The South East Social Care Alliance (SESCA) has responded to the latest Office for National Statistics publication, Public Sector Finances, UK: January 2026, warning that ongoing fiscal pressures continue to leave adult social care services in South East England exposed to significant operational risk.
While the ONS figures show that public sector borrowing has moderated compared to the pandemic and energy crisis years, and record a £30.4 billion monthly surplus in January 2026 — the largest on record — SESCA cautions that fiscal constraints across public services remain substantial.
Commenting on the figures, Eddy McDowall, Treasurer of SESCA and Chief Executive of the Oxfordshire Association of Care Providers, said:
“In January 2026 the public sector recorded a surplus of £30.4 billion, the largest monthly surplus on record, driven largely by strong tax receipts. While this does not mean that fiscal constraints have disappeared, it clearly shows there is scope for deliberate policy choices about where financial pressure falls.
SESCA therefore urges the Chancellor and HM Treasury, in the Spring Forecast on 3 March, to use any available headroom to support social care rather than prioritising other short-term political wins.”
SESCA emphasises that national fiscal decisions directly shape local authority funding settlements, commissioning capacity, and the long-term sustainability of adult social care provision across the South East.
SESCA calls on Government to:
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Protect real-terms adult social care grants to councils, ensuring deficit management does not translate into further reductions in frontline care for more than one million people accessing services across the South East.
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Provide multi-year local government settlements, giving councils the certainty required to commission sustainable services and avoid crisis-driven cuts, such as those currently under consideration in authorities including Oxfordshire.
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Fully fund workforce pay and capacity pressures, including meeting the full cost of fair pay agreements within the Employment Rights Act 2025, and ensuring these costs are not transferred to councils already facing substantial savings requirements.
With the Spring Forecast designed as a fiscal and economic update rather than a full tax-and-spend event, SESCA is not asking for headline-grabbing giveaways. Instead, it is asking the Treasury to recognise in its plans and in the Chancellor’s statement to Parliament, that adult social care is a core public service under acute strain, and that using this surplus to stabilise care markets and the workforce would be a better investment than further tax cuts or short-term fixes elsewhere.
Adult social care, SESCA concludes, should be recognised as critical national infrastructure — requiring stable, long-term funding to protect community independence, workforce resilience, and continuity of care across the South East.