The Care Association Alliance is a grouping of over 50 local care associations in England who collectively represent over 10000 independant care providers.
Our aims are:
- To be a national umbrealla for local care associations
- Share best practice for people who rely on our services
- Inform national policy by sharing local trends
We work with a range of stakeholders both locally, regionally and nationally
Our Member Care Associations
Our members represent over 10000 care providers across England, representing all sectors of care and many different types of businesses
The Case for Reform of Adult Social Care
At the Care Association Alliance, we work with providers on the frontline of care every day, and it is from that vantage point that we have been developing a programme of reform.
We have launched a new programme of policy papers to put the voice of frontline care providers at the centre of the national debate on adult social care reform, as the sector warns that waiting until 2028 for the Casey Commission’s final recommendations risks leaving reform too late.
Latest News
Responding to the resignation of Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister and the prospect of Andy Burnham succeeding him as Labour leader, the Care Association Alliance (CAA), the national voice of local care provision in England, has called on whoever forms the next government to make the reform of adult social care funding an immediate priority. It has also called on Andy Burnham to honour the commitments he has made to the sector. As Mayor of Greater Manchester, and again in recent weeks, Burnham has said he would overhaul England's failing adult social care system within his first year in office. The CAA today urges him to stand by those words: to bring forward the timetable of the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care, chaired by Baroness Casey, and to commit to a fundamental overhaul of how care is funded, starting with the introduction of a national funding settlement. That settlement is set out in the CAA's forthcoming policy paper, Adult Social Care Funding Reform: The Case for a National Funding Settlement, which will be published shortly. 2028 is too late The Casey Commission's first phase is due to report this year, but its final recommendations are not expected until 2028. That timetable makes meaningful legislative reform unlikely before the next general election. The sector, the people who draw on care, and the families who support them cannot wait that long. A change of leadership is the moment to match the scale of the crisis with the pace of the response. National Funding Settlement The CAA's forthcoming paper sets out why the current model is neither fair nor sustainable. The financial burden of a national demographic challenge falls on local authority budgets that vary enormously across the country. The result is a postcode lottery in which access to care is shaped by geography as much as by need. Providers are commissioned at rates that do not cover their costs. The average domiciliary care fee of £24.10 an hour falls nearly £8 below the recognised minimum sustainable rate. Families face costs that are unpredictable and bear little relationship to what others pay elsewhere, and the means-test capital threshold has been frozen at £23,250 since 2010. In place of this, the CAA proposes a national funding settlement built on three principles: national pooling of financial risk, a statutory entitlement triggered by assessed need, and local delivery within a national framework. Its recommendations include a ring-fenced, needs-adjusted national care grant; a national eligibility threshold set in statute; a national tariff for publicly commissioned care; a lifetime cap on individual contributions alongside a substantially raised capital threshold; and an independent National Care Assessment Body to oversee eligibility, pricing and long-term demand. Commenting, Melanie Weatherley MBE, Co-Chair of the Care Association Alliance, said: "Social care has been left on the 'too difficult' pile by successive governments for far too long. A change of leadership cannot become another excuse for delay. It must be the moment the country finally grips this. "Andy Burnham has said he would overhaul adult social care within his first year in office. We welcome that ambition, and today we ask him to stand by it. That means refusing to let the people who need care wait until 2028 for answers, bringing forward the work of the Casey Commission, and committing now to the reform that everything else depends on: a sustainable, national settlement for how care is funded. "We will set out in a forthcoming series of papers what a genuine National Care Service should look like in practice. The case for a national funding settlement is the foundation. Whoever leads the next government, the frontline providers we represent stand ready to help build it. But the time for reviews and timetables stretching into the next decade is over. The time to act is now."
The Settlement - Edition 1
The monthly campaign brief from the Care Association Alliance
Responding to reports that the Government is no longer considering a standalone arm’s-length body to oversee adult social care reform, the Care Association Alliance has warned that the focus must remain on how care is funded, not on the structures sitting above it, and that the sector must not be overlooked once again. Melanie Weatherley MBE, Co-Chair of the Care Association Alliance, said: “Social care does not need its own version of the NHS. An arm’s-length body sitting above the system is not what we have been calling for, and it is not what determines whether people receive good care. A national framework is essential, but it can be built within the structures we already have. What worries me is the risk that dropping the idea of a new body quietly becomes an excuse to drop social care altogether, and the sector is overlooked once again, as it has been so many times before. The point we keep making is a simple one. What matters is not the structure sitting above the system, but the funding settlement sitting beneath it. Access to care is still shaped by geography as much as by need, providers are paid rates that do not cover their costs, and families face bills they cannot predict. None of that changes by creating or removing an organisation. It changes only with a national funding settlement, and that is the work Ministers cannot afford to leave until 2028.”
