Last Updated on April 29, 2026

A new campaign titled 'Care About Care' has been launched by Providers Unite, with funding from the National Care Association. The aim of the campaign is to put care at the heart of national conversation and bring together care providers, care workers, families and the public behind the argument that social care is not a safety net for the few. Providers Unite is a coalition of care providers from across the UK.

Campaigners are encouraging people using care services, care workers and the wider public to back the campaign through the ‘email your MP’ toolkit. Providers Unite reports that each year, the social care sector contributes £77.8bn to the UK economy, with impact spread across every community in the country. The sector employs 1.6 million people and by 2040, Britain will need a further 470,000 care workers to meet growing demand for care.

The campaign argues that despite the sector's importance, it is consistently overlooked by political parties of all colours. With council elections underway across the country, the campaign highlights how despite social care spending making up 75% of council expenditure, it is markedly absent from any election campaigns.

The Care About Care campaign is calling for immediate action to enable the sector to survive and thrive, whilst longer term plans for a National Care Service are developed and implemented over the next decade.

Commenting on the launch of the Care About Care campaign, Nadra Ahmed CBE, Executive Co-Chair at the National Care Association, said, 'Social care remains one of the most important public services which supports some of the most vulnerable members of our society, yet it continues to be chronically underfunded. Providers are being asked to deliver more complex care with fewer resources, putting a greater strain on individuals and their families both personally and financially.'

Kat Hall, Founder of Providers Unite, said, 'For too long, social care has been taken for granted. Successive governments have left providers and local authorities to deliver vital services on shoestring budgets, and the resilience of the sector has masked the scale of the problem. Resilience alone is not enough. It's time for political change – for Government to step up, recognise what care contributes to the country and back the sector that holds so much of British life together. Care About Care exists to drive that change.'

Care providers can engage with the Care About Care campaign by visiting its website.

In other news, the National Activity Providers Association (NAPA) has published a new Intergenerational Engagement Standards Programme.