The call came ahead of a speech by health and social care secretary Wes Streeting at the annual NHS Providers conference today where he is expected to pledge to clamp down on agency spend and to clamp down on failing managers' pay. 

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: ‘The new Government must rise to the challenge and rescue social care. That is why it is so disappointing to see that instead of bringing forward a plan to get social care back on its feet, the Government has produced proposals that look set to place even more financial pressures upon it with their misguided hike in employers' national insurance. 

‘The Government must address the elephant in the room and set forward a plan of urgent action on social care including exempting care from the Government's national insurance tax rise.'

House of Commons Library research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has revealed the number of people waiting over six-months for a care needs assessment has almost doubled to 79,000.

The research also revealed the proportion of those waiting over six-months for one of these assessments has now reached over a third (34.6%). That is up close to 15% from 20.2% in 2021. The total number of people on the waiting list has also increased by 11%, from 204,000 to 227,000.