Council care spending 2025-26: £31.6bn

The headline figures

The report draws on finance returns from all 153 councils with adult social services duties. It covers the year to 31 March 2026. Figures are in cash terms unless stated.

Gross current expenditure was £31.6 billion, £2.3 billion (8%) more than the year before. In real terms, at 2025 to 2026 prices, it rose from £30.4 billion to £31.6 billion.
Total expenditure, before income is taken off, was £36.7 billion, up 6%.
Long-term support took £25.8 billion, or 81% of gross spending, up 9%.
Care bought from other providers came to £29,673 million, against £6,884 million on councils' own provision.

Most of the money therefore goes to independent and voluntary providers.

Where the money came from

Councils' income for adult social care rose 2% to £9.8 billion. People's own contributions to their care rose 6% to £4,960 million and were the largest income source. Income from the NHS fell 1% to £4,329 million. The Better Care Fund made up 59% of the NHS income councils reported.

Unit costs by setting

The report gives average weekly costs per person, by age and main support need. For people aged 18 to 64, learning disability support was the most expensive, at £2,371 a week in residential care and £2,029 in nursing care. For people aged 65 and over, the figures were £1,538 and £1,340.

Average weekly costs of residential and nursing care ranged from £1,101 in the East Midlands to £1,390 in London. For home care, councils paid an average of £24.72 an hour to external providers, up from £23.56. In-house home care averaged £43.77 an hour.

Two cautions apply. These unit costs are council spending divided by weeks of care, not the fee rates in any contract. And nursing costs should be reported excluding NHS-funded nursing care contributions.

Across settings

Residential and nursing (65+): £5.5 billion went on residential care and £2.8 billion on nursing care for older people.
Working-age adults: £8.2 billion went on community care, £3.1 billion on residential care, £823 million on supported accommodation and £518 million on nursing care.
Community support had the biggest rise, up 11% (£1.2 billion). Supported accommodation rose about 1% (around £7 million), the smallest of the four settings.
Supported living made up 13% of community spending on people aged 65 and over.

What this means for your service

Use the figures as context, not as a fee benchmark. Unit costs include all council spending on a setting, and DHSC warns against reading performance into them.
Compare your region. If your fees are well below your region's average weekly cost, the published data may help you prepare for fee talks.
Home care providers may note that councils' own in-house home care averaged £43.77 an hour, against £24.72 paid to external providers. That gap may be worth raising in cost discussions.
Learning disability services can point to the higher costs the data records for this group.
Check your own data. The full tables, by council, are in the ODS files on the DHSC page.
This is last year's spending. It does not show what councils will pay in 2026 to 2027 or later.