Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to create a National Care Service, calling it a “landmark policy” comparable in significance to the creation of the NHS, and said he would begin laying the foundations during this Parliament before introducing it if his party is elected back into office at the next general election.
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool this afternoon, Mr Burnham said the proposed service would be free at the point of use, protect people’s homes and savings from care costs, end care charges being paid from the basic state pension, and give greater recognition to the adult social care workforce.
The speech underlined Mr Burnham’s summer promise to put adult social care reform at the centre of the government’s long-term public service agenda, with the prime minister arguing that pressures caused by a failing care system are increasingly affecting NHS performance.
Addressing conference delegates, he said: “There is only one real answer. A person-centred, high-quality care service that starts in the home.”
He added: “Care that is about people, not profit, which gives peace of mind over care needs in later life, which protects people’s homes and their savings, and gives proper recognition to the care workers we will all need to rely on at some point in our lives.”
Care workers “not invisible to me”
Mr Burnham used his speech to apologise directly to care workers, saying successive generations of politicians had failed to address longstanding problems in the sector.
“I want to speak directly today to our care workers. You are not invisible to me. I see you. I thank you, and I am sorry that my profession has let down yours for so long,” he said.
The Prime Minister linked social care pressures with delayed hospital discharges, rising demand on ambulance services and growing pressure on NHS staff.
“If we carry on like this, broken social care will break the NHS too,” he told delegates.
Mr Burnham also spoke of his family’s experience of the care system, describing how his grandmother’s savings and home were used to fund care and recalling concerns about the standard of care she received.
Casey review
The reforms are expected to be informed by the ongoing review led by Baroness Louise Casey. Mr Burnham said the review would help determine how the National Care Service should be implemented and pledged to seek the “maximum national consensus” around its recommendations.
To help fund the reforms, Mr Burnham said he would amend the state pension triple lock if elected back into office in 2029, while maintaining annual increases of at least inflation or 2.5 per cent.
He said the savings would fund the National Care Service and insisted the reforms would be “fully funded and not through borrowing”.
Mr Burnham added he was prepared to pay a political price to achieve the reforms, and would campaign for the proposals “in memory of my dad, and out of complete respect for everyone who cared for him”.
