Last Updated on March 3, 2026

A new King's Fund report on public prioritisation of social care suggests that it has been hampered by recent high-profile election rows. The analysis found that the public’s prioritisation of social care has peaked when politicians propose changes to the system – but the failure of those proposed changes to get off the ground and the intense opposition and media backlash to them has now made it an electoral taboo.

According to the report, this is most acutely outlined when looking at the ‘dementia tax’ row during the 2017 General Election following Theresa May’s proposed social care reforms, leaving future politicians fearful of tackling the problems in the sector.

In the years since the 2017 election, when the public’s prioritisation of social care as a major issue facing the country reached its peak of 18%, it has only fleetingly crossed 10% and now sits at record lows of between 1% and 3%. For example in October 2025, when asked what are the most important issues facing Britain today, 47% said immigration, 33% said the economy and 24% said the NHS. In contrast, only 3% said social care.

The analysis forms part of a major new report from The King's Fund, titled, Not my priority: how the public sees social care (and what can be done about it). It looked at extensive polling and focus group research by The King’s Fund and other organisations since 2011 to evidence how the public currently views social care, its appetite for reform and the most effective ways of communicating about the issues in the sector. This work marks the start of major work on social care reform options from the think tank as part of its new strategy.

The report highlights low public understanding of adult social care – around a third of the public think, wrongly, that social care is provided by the NHS and/or free – which is driven by confusion between social care and the NHS, the wide range of services covered by social care and the reality that relatively few people draw on care at any one time.

As a result, social care is not a ‘top of mind issue’ for the public. Unprompted prioritisation of it as a major issue facing the country has never exceeded one in five people and has fallen sharply since COVID-19, as people worry more about the cost of living, jobs and immigration. It is also an issue that most people do not like to think about despite people underestimating the odds of needing care with one in seven of those aged 65 requiring care costing £100,000 or more in their lifetime.

However, when people are reminded about it through prompted polling (where social care is given as one option in a list), far more people – close to one in three – say it should be a priority. They recognise its importance to the NHS, and they consistently agree that the Government should take more responsibility for funding it.

To break the logjam, The King’s Fund recommends that more effort is put into cross-party dialogue, so that future politicians have ‘air cover’ for social care reform proposals. To date there has only been one reported cross-party meeting hosted by the ongoing Casey Commission and the report says that campaigners will need to think about how to expedite this process. Without it, the ‘air cover’ needed through broad agreement across party lines will be missing and likely damage any hopes of a public consensus too.

The report also recommends that those advocating for reform should consider how they use the 1.5 million people who work in the social care sector as ambassadors for change through their own personal networks and learn from the decades of experience of those who market their services.

More work also needs to go into building public awareness of care, with the report urging campaigners to talk about the tangible difference that social care reform would bring similar to the way NHS funding is talked about in the context of ‘more doctors and more nurses’. Examples of this could be – as with the NHS – shorter waiting times for care and more people receiving it.

Commenting on the report's findings, Simon Bottery, Senior Fellow for Social Care at The King’s Fund and co-author of the report, said, 'Social care reform is caught in a political Catch-22: [I]t needs politicians to build support for change, but they avoid talking about it for fear it will lose them votes. It will take more courage and leadership from them if social care reform is going to happen and realise the electoral and societal benefits that fixing this failing system would bring.

'The social care sector also needs to play its part and recognise that its current approach has not brought change. When advocating for reform it needs to meet the public where they are, not where it wishes they were.

'That means talking about the benefits of reform to the NHS, which the public uses more and prioritises more than social care. Also, speaking to the tangible improvements that reform would bring like shorter waiting times to receive care and more people receiving it, rather than focusing on abstract concepts such as "wellbeing".

'People know that social care is not working as it should and they want it to be better. But they have become fatalistic about the chances of reform and suffer from ‘social care fatigue’ after hearing for years about the system being in "crisis". Only if politicians and the social care sector itself step up to plate will this ever change.'

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said, 'Successive governments have treated social care reform as a hot potato to quickly shift without making any meaningful progress. Short-termism and public misperceptions have underpinned the dissolution of cross-party talks and agreements in the past. The largest underappreciated challenges beyond staffing shortages or funding settlements are reshaping public perception, and generating the political will to drive seed change for the sector.

'Social care's potential value to the wider health and social care ecosystem has been severely limited by under-investment. The sector's capacity to contribute to the economy, to lessen pressures on the NHS, and to improve the lives of the millions who work in and draw on care services is clear. But, the political will to drive change, and the public desire to see social care near the top of the policy agenda is missing.

'International examples such as that of Japan prove that change can come through a real consultative engagement process with sector stakeholders and the wider public. There is potential for the Casey Commission to deliver on this potential, but political courage is needed to drive this kind of change.

'Care England welcomes this report and is prepared to work with our partners, members, and other stakeholders to reshape public perception and to drive change to fulfil the potential of the social care sector.'

Gerard Crofton-Martin, Interim Chief Executive at the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), said, 'Public opinion is the essential bedrock of social care reform. Without a deeper and broader understanding of what social care is, and what it makes possible, political consensus will remain fragile and progress will stall. The Casey Commission should use this moment to lead a sustained public dialogue that listens to people's lived experience and makes clear what good social care enables in everyday life.

'High-quality social care transforms lives, enabling people to live with greater independence, dignity and purpose. It reduces pressure on the NHS, strengthens community ties, and helps people thrive. Yet many people do not understand who provides care, how it is funded or what good social care looks like.

'This misunderstanding matters. When social care is poorly understood, it struggles to secure sustained public and political priority. It often sits low on the list of national concerns unless people are prompted to think about it directly. Over many years we have seen reviews, commissions and proposals for reform, but not the enduring settlement the sector needs.

'The media, policymakers and others with influence have a critical role to play in shifting this conversation. That starts with listening to, and elevating, the voices of people who draw on care and support, their families and friends, and the workforce. Their stories bring to life the broad, and sometimes intangible, nature of care. They also help identify the expectations the public can stand behind, building a stronger evidence base for reform than the sector’s usual oscillation between "fix" and "flourish".

'There is room for optimism. If we pair honesty about the pressures with a sharper, person-centred account of what social care makes possible, and ground the next phase of reform in public understanding as well as policy design, we can move the debate from drift to determination, and create the conditions for meaningful, lasting change.'

To read Not my priority: how the public sees social care (and what can be done about it), visit the King's Fund website.

In other news, the latest workforce data shows the median hourly rate for care workers was £12.60 in December 2025, just 39p above the National Living Wage.