Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised to reform social care to help "my dad and the millions like him" faced with the unfairness of the current system. He acknowledged that tax hikes could be needed to pay for fundamental changes.
Speaking at a care home in north London, Mr Burnham, whose father has Alzheimer’s, said that fixing the current problems in social care in England could save the NHS billions of pounds a year. He described the failure of successive governments to address the crisis as a "major dereliction of public duty".
Blaming his generation of politicians
The Prime Minister, who set out proposals for reform as health secretary in 2009, said the blame lies with "my generation of politicians" who had not confronted the problems posed by an ageing society. He said it was "shameful" that politicians had put "point scoring before fixing this issue".
During his speech, Mr Burnham announced he had accelerated Baroness Louise Casey’s review of social care so it will report next year. He promised reforms to improve the strength and capability of the social care workforce, and confirmed he would begin cross-party talks with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, insisting it was the "right thing to do".
NHS savings and potential tax rises
Mr Burnham said the savings to the NHS from fixing social care issues could help fund a reformed system. He noted that it costs the NHS around £2.5 billion a year to have people kept in hospital even though they are medically fit to leave because there is no suitable care available in the community. Additionally, the lack of a "preventative front-end social care service" was costing the NHS "several billion pounds a year".
While he said it was necessary to "do more with what you’ve got" before talking about tax rises, he acknowledged that "some of what we want to do in the fuller sense will require difficult, difficult decisions". He indicated that tax hikes to pay for social care could be in Labour’s next election manifesto, stating "we will put them before the country at the right time".
Emotional pledge for his father
Speaking from the heart, Mr Burnham said he was prepared to risk his political reputation on getting the changes through. "This is huge for me," he said. "I know this will require me to put what political capital I have on the table and it could wear down that political capital in some ways. But I’m prepared to do it because this has gone on too long. The risks of failing to act are too great." He added: "Why am I going to do all of those things? For my dad and the millions like him up and down the country."
Before his speech, Mr Burnham, Health Secretary Yvette Cooper and Baroness Casey met residents at the care home. When Mr Burnham told one resident he was the Prime Minister, the resident replied: "A new one? They keep changing."
Reactions from other parties
Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said his party would fight any attempt to introduce a "universal death tax" to fund social care, calling for cuts to "ridiculous spending". The Green Party’s Westminster leader Ellie Chowns, who was excluded from the cross-party talks, said it was "deeply disappointing" not to be invited. Commons Health and Social Care Committee chairwoman Layla Moran expressed hope that "this time it needs to be different" after 22 previous attempts at reform. Natasha Curry from the Nuffield Trust welcomed Burnham's approach of first settling what social care should do before deciding funding.
