The income of a social care charity has increased by almost £22m after it merged with a smaller counterpart, latest accounts show.

Community Integrated Care, which provides care and support services in England and Scotland, completed a merger with Scottish social care provider Inspire in August 2023.

CIC’s accounts, for the year to the end of March 2024, show it had an income of £169.5m during the year, up from £147.8m in the previous 12 months.

“Inspire’s net assets were consolidated at group level, resulting in a one-off £2.4m donation to Community Integrated Care,” the accounts say.

The charity said merging with Inspire was a “strategic fit for both organisations” with the social care provider “keen to benefit from CIC’s size, scale and experience”.

Community Integrated Care’s spending also rose to £166.5m in 2023/24, from £148.9m in 2023/23.

“Labour shortages in adult social care in the backdrop of the pandemic, Brexit, and both vacancies and wage inflation in the wider economy has increased costs of agency services,” the accounts said.

“However, pay investments in front-line staff and a considerable recruitment drive has reduced agency reliance throughout the financial year 2023/24 compared to the previous year.

The charity said additional pay it had invested had not been universally covered by local authority and integrated care board commissioners, leaving a funding shortfall.

“In addition to this, the increase in inflation over the last two years left the charity exposed to a timing difference in the funding for non-front-line costs and the actual expense,” the accounts said.

“With the reduction in actual inflation and fee rates set at a point in time, with historically higher inflation, this gap is now being bridged.”

The charity’s employee numbers increased to an average of 5,822 from 5,095 in 2022/23, the accounts show.