Simon Bottery

What Simon Bottery has said

• “Social care reform is caught in a political Catch-22: it needs politicians to build support for change, but they avoid talking about it for fear it will lose them votes. It will take more courage and leadership from them if social care reform is going to happen and realise the electoral and societal benefits that fixing this failing system would bring.”

  senior fellow for social care at The King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 30 Sept 2026 · 'Social care reform caught in political catch-22,' report finds ↗

• “Given the pressure on family budgets, it is understandable that people do not want to increase taxes to fund social care at the moment. It is also consistent with our report showing that for most it is not a top-of-mind priority, even though many will need it at some stage in their lives. Together the findings show both the need for urgent social care reform but also the challenges to it. The Casey Commission has a tough but essential job of finding a solution that can command wide support.”

  senior fellow in social care at The King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 30 Sept 2026 · Tax rises to fund social care rejected by most of the public ↗

• “Local authorities have gone to great lengths over the past year to fulfil their statutory obligations. They have spent more money on social care, with that investment not just going towards the increase in provider fees but also expanding the number of people receiving care. This will have improved the quality of life for the thousands of additional people now in receipt of care and given the challenging financial backdrop should be welcomed. However, it has come at great cost to local authority budgets and ultimately is not sustainable.”

  Senior fellow for social care at The King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 30 Sept 2026 · Warning issued over ‘precarious’ state of long-term adult social care in England ↗

• “What we're seeing at the moment is that local authorities are trying to meet the extra demand. The level of increases they can afford simply aren't matching the level of costs the providers are facing.”

  senior fellow at the King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 30 Sept 2026 · 'Mum's social care made me panic during cancer treatment' ↗

• “[The] speech will be a sobering reminder the govt has 5 key 'missions' and social care isn't one of them. But the missions can't be fully delivered without social care and ultimately the govt will have to grasp that.”

  senior fellow Social Care at the King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 8 Sept 2026 · Government launches plan for change but it ‘neglects social care’, leaders warn ↗

• “Pay remains a key factor in both recruitment and retention so the prospect of a fair pay agreement in the sector is welcome. However, this is some way off and there remains uncertainty over its scope and – crucially – whether it'll be fully funded.”

  Senior Fellow at The King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 8 Sept 2026 · Low pay cited as major adult social care staffing challenge ↗

• “the threshold freeze was 'just one symptom of an unfair social care system resulting from reform being put off for decades', and that 'wholesale reform is now needed'”

  senior fellow for social care at The King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 8 Sept 2026 · Social care shift could cut council tax burden by £9.2bn ↗

• “This will have improved the quality of life for the thousands of additional people now in receipt of care and given the challenging financial backdrop should be welcomed. However, the current approach has come at great cost to local authority budgets and ultimately is not sustainable.”

  author of Social Care 360 and senior fellow for social care at The King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 8 Sept 2026 · King’s Fund: Care funding ‘not sustainable’ ↗

• “There's not going to be free at the point of use social care, however much people might want that or think it the right approach. We're not [as a country] going to be able to financially support that, certainly not in the short-term.”

  senior fellow social care at The King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 8 Sept 2026 · What the National Care Service might mean for councils ↗

• “Reduced overseas recruitment was now a 'fact of life' for the social care sector, and 'a much greater emphasis on recruiting and developing a homegrown workforce' was needed to sustain it.”

  Senior fellow for social care policy at the King's Fund · Adult social care & reform · 27 Aug 2026 · Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts ↗

Where Simon Bottery has been quoted

1. Boosting pay, conditions and training must ‘underpin’ social care reformnursinginpractice.com · 30 Sept 2026
2. 'Social care reform caught in political catch-22,' report findshealthcare-management.uk · 30 Sept 2026
3. Tax rises to fund social care rejected by most of the publiccommunitycare.co.uk · 30 Sept 2026
4. Warning issued over ‘precarious’ state of long-term adult social care in Englandindependent.co.uk · 30 Sept 2026
5. 'Mum's social care made me panic during cancer treatment'bbc.co.uk · 30 Sept 2026
6. Government launches plan for change but it ‘neglects social care’, leaders warncarehomeprofessional.com · 8 Sept 2026
7. Low pay cited as major adult social care staffing challengelgcplus.com · 8 Sept 2026
8. Social care shift could cut council tax burden by £9.2bnlgcplus.com · 8 Sept 2026
9. King’s Fund: Care funding ‘not sustainable’lgcplus.com · 8 Sept 2026
10. What the National Care Service might mean for councilslgcplus.com · 8 Sept 2026
11. Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say expertstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Related media coverage

Recent UK press coverage of their topics — not necessarily citing them directly.

• Death tax, dementia tax, no tax at all: Why England hasn’t fixed social careTheLead.uk
• Maryland Reform Act Keeps 26 Offenses in Adult Court, Advocates ConcernedDavis Vanguard
• Disability benefits could be cut for young people under new Burnham planMy London