The Settlement
Intelligent Leadership in Adult Social Care
About the Care Association Alliance
The Care Association Alliance brings together care associations from across England, including Cornwall Partners in Care, representing the full breadth of the adult social care sector:
- 50 local care associations covering all of England
- All major care sectors represented by 9,000 residential, nursing, home care and supported living
- One unified voice to Government, Parliament and The Casey Commission
Our campaign is supported by the Rt Hon Damian Green MP, former First Secretary of State and de facto Deputy Prime Minister, who held direct responsibility for social care policy in Government.
The campaign for a National Settlement funding settlement
Our national family, the Care Association Alliance, has launched a coordinated campaign for a national funding settlement backed by Bridgehead Communications.
The campaign, underpinned by serious policy analysis, is making the case that the sector does not need its own version of the NHS. What it needs is a nationally coherent settlement: one that funds care at the true cost of provision, decides access by need rather than geography, and ends the unpredictable bills families face.
Over the coming months, we are publishing a series of detailed, costed policy papers on fee rates, commissioning and workforce. We will press the case in the media and in Parliament until a fair settlement is on the table.
The Settlement is our regular brief, tracking our campaign: what we have done, what we have achieved, and what comes next. Each issue brings together the campaign data, the press coverage, and where the case stands in Westminster. It also sets out concrete things you can do, including how to raise the funding case with your own MP before the summer.
Read the first edition, June 2026
Download The Handover, July 2026
Care Association Papers
Paper 01 | Adult Social Care Funding Reform
The case for reform is beyond dispute. The question is what reformlooks like.
This paper proposes a national funding settlement built on three core principles:
- national pooling of financial risk
- statutory entitlement triggered by assessed need, and
- local delivery within a national framework
The settlement has five principal components:
- a ring-fenced national care grant distributed to local authorities on a needs-adjusted formula
- a reformed means test with a substantially raised capital threshold combined with a lifetime cap on individual contributions
- a national tariff covering both residential and domiciliary care
- a bundled funding model for residential care with portable assessed packages, and
- a reformed Deferred Payment Agreement framework ensuring no individual is required to sell their home to fund residential care
Paper 02, Towards a National Workforce Settlement, October 2026
This is the second paper in the Care Association Alliance’s reform programme, prepared in partnership with the Institute of Health and Social Care Management. Our first paper, Adult Social Care Funding Reform, argued that no funding model can succeed without a workforce capable of delivering it. This paper sets out what that workforce needs. It needs a recognised professional framework built on the existing Skills for Care Care Workforce Pathway, national professional levels, and a Fair Pay Agreement that is fully funded and tied to demonstrated competency. Not a new bureaucracy, and not a single national employer, but one recognised profession operating across many.