English local authorities spent around £1.5 billion more on adult social care in 2023-24 than in the 12 months prior.

This comes via new UK Government data, which also showed that spend on children’s social care was up £821 million in the same period, an increase of 6% for a total annual spend of £14.5 billion.

Adult social care spend was up 7% year on year, for a total of £23.3 billion.

Including adult social care, children’s social care and housing services, local authorities’ total net current service expenditure was £123.4 billion in 2023-24.

In real terms, this was £2.8 billion (2.4%) higher than in 2022-23, the government revealed.

It also noted that local government expenditure accounts for just under a fifth of all government spending.

In regards to adult social care, the government was able to reveal that the spend increase was “largely due to a real-terms increase of £514 million (10.3%) in physical support for those aged 65 and over, and of £434 million (6.8%) in learning disability support for those aged 18–64”.

How Keir Starmer’s incoming autumn budget will affect this in 2024-25 remains to be seen, as the Prime Minister continues to hint that public spending may take a hit.