Bridgehead Communications
Care Association Alliance

Case study · Care Association Alliance

A national voice for the CAA in nine weeks

In the campaign's first nine weeks we built a national voice for the CAA: a research-led policy paper backed by the Rt Hon Damian Green, 24 pieces of secured coverage, cross-party meetings with MPs and peers, a live Parliamentary pledge tracker and a monthly newsletter, positioning the Alliance at the centre of the funding debate ahead of the Casey Commission.

18

pieces of coverage

9

outlets and editions

1

country

34k

audience reach*

Westminster · Care Association Alliance

The parliamentarians and officials met

Named individually below, with the party or role each holds on the public record.
5

5 people

Anna Dixon MP

Anna Dixon MP

Labour MP for Shipley · Chair, APPG on Carers

Labour

Gideon Amos MP

Gideon Amos MP

Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington

Liberal Democrat

Alison Bennett MP

Alison Bennett MP

Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Sussex · Lib Dem Spokesperson for Care and Carers

Liberal Democrat

Tom Gordon MP

Tom Gordon MP

Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough · Officer, APPG on Adult Social Care

Liberal Democrat

Anne Marie Morris

Anne Marie Morris

Reform UK social care lead · former Conservative MP for Newton Abbot

Reform UK

LabourLiberal DemocratReform UK

The brief

The brief

The Care Association Alliance, representing 9,000 care organisations across England, appointed Bridgehead to build its public voice from scratch: a research-led paper making the case for funding reform, sustained media and Parliamentary engagement, and an owned channel to its members, timed to land ahead of Baroness Casey's commission on adult social care.

The national alliance of England's independent care associations, 9,000 member organisations spanning residential, nursing, home care and supported living, campaigning for a national funding settlement for adult social care.

Objectives

  1. 01Establish the CAA as a unified, credible voice for England's independent care associations.
  2. 02Build the evidence base for a national funding settlement ahead of the Casey Commission.
  3. 03Secure sustained national and trade media coverage for the reform programme.
  4. 04Track Government and Parliamentary engagement with social care funding in real time.
  5. 05Give CAA members an owned channel to follow and act on the campaign.

The approach

How we approached it

An integrated public-affairs campaign: original research, proactive media relations, live Parliamentary monitoring and a member newsletter, all timed to the Casey Commission's own timetable.

01

A research-led flagship report

We wrote and designed Adult Social Care Funding Reform, the first paper in the CAA's Building a National Care Service programme, including original analysis age-standardising spend-per-adult across all 153 English upper-tier authorities to test, and confirm, the sector's postcode-lottery claim.

02

Proactive trade and national media relations

We placed the paper and the CAA's running commentary on the funding debate in Care Home Professional, Caring Times, The Carer, Care Talk, Comment Central and beyond, securing 24 pieces of coverage in the campaign's first nine weeks, almost all built around direct quotes from co-chair Melanie Weatherley MBE. That includes local pickup: the Ealing Times ran the report's finding that Ealing spends the least per adult on social care of any London borough, with the council responding directly.

03

A live Parliamentary pledge tracker

We built a bespoke tool that extracts every MP and peer statement on adult social care from Hansard, tags it, and uses Claude with web search to assess whether each pledge has been delivered, is in progress, or has stalled. It now tracks 64 pledges from 15 MPs and peers, giving the CAA a running scorecard to hold Government to its word.

04

A monthly newsletter to the sector

The Settlement, published monthly under the CAA's own masthead and edited by Melanie Weatherley MBE, gives members a direct call to action between paper launches. Three issues sent as of mid-July 2026.

05

Cross-party meetings with MPs and peers

Alongside the media campaign, we wrote individually to around 20 MPs and peers across all parties inviting them to meet Melanie Weatherley MBE and the Rt Hon Damian Green on funding reform. That outreach has already secured meetings with Tom Gordon MP, Gideon Amos MP and Alison Bennett MP (all Liberal Democrat, the latter the party's Care and Carers spokesperson), Anna Dixon MP (Labour, Chair of the Carers' APPG) and Anne Marie Morris (Reform UK's social care lead), with further meetings being followed up as replies come in.

Selected coverage

Here are the coverage highlights

Selected pieces on the Care Association Alliance's national funding model and reform programme, from Care Home Professional and Caring Times to The Carer and Comment Central. Click any of them to read the piece.

The breakthrough

When the Prime Minister resigned, adult social care funding reform stayed part of the conversation about what comes next.

Following Sir Keir Starmer's resignation as Prime Minister, we worked quickly with the CAA to respond, securing coverage in Care Home Professional and Home Care Insight that put social care funding reform directly in front of the incoming administration, with Melanie Weatherley MBE calling for the Casey Commission's timetable to be brought forward rather than used as a reason for delay.

The outcome

Since May 2026: a flagship policy paper, 24 pieces of coverage, a live Parliamentary tracker and a monthly newsletter, built in nine weeks and still running, ahead of the Casey Commission's own timetable.

The impact

  • 01A published, evidenced funding paper the CAA can put directly to the Casey Commission, backed by the Rt Hon Damian Green.
  • 0224 pieces of national, trade and local coverage in nine weeks, almost all carrying direct CAA quotes rather than passive mentions.
  • 03Cross-party meetings secured with Anna Dixon MP (Labour), Tom Gordon MP, Gideon Amos MP and Alison Bennett MP (all Liberal Democrat) and Anne Marie Morris (Reform UK), putting the CAA's proposals directly in front of politicians across Labour, Liberal Democrat and Reform.
  • 04A live Pledge Tracker giving the CAA a standing record of 64 Government and Parliamentary commitments on social care, with a delivery verdict on 48 of them.
  • 05A monthly newsletter giving 9,000 member organisations a direct, owned channel to the campaign.
Care Association Alliance
See the live coverage book

Every piece

All the coverage

All 18 pieces of coverage, drifting past on one row. Pause it with the button, or hover or focus a card; click any card for the piece itself.
Care TalkDA 44

UNITED KINGDOM

Care Association Alliance sets out a national funding model for adult social care, designed to give families certainty, providers stability, and councils the resources to do their job

Care Talk, London · 17 Jul 2026

Caring TimesDA 50

UNITED KINGDOM

Care Association Alliance sets out a national funding model for adult social care

Caring Times, London · 16 Jul 2026

Ealing TimesDA 51

UNITED KINGDOM

Ealing responds to label as 'lowest in London for social care spend'

Ealing Times, London · 16 Jul 2026

Care Home ProfessionalDA 56

UNITED KINGDOM

CAA sets out a national funding model for adult social care

Care Home Professional, London · 15 Jul 2026

The CarerDA 46

UNITED KINGDOM

Care Association Alliance Unveils National Funding Plan for Social Care

The Carer, Bournemouth · 15 Jul 2026

Comment CentralDA 40

UNITED KINGDOM

Pooling the risk of old age: the reform plan councils and providers can both live with

Comment Central, London · 13 Jul 2026

London Care & Support ForumDA 2

UNITED KINGDOM

Adult Social Care Funding Reform – from The Care Alliance Association

London Care & Support Forum, London · 7 Jul 2026

Healthcare ManagementDA 39

UNITED KINGDOM

BREAKING NEWS: Social care vacancy rate falls to decade low but challenges ahead

Healthcare Management, London · 24 Jun 2026

Care Home ProfessionalDA 56

UNITED KINGDOM

Care Leader: new PM must take social care off the “too difficult” pile, and Burnham must stand by his word

Care Home Professional, London · 22 Jun 2026

The CarerDA 45

UNITED KINGDOM

Focus on How Care Is Funded, Government Urged

The Carer, Bournemouth · 4 Jun 2026

Caring TimesDA 50

UNITED KINGDOM

CAA responds to government plans to abandon standalone national care service

Caring Times, London · 3 Jun 2026

Morning StarDA 73

UNITED KINGDOM

Carers call for sector funding amid quiet abandoning of service plans

Morning Star, London · 31 May 2026

Care Home ProfessionalDA 56

UNITED KINGDOM

Care chief: ‘We never needed our own version of the NHS, we need a national funding settlement’

Care Home Professional, London · 29 May 2026

Caring TimesDA 50

UNITED KINGDOM

Care Association Alliance launches policy papers targeting sector reform

Caring Times, London · 28 May 2026

Care TalkDA 45

UNITED KINGDOM

Care Association Alliance launches reform programme as sector warns 2028 is too late for social care

Care Talk, London · 27 May 2026

The CarerDA 45

UNITED KINGDOM

Care Association Alliance Launches Reform Programme as Sector Warns 2028 Is Too Late for Social Care

The Carer, Bournemouth · 27 May 2026

Care Home ProfessionalDA 56

UNITED KINGDOM

Melanie Weatherley MBE: 'Want and disease still loom large in social care. We need a new vision for reform'

Care Home Professional, London · 14 May 2026

Comment CentralDA 39

UNITED KINGDOM

Fixing the NHS means tackling the social care crisis Beveridge left behind. It is time for a new vision

Comment Central, London · 13 May 2026

The results, 2026-05 to 2026-07

18 pieces across 1 country

Counts come from the coverage book, piece by piece. Audience figures are measured per outlet (Portal Coverage Builder, September 2026) and marked with an asterisk.
1

continent

0k

estimated readers*

*audience reach and estimated readers, Portal Coverage Builder, September 2026. Portal Coverage Builder: one audience-reach figure per outlet domain (the maximum reported), summed across every domain; estimated readers is the sum of views across every piece. Figures reproduce the portal's own method exactly; a title that carries several pieces is counted once for reach (its highest reported figure) but every piece counts toward readers.

PIECES PER MONTH, 2026-05 TO 2026-07

7May ’264Jun7Jul

The May 2026 spike of 7 pieces is the busiest month in the book. Months with no coverage stay at zero.

The research

Original research built for the client

Adult Social Care Funding Reform cover

Live web edition

Adult Social Care Funding Reform storyboard title frame
Play

The storyboard

Research report 1 of 2

Adult Social Care Funding Reform

Policy Paper One, July 2026 · 60 pages · England

A proposal for a sustainable, equitable and nationally consistent funding framework for adult social care in England, ending in ten steps a government could actually take.

One finding. 153 local authorities each carry national demographic risk on their own balance sheet, against a capital threshold frozen at £23,250 since 2010/11 and a 41 per cent self-funder premium over the local-authority commissioned rate.

Read the paper

Status: Published by the Care Association Alliance, July 2026.

Towards a National Workforce Settlement cover

Live web edition

Cover and pages 8 and 11

Research report 2 of 2

Towards a National Workforce Settlement

Policy Paper Two, September 2026 · 59 pages · England

The follow-up to the funding paper, arguing for a recognised profession, a national career framework and a funded settlement, and testing the fragmentation argument against an original region-level dataset built from CQC's provider directory.

One finding. Nearly 19,000 separate employers operate across adult social care in England, 37 per cent of them employing between one and four people, alongside a further 131,000 individually-employed personal assistants.

Read the paper

Status: Published by the Care Association Alliance, September 2026.

From the same team

For care providers, from the same team

Our software

bamboo: care marketing software

bamboo builds campaigns from a home's CQC profile, ranks it against comparable homes nearby each week and gathers its reviews in one place. It is our own software, free to start.

Founded by our team

Headland Care Consulting: condition-specific care frameworks

Headland designs consultant-led, condition-specific care frameworks for UK care homes. It was founded by Dr Sheel Mehta and William Walter, and is a separate venture from Bridgehead.

Index of coverage

All 18 pieces, by country

1 country by pieces of coverage, each country’s pieces newest first, headlines as published, in one language. Broadcast, video and print items are tagged; 0 pieces carry no publication date. Open the live coverage book

United Kingdom

18 pieces · 9 outlets

Care Talk Care Association Alliance sets out a national funding model for adult social care, designed to give families certainty, providers stability, and councils the resources to do their job · United Kingdom

17 Jul 2026

Caring Times Care Association Alliance sets out a national funding model for adult social care · United Kingdom

16 Jul 2026

Ealing Times Ealing responds to label as 'lowest in London for social care spend' · United Kingdom

16 Jul 2026

Care Home Professional CAA sets out a national funding model for adult social care · United Kingdom

15 Jul 2026

The Carer Care Association Alliance Unveils National Funding Plan for Social Care · United Kingdom

15 Jul 2026

Comment Central Pooling the risk of old age: the reform plan councils and providers can both live with · United Kingdom

13 Jul 2026

United Kingdom, continued

London Care & Support Forum Adult Social Care Funding Reform – from The Care Alliance Association · United Kingdom

7 Jul 2026

Healthcare Management BREAKING NEWS: Social care vacancy rate falls to decade low but challenges ahead · United Kingdom

24 Jun 2026

Care Home Professional Care Leader: new PM must take social care off the “too difficult” pile, and Burnham must stand by his word · United Kingdom

22 Jun 2026

The Carer Focus on How Care Is Funded, Government Urged · United Kingdom

4 Jun 2026

Caring Times CAA responds to government plans to abandon standalone national care service · United Kingdom

3 Jun 2026

Morning Star Carers call for sector funding amid quiet abandoning of service plans · United Kingdom

31 May 2026

United Kingdom, continued

Care Home Professional Care chief: ‘We never needed our own version of the NHS, we need a national funding settlement’ · United Kingdom

29 May 2026

Caring Times Care Association Alliance launches policy papers targeting sector reform · United Kingdom

28 May 2026

Care Talk Care Association Alliance launches reform programme as sector warns 2028 is too late for social care · United Kingdom

27 May 2026

The Carer Care Association Alliance Launches Reform Programme as Sector Warns 2028 Is Too Late for Social Care · United Kingdom

27 May 2026

Care Home Professional Melanie Weatherley MBE: 'Want and disease still loom large in social care. We need a new vision for reform' · United Kingdom

14 May 2026

Comment Central Fixing the NHS means tackling the social care crisis Beveridge left behind. It is time for a new vision · United Kingdom

13 May 2026

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