LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Andy Burnham will on Wednesday set out more details of his approach to overhauling the social care system, including his plans to work with other parties, in his first major policy speech since entering Downing Street.
Burnham became prime minister last week, and has enjoyed a bounce in the governing Labour Party’s poll ratings in the days since after announcing measures to reduce the cost of living.
But his pledge to “grasp the nettle” on reforming the system for caring for older and disabled adults comes with political risk, as he will need to set out how he plans to pay for any changes while sticking to his fiscal rules.
Burnham has said that the state-run National Health Service could collapse unless the care sector is reformed because of how many people end up in hospitals who could be cared for elsewhere.
“For decades, governments have kicked this issue down the road because they’ve seen it as too risky, too difficult, and too complicated,” Burnham said in a statement ahead of a speech he was due to give on Wednesday.
“We have to find common ground and listen to others to find a way forward.”
INVITE TO LEADERS OF OTHER PARTIES
Burnham first tried to reform the funding of social care when he was health minister under Gordon Brown’s premiership, but faced political difficulties and ran out of time before Labour’s election loss in 2010. Successive governments since have failed to find solutions.
His office said he had invited the leaders of the opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties to discuss the issue.
Unlike the NHS, social care in Britain is not free for most people. Access to state-funded social care for older people in England is means-tested and generally requires a high level of need.
Britain’s Institute for Fiscal Studies said in 2024 that due to tighter eligibility criteria, the number of older people receiving state-funded social care in England had fallen by 10% over the past decade, despite an ageing population.
Around one-in-seven older people were likely to incur lifetime care costs of more than £100,000, it added.
The King’s Fund, a health think-tank, said English local authorities spent £12 billion ($16 billion) on social care for older people in the 2024/25 financial year, about 8% more than the year before.
($1 = 0.7517 pounds)
(Reporting by Alistair Smout and David Milliken; Editing by Alex Richardson)
