer, such as the Shared Lives service, ready to be deployed now.

We believe innovation, whether incremental, radical or disruptive, can play a significant role in achieving a better future for people who draw on care and support and their carers. Currently, unpaid carers remain under-supported, and a sustainable future for social care depends on embedding innovation in reform. The projects, funded by the ARF, have demonstrated the creativity and commitment present across the sector.

We now know more than ever what it takes to make innovation work. This programme has given permission to local leaders to think differently and act boldly. The challenge is to support and grow this knowledge across the system by embedding this learning into policy, practice and funding decisions. Innovation cannot be an afterthought. It must be core to how we design a better, more sustainable future for care.

Kathryn Marsden OBE (formerly Kathryn Smith)

Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

The report comes during SCIE’s tenth annual Co-production Week (30 June – 4 July 2025), a celebration of the role meaningful collaboration with people who draw on care and support has in designing and developing better ways of doing things in social care.

While the Casey Commission and 10-Year Health Plan may shape the longer-term future of care, SCIE is calling for immediate steps to apply these learnings now, and to ensure innovation is central to a future National Care Service. SCIE is calling on national leaders to:

  • build innovation into policy reform, starting with co-production with people and communities
  • incentivise innovation by taking a multi-year innovation fund approach and funding the infrastructure
  • invest over several years to build capacity, skills and networks for innovation, including significant investment in digital support and guidance for commissioning innovation
  • create a flexible regulatory space that enables a culture of testing and learning through innovation.

SCIE will build on this work to plan what a good social care innovation system should look like, working with partners to help make innovation business as usual.

Notes to editors

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 social care improvement independent charity working with organisations that support adults, families and children across the UK. We also work closely with related services such as health care and housing. We improve the quality of care and support services for adults and children by:

  • Identifying and sharing knowledge about what works and what’s new.
  • Supporting people who plan, commission, deliver and use services to put that knowledge into practice.
  • Informing, influencing and inspiring the direction of future practice and policy.

Our mission is to support best practice, shape policy and raise awareness of the importance of social care, working together. With the government’s ambition of reducing consultancy bills, SCIE can serve as the not-for-profit partner of government, working collaboratively to identify and implement improvements.

If you have any questions regarding this submission, please do not hesitate to contact media@scie.org.uk

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is proud to be hosting its 10th annual Co-production Week from 30 June to 4 July 2025.

Co-Production Week is a celebration of the contribution people with lived experience make to creating better social care. This year’s theme, ‘Innovation through co-production’, is a celebration and exploration of the power of co-production to fuel innovation and design and develop better ways of doing things.

Co-production is about working in partnership with people receiving social care, carers, and families so that they can influence the way that services are designed, commissioned, and delivered.

Throughout the week, SCIE will host a series of conferences, workshops highlighting co-production in action and live interactive discussions on social media—all showcasing real-life examples of co-produced innovation, sharing learnings, and cultivating new collaborations across the sector. We will share resources and tools to capture the impact and difference co-production makes and publish blogs highlighting what’s needed to amplify the experiences and perspectives of diverse groups of people. 

We will also be launching our new report, ‘Embracing change: scaling innovation in social care in practice’. Drawing on SCIE’s hands-on work with local authorities and partners across the country, the report explores the barriers and enablers to innovation on the ground, including the conditions and relationships that enable meaningful co-production to flourish. It highlights how local areas have approached complex challenges in new and collaborative ways—offering practical examples of what works, why it works and how it can be replicated or scaled.

Kathryn Marsden OBE (formerly Kathryn Smith), SCIE’s Chief Executive, said:

“Co-production underpins everything that we do at SCIE. We hope that Co-Production Week will challenge, inspire and help shape what good looks like.

“These conversations are essential if we are to move beyond the familiar and embrace new, inclusive and effective approaches to reform.

“I look forward to seeing partners from across the sector engage with the week’s events and contribute to driving improvement in social care. Together, we can embed co-production at the heart of a stronger, fairer, and more innovative system.”

Patrick Wood, Chair of the SCIE Co-production Steering Group, said:

“Co-production is a concept and approach with radical potential. If the core co-production principles of accessibility, diversity, equity and reciprocity (or getting something back for putting something in) were properly implemented, the health and social care landscape in this country would be utterly transformed.

“Co-production Week provides a unique opportunity for people with lived experience and people who provide services to come together and share learning and ideas, with the aim of developing the care and support that people need and want in order to improve their lives.”

For more information about Co-production Week and how to get involved in our programme of events, please visit our website https://www.scie.org.uk/co-production/week/ or follow our social media channels:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/social-care-institute-for-excellence
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/socialcareinstitutepage/
  • BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/scie.org.uk

Notes to editors

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 social care improvement independent charity working with organisations that support adults, families and children across the UK. We also work closely with related services such as health care and housing. We improve the quality of care and support services for adults and children by:

  • Identifying and sharing knowledge about what works and what’s new.
  • Supporting people who plan, commission, deliver and use services to put that knowledge into practice.
  • Informing, influencing and inspiring the direction of future practice and policy.

Our mission is to support best practice, shape policy and raise awareness of the importance of social care, working together. With the government’s ambition of reducing consultancy bills, SCIE can serve as the not-for-profit partner of government, working collaboratively to identify and implement improvements.

If you have any questions regarding this submission, please do not hesitate to contact media@scie.org.uk

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) yesterday welcomed the appointment of Chris Badger, the new Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), recognising the pivotal role this position will play at a time of significant challenge and opportunity across the sector.

The latest State of Care report from the CQC lays bare the scale of the task ahead. It highlights ongoing and deepening pressures on adult social care, from persistent workforce shortages and unequal access to services, to variability in quality and rising unmet need. In this context, strong, fair and forward-looking regulation is more important than ever.

In response to the appointment, Kathryn Smith OBE, Chief Executive of SCIE, said:

“We warmly welcome Chris Badger’s appointment as the new Chief Inspector at such a critical juncture for adult social care. The State of Care report underscores the urgent need for system-wide improvement, with people who draw on care and support often facing fragmented services and variable standards.

“As the CQC looks to build from the recommendations of the Dash Review, there is an opportunity to develop a regulatory environment that not only assures safety and quality but actively supports improvement, learning and innovation. Achieving this requires collaboration across the care sector – between commissioners, providers, regulators and people who draw on services.

“This becomes all the more important with a National Care Service on the horizon, which will be underpinned by consistent national standards. Effective and trusted regulation will be a cornerstone of successfully realising this goal, ensuring that people wherever they live, receive care that is safe, person-centred and grounded in dignity and respect.

“SCIE looks forward to working with Chris Badger to ensure regulation enables, not inhibits, the transformation our sector needs.”

Notes to editors

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 social care improvement independent charity working with organisations that support adults, families and children across the UK. We also work closely with related services such as health care and housing. We improve the quality of care and support services for adults and children by:

  • Identifying and sharing knowledge about what works and what’s new.
  • Supporting people who plan, commission, deliver and use services to put that knowledge into practice.
  • Informing, influencing and inspiring the direction of future practice and policy.

Our mission is to support best practice, shape policy and raise awareness of the importance of social care, working together. With the government’s ambition of reducing consultancy bills, SCIE can serve as the not-for-profit partner of government, working collaboratively to identify and implement improvements.

If you have any questions regarding this submission, please do not hesitate to contact media@scie.org.uk

On 13 June 2025, Isaac Samuels, Trustee for the Social Care Institute for Excellence, was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in The King’s Birthday Honours List 2025.

In response, Isaac Samuels OBE said:

“I am humbled and honoured to receive this recognition. This award is not just for me, it’s for every person whose voice has been marginalised or silenced, and for every community fighting for dignity, fairness and equity. My lived experience has taught me that the best solutions come from those who have faced the greatest challenges. This OBE affirms the power of co-production and the importance of centring lived experience in shaping the services that affect our lives.”

With over 25 years of service across the health, social care and housing sectors, Isaac has been a transformative force in the fight against inequality, stigma and systemic injustice. Their work has championed co-production, anti-racism and inclusive practice, placing the voices of people with lived experience at the heart of decision-making. As the first person with lived experience to co-chair the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Adult Social Care working group, Isaac has helped bring authentic voices of people who draw on care and support into national policymaking and helped to embed co-production as a core principle.

Isaac’s leadership has spanned local and national initiatives, tackling health inequalities, advancing mental health advocacy and fostering inclusive communities where all individuals can thrive. Their rights-based approach and relentless pursuit of social justice have made a significant and lasting impact on the lives of countless people, particularly those experiencing poverty, disability and systemic discrimination.

Kathryn Smith OBE, Chief Executive of SCIE, offered her congratulations:

“We are incredibly proud of Isaac and all they have achieved. Their OBE is a well-deserved recognition of decades of commitment to making social care fairer, more inclusive and truly person-centred. Isaac brings not only powerful lived experience but also unmatched dedication to co-production and justice. They remind us every day that services work best when shaped with the people who use them. We are honoured to have Isaac as part of the SCIE community.”

Notes to editors

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 social care improvement independent charity working with organisations that support adults, families and children across the UK. We also work closely with related services such as health care and housing. We improve the quality of care and support services for adults and children by:

  • Identifying and sharing knowledge about what works and what’s new.
  • Supporting people who plan, commission, deliver and use services to put that knowledge into practice.
  • Informing, influencing and inspiring the direction of future practice and policy.

Our mission is to support best practice, shape policy and raise awareness of the importance of social care, working together. With the government’s ambition of reducing consultancy bills, SCIE can serve as the not-for-profit partner of government, working collaboratively to identify and implement improvements.

If you have any questions regarding this submission, please do not hesitate to contact media@scie.org.uk

Yesterday, 11 June 2025, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, presented her Spending Review to Parliament, outlining record NHS investment, a landmark £39 billion commitment to social housing, measures that allow for an increase of over £4 billion in funding available for adult social care in 2028–29 compared to 2025–26, and investment into children’s social care.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) submitted a representation to the Spending Review in February, highlighting that the social care sector urgently needs targeted investment in prevention, workforce stability, housing with care, and integrated community-based support. Without this, progress towards a National Care Service and the Government’s own missions will continue to stall.

Yesterday, Kathryn Smith OBE, Chief Executive at SCIE said:

“Today’s announcements are a step in the right direction—but far from the bold, coordinated investment needed for effective reform,” said Kathryn Smith OBE, Chief Executive at SCIE.

“Social care is not a standalone service and it does not operate in a silo. It interfaces with housing, healthcare, and mental health support. The care system can play a role in alleviating pressures across other public services, but without stable funding and investment, it could also compound them.  In other words, the Government’s vision for the country depends on an appropriately resourced social care sector.”

The Spending Review confirmed £39 billion of investment over ten years through a new Affordable Homes Programme.

“We welcome the Government’s significant investment in social housing, which is a vital step towards supporting the growing social care needs of our population. Housing, social care, and health are inextricably linked; good housing can prevent escalating care needs and reduce pressures on the NHS and the social care system,” Smith continued.

“People want choices that preserve independence as they age, but current systems are too often hard to navigate and lack inclusive planning. This announcement is a timely opportunity to align the Government’s national housing strategy with social care reform.

“We urge the Government to embed local housing strategies, produced in partnership with people who draw on care and support, and invest not just in the quantity, but in the quality and accessibility of homes.

“Partnership between health, housing, and social care must be woven into policy at all levels to deliver the future communities we all want to live in.”

The Spending Review also outlined an uplift to the NHS’s minimum contribution to adult social care through the Better Care Fund (BCF), which plays a key role in supporting integrated, community-based care.

“The Better Care Fund is designed to support hospital discharge pathways, virtual wards, and Home First models—all of which depend on robust and responsive social care.

“The Fund’s success relies on the sector being able to deliver timely reablement, rehabilitation, and ongoing support. Without stable care at home, patient flow stalls and NHS capacity is compromised.

“What we need is not just more investment through the BCF—but alignment of funding with outcomes that work for people, not just systems.”

SCIE believes the long-term success of the Government’s three flagship shifts—from sickness to prevention, hospital to community and analogue to digital—relies on a social care sector that is properly funded, valued, and integrated. Without this, the NHS will remain under pressure, housing strategies will fall short, and the workforce will continue to struggle.

“The Government must see social care as foundational to the country’s future, not a service of last resort,” Smith concluded.

“We are ready to work with national and local leaders to ensure this vision becomes reality.”

Notes to editors

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 social care improvement independent charity working with organisations that support adults, families and children across the UK. We also work closely with related services such as health care and housing. We improve the quality of care and support services for adults and children by:

  • Identifying and sharing knowledge about what works and what’s new.
  • Supporting people who plan, commission, deliver and use services to put that knowledge into practice.
  • Informing, influencing and inspiring the direction of future practice and policy.

Our mission is to support best practice, shape policy and raise awareness of the importance of social care, working together. With the government’s ambition of reducing consultancy bills, SCIE can serve as the not-for-profit partner of government, working collaboratively to identify and implement improvements.

If you have any questions regarding this submission, please do not hesitate to contact media@scie.org.uk

Entries for the Social Care Institute for Excellence’s (SCIE’s) Social Care Impact Awards have now closed. The awards have received a remarkable response from across the sector, and we would like to sincerely thank the social care community for their support in promoting them—as well as all of the organisations who applied. 

SCIE established the Social Care Impact Awards to identify, recognise, and reward the small organisations doing exceptional work in social care. From grassroots initiatives to community-based providers, the quality and passion evident in the entries have been truly inspiring.

The judges—comprising SCIE staff, trustees, and a person with lived experience of social care—are now undertaking a thorough review of each application. There are multiple prizes available, ranging from in-depth and bespoke consultancy days and training support to spaces on SCIE training courses.

The awards presentation will take place during Co-Production Week—SCIE’s annual celebration of the contribution people with lived experience make to creating better social care. This year, Co-Production Week will be held from 30 June – 4 July 2025, and the theme is ‘Innovation through co-production’. 

There are countless organisations and individuals working tirelessly to deliver the compassionate care and support that allows people to live with independence and dignity. Unfortunately, too often, they receive neither the recognition nor the support they deserve.

These awards are SCIE’s way of addressing this and of giving something back to a sector that gives so much. Through them, we aim to showcase best practice, foster greater collaboration, and, ultimately, contribute to improving outcomes for people who draw on care and support.

The response has been phenomenal. We have been truly impressed by the innovation, commitment, and measurable impact the entrants have demonstrated, and we look forward to showcasing the winners and presenting them with their awards on 2 July.

Kathryn Smith OBE

Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

Notes to editors

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 social care improvement independent charity working with organisations that support adults, families and children across the UK. We also work closely with related services such as health care and housing. We improve the quality of care and support services for adults and children by:

  • Identifying and sharing knowledge about what works and what’s new.
  • Supporting people who plan, commission, deliver and use services to put that knowledge into practice.
  • Informing, influencing and inspiring the direction of future practice and policy.

Our mission is to support best practice, shape policy and raise awareness of the importance of social care, working together. With the government’s ambition of reducing consultancy bills, SCIE can serve as the not-for-profit partner of government, working collaboratively to identify and implement improvements.

If you have any questions regarding this submission, please do not hesitate to contact media@scie.org.uk