The Prime Minister announces new measures to fix adult social care at event alongside Baroness Louise Casey and Health Secretary Yvette Cooper at Jewish Care home in Enfield.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has vowed to bring forward adult social care reform after describing the failure to do so over the last 30 years since the Roal Commission on social care as "a major dereliction of public duty".
Appearing alongside his new Health Secretary Yvette Cooper and chair of the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care Baroness Louise Casey, Mr Burnham said he would task the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) ministerial team with taking "an immediate focus" on "bigger reform" to "lift up" the social care workforce to address training and integration with NHS staff, alongside the Fair Pay Agreement.
Mr Burnham said the wider reforms would not work unless the work was done to "improve the strength and capability of care at the very front of the service."
He also said he was bringing the Casey Commission report forward by a year so its recommendations for the creation of a national care service would be ready "this time next year" rather than 2028 as had previously been set out under the former government led by Sir Keir Starmer.
Speaking ahead of the Prime Minister at the event hosted by a Jewish Care home in North London, Baroness Casey confirmed she was launching her "Big Conversation on Care" today to inform her recommendations.
Funding
Asked if he would consider a compulsory insurance model to fund socail care, as he had previously proposed when a health minister in 2010, Mr Burnham said it was a "different world from a financial point of view" but that "there were lots of ways of looking at this that might indicate more voluntary ways of doing things" and there "could be a roadmap" towards reform of funding, but stressed that he would stick to the Labour election manifesto commitments on tax.
However he added that ministers need to "be sure there is no profiteering in the system" and "we need to make changes there".
"In an ideal world, I wouldn't want to see anyone have to sell their home to pay for care....I think the whole thing is horrendous," he said in answer to a later question from media at the event, adding he things the current model "isn't right" and that he hopes to have a "clear eyed" and "fact based" debate on how it can be reformed.
Building on his comments ahead of the event, Mr Burnham said he was determined to “find common ground” across political divides to “deliver lasting change” and a “new consensus” for social care.
Dementia Tsar
Speaking earlier, Ms Cooper confirmed she would be taking work forward announced by her predecessor to appoint a Dementia Tsar "this summer" who would work alongside the Casey Commission, and a "new ministerial group" to focus on the urgent issues raised by Baroness Casey earlier this year.
Ms Cooper said she was also committed to reform, saying that there have been 22 attempts to reform social care since she was elected as an MP in 1997 and “we can’t keep walking around the same circles because this is so important.”
