Prime minister confirms plan for Labour to fight next election on plan to bring in social care system free at the point of use, part funded by pension reforms.
Andy Burnham has pledged to fund his planned national care service by ending the “triple lock” on the state pension.
In his speech to the Labour Party conference today, the prime minister confirmed that the party would fight the next election – due by 2029 – on a plan to bring in a social care system free at the point of use.
Burnham announced the plan in an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, but in his speech today he set out, in part, a plan to pay for it.
Currently, the state pension rises each year by the highest of inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5%.
In his speech, Burnham proposed amending this so that it rises by either inflation or 2.5%, but keeps pace with average earnings growth over time.
The prime minister told delegates this would “generate significant savings that we will use to build up our national care service”.
Social care free at the point of use
He had earlier set out his vision for a national care service, which he described as “a person-centred, high-quality care service that starts in the home”.
Burnham described it as a system “where everyone contributes and everyone is covered, free at the point of use and no care charges paid out of your basic state pension”.
He said he wanted social care to be about “people, not profit”, providing “peace of mind over care needs in later life”, protecting peoples homes and savings and giving “proper recognition to the care workers we will all need to rely on in later life”.
Tribute to care workers
Burnham paid a warm tribute to care workers, including those who looked after his father, Roy, who died recently.
“I watched closely the people who looked after my dad,” he said. “Caring for other people’s parents on poverty pay. But doing it with huge skill, humour and humanity, holding a threadbare system somehow together, yet invisible to the political class of this country.
“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.”
‘Broken social work will break the NHS’
As he articulated in his interview with Kuenssberg, Burnham told the Labour conference that safeguarding the NHS was a key justification for reforming social care.
He said NHS staff were being “put under intolerable pressure” by unnecessary hospital admissions from social care settings, contributing to so-called “corridor care”, where people are treated in corridors.
“If we carry on as we are, broken social care will break the NHS and we can’t let that happen,” he added.
Burnham said his proposed national care service would deliver “NHS savings from fewer ambulance call-outs, A&E admissions and vulnerable people being stuck unnecessarily in hospital”.
While it would be implemented after the next election, he said the government would “start laying the ground now”, while seeking to build “the maximum national consensus” for his proposals.
Casey ‘upbeat’ about Burnham plan
The person tasked with developing a plan designing and delivering a national care service is Baroness (Louise) Casey, who is leading the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care.
In an interview with the BBC Radio 4’s PM programme today, Casey said she was “very upbeat” about Burnham’s plan.
“On the back of today, I now have a really good situation where the triple lock will be adjusted and changed,” she told the presenter, Evan Davis.
“That will get money that we are tying to a national care service. I think that’s really good news, not just for the commission but for everyone who themselves are getting old, or worried about their parents. To be there’s a future that looks more positive than it did before.”
The commission is currently conducting a “big conversation” on social care, designed to canvass the public’s views on how it should be reformed and encourage them to weigh up the trade-offs involved. This will conclude in April 2027, with Casey issuing her report and recommendations next summer.
Source: Community Care
