Prime Minister Andy Burnham has invited opposition leaders to talks on adult social care reform, pledging to work across party lines to tackle what he described as a long-standing failure to address the pressures facing care services, unpaid carers and the NHS.
Ahead of a visit to a care home tomorrow alongside the new Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper and the chair of the government’s Independent Commission on Adult Social Care, Baroness Louise Casey, Burnham said he wanted to move the debate away from political division and towards finding consensus on reforming England’s social care system.
The Prime Minister has invited Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey to meet with him to discuss how to drive forward changes to adult social care.
Speaking before the visit, Burnham said: “Last week I said we needed a different kind of politics: problem-solving, not point-scoring. Nowhere is that more urgent than social care.
“For decades, governments have kicked this issue down the road because they’ve seen it as too risky, too difficult, and too complicated.”
He added: “It’s time to draw a line under people playing politics when the human cost of that means carers struggling, families paying the price and our NHS buckling under the strain.”
Casey launches ‘Big Conversation on Care’
The announcement comes as Baroness Casey today launches her promised national public engagement exercise aimed at informing reform, including the development of a National Care Service.
The initiative – dubbed the ‘Big Conversation on Care’ - will invite the public to contribute through a new online platform, beginning with discussions about the values and principles that should underpin a future care system.
Casey said the debate needed to move beyond repeated reviews and unfulfilled promises.
“For too long, we have been stuck in the same cycle: crisis, promises of reform, another review, and then retreat, while the people who need care, and their families, bear the brunt,” she said.
“Fixing adult social care is about far more than money. People are already paying for failure through council tax, pressure on the NHS, their savings, giving up work, and the forced sale of their homes.”
The launch comes after Care England this week urged Mr Burnham to work with the sector to improve the government’s progress on its social care reform commitments, which the organisation graded as “requires improvement” in a report out earlier this week.
NHS pressures and workforce challenges
The government said adult social care reform remains closely linked to pressures across the wider health system.
According to figures it released alongside the announcement, there are 1.46 million adult social care workers in England and an estimated 4.7 million unpaid carers. In June 2026, an average of 13,600 people a day remained in hospital despite being medically fit for discharge, with some delays linked to the availability of social care support.
The government also said around 3,000 instances of corridor care are occurring each day amid wider pressures on hospital capacity, while A&E attendances among people aged 65 and over have risen from 3.3 million in 2011-12 to 5.8 million in 2024-25.
Mr Burnham said reform was ultimately a choice between continuing to defer difficult decisions and building a system that provides “dignity, security and the support people deserve”.
“That’s why I’m making this choice and I’m prepared to put everything I’ve got behind it,” he added.
