Missing from action Social care, mental health among sectors losing out

Rachel Reeves's first budget emphasised raising taxes to help the NHS, as it struggles with huge waiting lists and an ageing population.

- Rowena Mason

Funding the NHS was a top priority, but people in other sectors - from universities to social care - feel the budget was a missed opportunity to deal with impending crises or bring in urgent reforms in their areas.

Social care

Experts have long warned that it will be hard to fix the NHS without addressing the crisis in social care, where councils in England and Wales are struggling with meagre budgets and staff shortages. Local authorities got a £600m injection of funding for social care, which the Local Government Association said would help "meet some - but not all - of the significant pressures in adult and children's social care and homelessness support".

But there was nothing from the government on any wider reform of the system, which is likely to be needed in the longer term. The Health Foundation thinktank said: "While we welcome the additional £600m for social care and the reforms to carer's allowance, the continued silence on wider social care reform is disappointing." The sector will also be hit hard by the government's rise in employer national insurance contributions, and the Liberal Democrats have called for social care to be exempted from the increase.

Child poverty