Human Rights Matter Most When They Are Hardest to Defend

Human rights aren’t just principles for peaceful times—they are anchors in moments of uncertainty. When fear, division or political pressure intensify, human rights provide something essential: a shared foundation of fairness, dignity and accountability that protects us all.

Following an intensive three-day hearing covering all three government departments’ appeals, the cases have been adjourned. The First Tier Information Rights Tribunal has requested additional evidence from two government departments. The hearings will be relisted for further evidence which may happen from the New Year onwards. We remain keen to progress these cases to achieve greater transparency on the vital decision making processes that determine social care funding.

We have been campaigning for government transparency in social care funding for 4 years now, which means there have been many stages to the journey! We now have a date for the latest hearing which will take place on the 17th, 18th and 19th November 2025.

We have summarised the legal steps that we have taken and how Government departments and the ICO have responded in this one page document. In addition we have compiled a timeline which documents every stage of the Freedom of Information requests to date. Please click on the links to download them.

In his article, James Kirkup argues that the UK's traditional practice of maintaining secrecy around the budget process is a fundamental mistake.

As a constituent, your views and interests are a priority to your Member of Parliament. Writing to your MP is an important way to ensure that they are aware of your concerns and take action on Government Transparency on social care funding.

In April 2025 we asked the public to tell us what they thought about social care funding so we could show it to The Casey Commission into Adult Social Care.

The results are in, and it's clear you want greater Government Transparency in social care funding. So do we.

ACCESS DENIED! join our fight for an honest and open democracy. If you think it’s time for the government to stop keeping secrets about social care funding please take this short survey so we can pull together evidence for The Casey Commission in April. We don’t have much time so please fill it in today!

Access Social Care's legal cases on government transparency around how Government have determined sufficiency of funding to meet the social care needs of the population, and the equality impacts of social care funding decisions are ongoing.

We strongly believe that the Commission into adult social care needs to be aware of this case and as an absolute minimum the Government Departments should be disclosing the information to Louise Casey to consider.

Over 60 social care organisations have signed an open letter demanding Government transparency for adult social care funding

We are delighted to share that on Tuesday 15th October, the Information Tribunal found in our favour for our first Information Tribunal case.

And this is only the start. We are awaiting judgement on our second round of enquiries and It is vital that this campaign continues until we get a positive outcome for this too.

At Access Social Care, we are calling on all political parties to adequately fund social care so that older, disabled people, and carers get the high-quality support they have a right to.

Although the hearing has concluded for today, we are disappointed that due to late disclosure of further evidence by the government, further representations have been requested by the Tribunal panel before they are able to make a decision.