What happened
The Department of Health and Social Care's Adult Social Care Finance Report for England, 2025 to 2026, shows councils' gross current expenditure on adult social care rose 8% to £31.6 billion. Learning disability support was the largest area of long-term spending for adults aged 18 to 64, at £8.33 billion (26% of all gross spend), plus a further £1.16 billion for people aged 65 and over. For working-age adults, 65% of long-term spending went on community care, with supported living the largest single category at 49% of community spend; residential care accounted for £3.1 billion and supported accommodation £823 million. Learning disability support also carried the highest average weekly unit costs of any support reason: £2,371 for residential care and £2,029 for nursing care for 18 to 64-year-olds. Across all groups, the average weekly cost of residential or nursing care rose 6% to £1,251.09, and externally provided home care averaged £24.72 an hour. DHSC notes some councils reclassified learning disability and mental health services from long-term to short-term care, and cautions against dividing spend by activity figures to estimate cost per person.
Why it matters
Developments like this shape commissioning, regulation and provider strategy across learning disability services. Members can follow the providers named here, plus the leadership moves and pay benchmarks that follow.