The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is launching the Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF), which provides a total of £42.6m in grant funding over 2023 to 2024 (£20m) and 2024 to 2025 (£22.6m), to support innovation in adult social care.

Through the ARF, the department wants to support the growth of services that make person-centred care a reality for those who draw on it, support unpaid carers to live healthy and fulfilling lives alongside their caring role and respond to rising demand and the changing needs of local populations. The DHSC says collaboration and communication are vital to embedding and sustaining innovations. The ARF is designed to promote partnership working across local areas, as well as sharing of learning and best practice nationally.

The aim of the ARF is to address barriers to adopting innovative practices and build capacity and capability in adult social care.

The Minister of State for Care has written to all local authorities to set out the department’s priorities for innovation and scaling. These 12 priorities cover a broad range of areas under the three objectives of our 10-year vision for adult social care reform.

The aim of the ARF is to support the adoption or scaling of projects that deliver these priorities. In order to participate, the DHSC is asking local authorities to form consortia with other local authorities in their integrated care system (ICS) geography.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive Officer of Care England said, ‘We hope this injection of funding will help provide some much-needed stability to the sector and encourage systematic innovative thinking which will directly support the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care. It is now incumbent on the Government to ensure the funds reach the frontline and do not get caught in the webs of bureaucracy.

‘Innovation plays a crucial role in the social care sector, better enabling us to weather the storm of an ageing population, workforce challenges and ongoing inflationary pressures. This fund, if utilised to the best of its ability, can help foster an environment of transformation, and ensure the care sector remains fit for the future.’

Visit the DHSC website to find out more about the Accelerating Reform Fund.