New Prime Minister Andy Burnham has invited opposition leaders for urgent talks to fix the crisis-hit social care sector. Tory chief Kemi Badenoch and Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey have been asked to meet with Mr Burnham on Wednesday to tackle a problem that has been kicked into the long-grass for decades.
Opposition leaders respond
A Tory spokesman confirmed that Kemi Badenoch is unable to attend and that Shadow Health Secretary Stuart Andrew will attend in her place. Sir Ed Davey accepted the invitation, saying: "We need to do things differently. Our priorities are clear: family carers must be at the heart of any proposals, everyone should be able to get care regardless of means, and no-one should lose their home or life savings on catastrophic care costs."
Burnham's warning on NHS collapse
Mr Burnham warned ahead of a major speech on Wednesday that the creaking system can no longer be treated as a political football. He said: "Politicians might have different views but I'm serious about fixing this issue and to do that, we have to find common ground and listen to others to find a way forward." 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."
Referring to his first speech outside No10 last week, he 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."
Casey Commission accelerated
The Prime Minister is expected to announce that he is speeding up the independent review led by Baroness Louise Casey, which was launched by Keir Starmer last year and had been due to report in 2028. Baroness Casey will also launch a 'Big Conversation on Care' inviting the public to share their views through an online platform. She said: "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. 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."
No plans for 'death tax'
A government spokesman said earlier this week: "There are no plans for this. Fixing our social care system will require building a broad consensus. The old way of doing politics has held up social care reform for decades. Our immediate focus is on working together to find common ground and deliver the reforms needed to fix the future of social care – not imposing one particular solution or tax." This followed reports that Mr Burnham appeared to fail to rule out a care levy on all estates.
Unmet need for care
According to Age UK, an estimated 17% of older people have an unmet need for care – equivalent to 1.9 million. In 2024/25, there were 1.3 million requests for social care support from people aged 65 and over in England, of which 880,000 (67%) resulted in no further action. Age UK's Caroline Abrahams said: "Commentators constantly talk about the challenges of social care reform but less often talk about the prize: knowing that if we develop care needs and disabilities as we get older, we will not be abandoned to struggle alone - as happens to almost two million of us at present. A reformed system would ensure that there would be some help for us, and hopefully it would be properly joined up with the health care that we typically require as we get older too."
According to government figures, an average of 13,600 people a day were stuck in hospital beds in June 2026 despite being medically fit to leave, including some delayed because of a lack of adult social care availability. Mr Burnham has warned that the NHS will "collapse" without reform to social care, and has frequently cited his personal experience as his father lives with Alzheimer's in a care home.
