Transforming the Care System - a new CLES report

The new report Ending Extraction in the UK Care System (CLES, November 2025) shines a stark light on how profit-driven models are draining resources from social care, while offering a vision for alternatives rooted in public value and community empowerment.

Social care is one of the UK’s most vital systems, yet decades of austerity and marketisation have left it vulnerable to exploitation. The report Ending Extraction in the UK Care System, produced by CLES with partners in the Reclaiming Our Regional Economies programme, reveals how billions of pounds are siphoned away from local care budgets through debt, rent, and shareholder dividends, while frontline workers remain underpaid and communities underserved.

Read the full report here: Ending extraction in the UK care system