Brighton and Gatwick law firm Martin Searle Solicitors launches its annual ‘Social Care Funding Matters’ campaign, offering free legal support to families, lawyers and professional deputies
.

Martin Searle Solicitors, now in its twenty-second year, is a campaigning law firm committed to access to justice. Throughout June 2026, the
Court of Protection and Community Care Law team
at Martin Searle Solicitors are running their campaign
Social Care Funding Matters.
This is to raise awareness about the problems around social care funding.
.

In May 2025, the Casey Commission began its work on setting out a model of recommendations for the introduction of a National Care Service. In March 2026, Baroness Casey described the current state of social care as “shaped for a very different age, held together with add-ons and work arounds, sticking plasters and glue. Without ever having the moment of reckoning we now need”. She stated that a national conversation would be needed to seek backing from the public on the future of social care. The commission is due to deliver phase 1 of their recommendations for social care this summer, with longer term recommendations for the transformation and funding of adult social care to follow in 2028.
.

The Nuffield Trust reported in September 2025 that fewer than half of older adults with care needs in England are receiving support, including support from unpaid carers, and that 259,000 adults are waiting for their care package to start.
.

As of June 2025, Kings Fund reported that the Local Authorities spent a total of £32 billion per year on social care for the 859,000 adults with long-term care needs in England. However, this does not include the number of self-funders which according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies is in the “hundreds of thousands”.
.

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons throughout June the Court of Protection and Community Care Law Team at Martin Searle Solicitors will provide free 30-minute telephone advice appointments to individuals about how to access social care funding and the services they are entitled to under the Care Act. This advice is also relevant to professionals such as accountants, financial advisors, private client lawyers and professional deputies who assist their clients with
social care funding
disputes.
.

To book a call-back from one of their team:
Book a call-back

.

On Thursday 25 June 2026, from 12noon to 1pm, Martin Searle Solicitors will also run a free virtual seminar on ‘Double Recovery: PI Awards and Periodical Payments’. The webinar is aimed at Professional Deputies, private client lawyers, and other advisers who work in the social care legal sector.
.

Please reserve your place:
Reserve your place

.

Their website also provides a series of free factsheets, case studies, and FAQs covering the law around
paying for care home fees
and paying for care at home. These include whether the person can legitimately avoid selling their home to pay for care and the rules that affect what care funding you receive.
.

Cate Searle, Director and Head of Community Care at Martin Searle Solicitors, says.
“We provide free support and resources every June to advise people about their rights to social care provision. Unfortunately, more than ten years on from the Care Act imposed clear legal duties upon social services, accessing adequate social care provision remains very challenging for many people.

The social care system remains hugely under-resourced after sixteen years of austerity measures and Baroness Casey is right to call for fundamental reform. We urgently need a significant investment in social care staff, services and support for unpaid carers to ensure that the current social care system does not collapse. This should be as much a priority as saving the NHS, as social care provision and funding affects all of us.”
.

For more information about the campaign, please visit
https://www.ms-solicitors.co.uk/social-care-funding-matters/.