Most social workers expect cuts to their budgets this year

With the government increasing grant funding for social care and average council tax increases of 5%, we asked social workers what they thought would happen to funding levels this year

By Anastasia Koutsounia on May 8, 2025 in Workforce

Photo by Community Care

Do you agree with the Department of Health and Social Care's decision to end the Think Ahead scheme?

Yes, fast-track courses are costly and do not adequately prepare trainees for the complexities of social work. (50%, 291 Votes)
No, Think Ahead is vital in training and recruiting mental health practitioners. (50%, 289 Votes)

Total Voters: 580

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Most social workers are expecting cuts to social care funding in their area in 2025-26, a poll has found.

This is despite ministers making £3.7bn extra available to local authorities with social care responsibilities this year, compared with 2024-25, through government grant increases and council tax rises averaging about 5%.

Though the increase in funding for councils was judged to be significant by think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies, social care leaders have warned it is inadequate in the context of increasing pressures, including from the rise in national insurance contributions for employers.

Social workers predict budget cuts in 2025-26

This seems to be the view of social workers too. Of roughly 600 respondents in a Community Care poll, the majority (62%) said they were expecting cuts, with 43% of those anticipating significant ones.

Only 8% said their budget would be increased by enough to meet demand, while 15% expected a hike in funding that would fall short of what was needed and 7% a frozen budget.

Councils receiving ‘exceptional financial support’

Some councils are already under extreme strain.

Twenty seven have been granted ‘exceptional financial support’ to balance their budgets, up from 17 last year. This means the authorities will be able to borrow or use receipts from the sale of assets to fund day-to-day expenditure.

Six of those – Birmingham, Bradford, Newham, Somerset, Trafford and Windsor and Maidenhead – have also been allowed to raise council tax above the usual referendum threshold.

How is your local authority dealing with the financial pressures on social care in 2025-26?

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone within social work who has inspired you – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

adult social care funding, children's social care funding, readers' take

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One Response to Most social workers expect cuts to their budgets this year

Abdul May 15, 2025 at 1:06 pm #

The ‘Social Care’ crisis could be solved over-night if the Government was prepared to fully fund it, by improving conditions by employing more staff (including recruiting from overseas), and by also introducing less paperwork and processes to help Social Worker’s be more efficient. The amount of paperwork and reports we have to do to just ‘Do our jobs’and be able to ‘Protect a child’ is insane. Also, the system is kept ticking over, due to Social Worker’s doing an enormous amount of unpaid work in their own time. The problem is the Government does not value social work, as it does not pay them any revenue, so they are going to continue to make cuts, and fund it minimally, and the people who will continue to suffer are the Social Workers and the children and families. Until Social Worker’s refuse to be apart of the system, and leave en masse, nothing will be done.

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