The Office for National Statistics today revealed that the care home population in England reached 360,792 through the past year (March 2022 to February 2023) – an increase of 3.1% from the previous year.

The ONS statistics also showed that 37% (137,480) care home residents are self-funders with the majority state funders. A key plank of the government reforms was intended to stop the cross-subsidisation of care fees between the lower fees local authorities can secure compared to what self-funders are charged.

The Southeast remained the region with the highest proportion of self-funders in care homes (47.5%), significantly higher than the Northeast, which had the lowest proportion of self-funders (26.4%).

The latest Laing & Buisson data shows that for residential care the average weekly fee for council-funded residents is £738 compared to £949 for self-funders – a 29% difference.

Stephen Lowe, director at retirement financial services company Just Group, said: “No rational person can imagine that with an ageing population the problem of social care will simply disappear. Yet the much-heralded social care reforms brought forward by Boris Johnson have already been delayed until October 2025. Given the economic situation there seems no certainty for implementation, even over that extended timeline.

“NHS waiting lists are absorbing a lot of government time, but the health and capacity of the social care sector can have a material impact on how effectively the NHS functions. People working in the social care sector or trying to navigate their way through it, on behalf a vulnerable loved one, must be starting to feel abandoned by successive governments’ failure to address this problem.”