The National Children and Adults Services Conference (NCASC) 2025, hosted at the BIC, was a major gathering for the social care sector, drawing together a diverse group of professionals and exhibitors from across the industry, including the CareCubed team. The event was notable for both its scale and organisation, featuring numerous exhibition stands, large stages, and various impressive speakers.
Challenges & Opportunities for the Sector
The conference opened with a sense of urgency and hope. Speakers emphasised that the sector is currently at a pivotal moment, as it grapples with rising costs and ongoing staff shortages. One of the central themes throughout the conference was the need for reform, driven by the lived experiences of young people, rather than business imperatives.
The transition from child to adult social care remains inconsistent, often shaped by the needs of an organisation instead of the needs of the individual. Financial pressures have also been noted to be acute, with school transport costs having increased by over 170% in less than 10 years, and with 2025 having seen more than 2 million requests for social care. This has resulted in a £611 million overspend for the sector.
The Casey Commission was highlighted as a significant opportunity to re-centre the sector’s focus on people and invest in preventative, upstream services. There was a real sense of camaraderie throughout the conference as speakers expressed deep gratitude for the hard work done by everyone in the audience.
Childhood & Technology
Childhood was underscored at the event as being the most effective period for prevention; however, the rapid pace of societal change and the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic had have disrupted normal childhood experiences for many.
A large number of children missed out on social interaction and familial connection, which is critical to development and will have long-lasting effects for these individuals.
Equally, for the first time, poor parental mental health has overtaken domestic abuse as the most common factor in social care assessments, and poverty has now been recorded to impact 4.5 million children across the country.
Despite record-high spending, outcomes are not improving, and it is clear there is a focus for bravery and boldness in how the sector addresses these challenges.
Adult Social Care Reforms
Attention later turned to adult social care, where the public understanding still remains quite limited. Many people are still unclear about who provides social care and how it is funded. Those without direct experience typically have a less favourable view than those who use the services.
There is, additionally, an accumulating belief that responsibility for social care should shift from the individual to the state. This being said, since 2011, less than 20% of the UK population has considered adult social care to be the most pressing issue in the country. This makes it difficult to capture the attention of the public on the matter.
To address this, NCASC 2025 offered five key strategies for the communication around social care. These included, to start with, the shared values and clearly explaining what social care is and why it is so important. They also included the importance and effectiveness of utilising a relatable metaphor and sharing stories to demonstrate how change is possible. It is also key to keep the focus on the lives of people, rather than the NHS.
Lived Experience and Story Telling
Lived experience was emphasised as central to meaningful reform. Systems must not only be designed for people, but they should also work for them. Storytelling is a powerful tool to help foster empathy and understanding among the public and those in the sector. The audience left this talk with a reflective question: “Why does storytelling matter to you?”
Ashleigh Searle, Implementation and Innovation Manager at CareCubed is a Dual Perspective experience specialist who helps to inspire and educate to drive transformation using lived experience storytelling and training. With experience in storytelling, Ashleigh has a unique perspective on what storytelling means to her, the sector, and why it is key to social care reforms.
“There is a growing number of professionals across Children’s Social Care who bring forward a Dual-Perspective – some openly, others more quietly, depending on the culture and context they are working in. And yet, this strength is still too often misunderstood or underestimated. For some, the discomfort lies in the assumption that lived experience somehow compromises objectivity, when it often can sharpen it. For others, it stems from systems that are still adjusting to the idea that expertise can be shaped just as much by survival, reflection and lived resilience as by academic or vocational learning. But progress is happening. We are slowly starting to see more Local Authorities, Provider Organisations, and national networks acknowledge the depth that Dual-Perspective professionals bring. When embedded meaningfully – not as a token, or add-on – this way of working enhances scrutiny, enriches practice and reframes the way we define success and outcomes for children.”
Lifelong Inclusion & Independence
Another major theme covered at NCASC 2025 was the ambition for lifelong inclusion and independence. The idea of making people in care feel seen and heard only requires listening and seeing the world through their eyes.
The current variation in transition ages from youth to adult social care across the country is evidently an issue, and there is a need for more individualised support with early planning. Additionally, the consistency of social worker relationships within the sector was highlighted as an area of importance. Effective service delivery was argued to depend on strong management, with sound finances and a supportive organisational culture.
The Call for Change: Systemic Problems
Several systemic problems were identified during the event: the constant divide between children’s and adults’ social care, as well as the pathways that have not adapted quickly enough to people’s needs. Additionally, the challenges and financial and political instability were also highlighted, alongside the issue that the sector tends to make decisions based on anecdotes instead of data.
The call to action was to change our approach by thinking bigger and more ambitiously while also making applications small and maintaining consistent momentum.
Darlington Borough Council Inclusion – A Case Study
To demonstrate the value and impact of partnership working, a case study of Darlington Borough Council was utilised. It highlighted how, previously, young people felt that their opportunities diminished as they became adolescents. However, through the creation of an inclusion partnership, the council managed to eliminate a high-needs deficit and increased the number of SEND children remaining in mainstream education. This case study showcased just how impactful collaborative approaches can be for all involved.
The Parent Carer Perspective
The perspective of parent carers was an additional focus that was shared. A call for councils to engage more strategically with parent carer forums to better understand and support families was made. The care journey was likened to ‘The Wizard of Oz’, with the parents being Dorothy, children as Toto and the journey to an EHCP being the yellow brick road – full of challenges and realisations.
Dorset’s scheme “Birth to Settled Adulthood’ obtained focus as an impressive initiative that removes age cut-offs and aims for continuous support, although it was also acknowledged that no system is perfect.
AI and Ethics: Oxford’s Project
Finally, the AI and ethics workshop explored the findings of the Oxford Project, which brought together experts to discuss the use of AI in adult social care. The group agreed on the importance of data protection, addressing bias, and establishing clearer regulatory frameworks. However, there are still tensions around data privacy, ownership, and the extent of the role that AI will play.
The resulting guidance document, available on the Care Hub’s website, is a collaborative call to action, but the consensus was that there needs to be more guidance overall. True progress in this area will require ongoing commitment and partnership.
Poverty as a Factor for Children’s Social Care
The conference highlighted a need for the optimisation of Children’s Social Care in the UK, as the impact of Children’s Social Care will have a ripple effect on the Adult Care Sector. There were highlighted Government directives, with goals around looking for high-impact initiatives, and setting up an independent social enterprise to ease governance in the sector. Furthermore, the desire to build a more highly skilled workforce and to work with partners to be more collaborative were underlined as key factors to optimise outcomes. It was also noted that attracting more investment was an imperative factor to assist in funding the sector and aid in managing the supply versus demand.
A core takeaway regarding Children’s Social Care was how poverty impacts children. Coupled with the critical role that tackling poverty as a source of strain has on the system that supports them. To address this challenge, the North-East Combined Authority has been determined to tackle child poverty in the region. Northeast Mayor, Kim McGuinness, is investing £28.6 million to help combat the regional impact of poverty on children and is putting an action plan in place to help reduce the effect. This includes:
- Testing of a North-East health in pregnancy grant to support expectant mothers on low incomes with costs in their 3rd trimester.
- Trails on expanding baby boxes that contain essentials such as playmats, books and toys, and room thermometers to those who are assessed to need this support.
- Expansion of specialist youth provision and access throughout the year, with low or no-cost activity for young people of older age groups, including assistance with obtaining apprenticeship training.
- Extension of a scheme to provide young people who are leaving care with free public transport services until the age of 25, as well as an extension of the £1 fare cap for all young people until 21 years of age.
Introducing the poverty action plan and extension of its reach within the area will serve as a case study as to whether the extension of support and assistance for mothers and children with low incomes can help the sector to reduce risk for these people. Additionally, it will help to drive understanding around whether the introduction of these supports can reduce poverty in a way that contributes to reducing the demand on social care services in this area.
This action plan started with a pilot system that enables new childcare grants for parents getting back into work, tackling one of the biggest challenges for new parents. Actioning this form of support showcases a systemic needs-focused approach to tackling a core issue that impacts children’s social care. Helping parents maintain working income with the support of childcare can improve mental health and keep children and their families in a secure place.
Overall
The insights from NCASC 2025 have highlighted the most important areas that need to be actioned in social care today. With many prominent speakers, innovative thinking and collaborations, there was much to take away from this event.
It is key that the core drivers of bringing further sustainability to the sector are through an integrated and developmental lens. As demand rises, supply will need to follow, but this can only happen with the right resources in place. New and transformative approaches to addressing core community issues can help improve outcomes across the sector.
A needs-based, person-centred approach is key in helping optimise the outcomes of the sector, and lived experience plays a critical role in shaping how we can translate our social care data to highly effective decision-making on the ground.
For more information on how CareCubed can help you with social care commissioning and benchmarking, visit the CareCubed website: https://carecubed.org/
