Social care in England is at a ‘clear fork in road’ between retaining the current system or making it free like the NHS, according to a study from two major health think-tanks.

In advance of the Government’s green paper this summer, the report from The Health Foundation and The King’s Fund outlines four different scenarios for funding social care, each of which involves increases in tax.

With costs rising by 3.7% a year and funding by 2.1% the report says that doing nothing is ‘not a safe option’.