The funding boost will help reduce pressure on hospitals by preventing unnecessary admissions and supporting the discharge of individuals into social care settings to free up hospital beds.

The uplift means the standard weekly rate per person provided for NHS-funded nursing care will increase from £254.06 to £267.68 from 1 April, with funding paid by the NHS directly to care homes providing nursing care. The higher weekly rate will increase from £349.50 to £368.24.

The increase in rates is backed by funding made available for 2026/27 at the latest Spending Review, and comes alongside a series of measures the government has taken to improve adult social care as it lays the foundation for a National Care Service.

To deliver this the government is making an additional £4.6bn in funding available to local authorities for 2028/29 - compared to 2025/26 - for adult social care by the end of this Parliament. This includes £500m for the first fair pay agreement for care workers.

In addition, the government has made £723m for the Disabled Facilities Grant for 2026/27 and provided both the biggest uplift to the carer's allowance threshold since the 1970s to support unpaid carers and the biggest increase to the Minimum Income Guarantee in a decade, to support disabled adults with the cost of living.