The government has announced a 7.7% increase in funding for care homes providing nursing care in the community, which is tailored to an individual’s needs and health outcomes. This includes administering medicines and performing procedures.
The funding will help reduce the pressure on hospitals by preventing unnecessary admissions and supports the discharge of individuals into social care settings to free up hospital beds.
The uplift for 2025 to 2026 means the standard weekly rate per person provided for NHS-funded Nursing Care (FNC) will increase from £235.88 to £254.06 from 1 April 2025, with funding paid by the NHS directly to care homes which provide nursing care. The higher rate will increase from £324.50 to £349.50.
Care homes play a vital role in our healthcare system, providing specialist nursing care to some of our most vulnerable citizens.
The uplift follows the government’s immediate actions to improve adult social care, as part of the Plan for Change, to help create a sustainable care system for the future. This includes making available £3.7 billion to local authorities, and providing a total of £172 million in additional funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant to deliver around 15,000 new adaptations to help disabled people live safely and independently in their own homes.
In the longer-term, Baroness Louise Casey is leading an independent commission to develop recommendations for a National Care Service which will provide high quality care for everybody who needs it and rebuild the sector so that it is fit for the future
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said: “This increase is a step in the right direction, but it cannot be viewed in isolation. The pressures on the social care sector are relentless; rising National Insurance Contributions, the increasing burden of delegated healthcare tasks, and a shrinking pay gap between nurses and those on the National Minimum Wage all threaten the sustainability of nursing care. Unless ICBs follow suit and uplift CHC rates by at the very least the same amount, we risk a system where providers simply cannot afford to provide nursing care which will add to hospital discharge challenges. This must be the start of a much broader commitment to funding care properly by both ICBs and wider local authority commissioners, not just a one-off adjustment.”
