Local authorities' adult social care budgets are under pressure as never before. This year's Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Spring Survey report last week revealed that the arrival of some short-term funding has had a positive impact.

But the overall trajectory remains one of an ongoing slide into unsustainability, with more than half of directors of adult social care (52%) less than confident their budgets will be enough to meet their statutory duties for prevention and wellbeing in 2023-24 – ‘a concerning increase from 40% in 2022-23'.