Burnham says Casey’s social care review to be fast-tracked, so final recommendations out by summer 2027
Burnham says he has asked Louise Casey to produce her final report with recommendations on social care reform by the summer of 2027.
That is a year earlier than planned, he says.
So, working with, Yvette [Cooper] and with Angela [Rayner] and other colleagues, we want to expedite that review.
We ideally want to do it even sooner, but we’ve got to be realistic.
But if we say a year from now that we have that independent review, then I think we can rise to this challenge with the urgency it requires.
Key events
Burnham says any move to allow assisted dying should not happen until better palliative care in place
Q: Do you support assisted dying?
Burnham said he was not opposed to this being debated. But he went on:
Personally, I think there’s something that needs to happen first, and that’s the fixing of the funding of palliative care and social care.
I think it is very challenging to introduce that wider debate in a context of people not receiving that care and having peace of mind about that care.
Burnham says social care in England ‘as unfair as American healthcare’
Q: [From Sky’s Sam Coates] People can only get funded care if their assets are worth less than £23,250? Do you think that figure is too low?
Burnham says under the current system people can end up paying hundreds of thousands of pounds because they have to spend it on care. It is like a “roulette table”.
I think social care in England is as unfair as American healthcare. The vulnerable pay with everything and it can completely leave them with nothing.
And that floor has been in place for a long, long time.
Burnham says the Dilnot report 15 years ago looked at a solution to this.
He goes on:
But it’s not the case that the funding and the paying for social care is the only issue.
As I’ve said before, [there is] a whole other set of issues here that have to be that have to be considered.
Burnham also says:
We do have to be sure that there isn’t profiteering in the system. I think that is where we absolutely draw draw the line.
There are good organisations in all sectors, but what we cannot accept is money being taken out.
And we actually do see that happening, not just in adult social care, we see it in children’s social care too.
Burnham does not rule out tax rises for social care reform, but says current inefficiencies should be tackled first
Q: [From ITV’s Rebecca Barry] Can the government realistically reform social care without raising taxes?
Burnham says existing resources can be used more effectively.
I think more is possible from within existing resources. And the things that I’ve talked about today, particularly around the workforce, will be fully funded.
I think it is possible from existing budgets to do much more.
I mentioned that whole thing of people coming into hospital unnecessarily from social care settings, then having a long stay in hospital as a result of that unnecessary admission, and then a long period where they’re medically fit to leave, but can’t, because the care is not available. Now, that very last bit has been [estimated to cost the NHS] £2.5bn a year.
If you add all of it up, you are talking several billion pounds a year is lost from the lack of a preventative front-end social care service that’s well supported.
Burnham says government needs to address these problems “before we talk about tax rises”.
But Burnham goes on to say:
I think Louise [Casey – see 10.18am] indicated some of what we would want to in the fullest sense will require difficult decisions.
He goes on:
But we will be honest with people about those. We will put them before the country at the right time, and we will hopefully proceed with people’s consent.
Burnham accepts social care reform likely to wear down his political capital
Burnham says he accepts he could lose “political capital” through this.
This is huge for me.
I know that this will require me to put what political capital I have on the table, and it could be it wears down that political capital in some ways.
But I’m prepared to do it. I’m prepared to do it because this has gone on too long. The risks of failing to act are too great.
Burnham says he’s doing social care reform now because he does not want to leave it until close to election
Burnham is now taking questions.
Q: [From Alison Holt from the BBC] We have had cross-party talks before. What will be different this time? Are today’s talks just a show? And can you get change before the election?
Burnham says his experience as health secretary in the 2005-10 parliament convinced him they left reform too late in that parliament.
He thinks it is better to do it sooner.
He goes on:
That answers another story from the media, doesn’t it? That there’s no election on the horizon.
I think it’s best to deal with it, early and to listen.
As for the talks today, he says he is holding them because Kemi Badenoch and Ed Davey wrote to him asking if he would engage.
Burnham says he would ‘never forgive myself’ if he let ‘screaming headlines’ put him off trying social care reform
Burnham ends by saying he won’t be put off by negative headlines.
I’m not going to be deflected by the point scoring or the screaming headlines that comes out of that point scoring. That is what has set back social care.
And I come back to this point about the political culture of this country and the media culture of this country.
If we’re trying to shut down the fact that you have a serious debate about an issue like this, if that’s what that is trying to do, well, it’s shame on all of us if we say, ‘Well, I’m not brave enough then to go into that.’
Well, I’m just not going to do that in my time in office … I would never forgive myself.
Who knows how long I will be in this position, but as long as I am, I will do my best to find a solution.
Burnham accepts he may need to compromise on social care reform
Burnham says he wants to make progress on the fair pay agreement for carers.
And he says he wants to pursue a cross-party approach.
That might involve compromise, he says.
Burnham goes on to say he wants the Casey review to address the case for a National Care Service.
And let me also just say something about what I want that review to address.
I go back to what we proposed in 2010, and Phil Hope was minister at that time, a National Care service.
Well, why do we talk about that? Because we need to talk about a system that can become highly integrated with the NHS.
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Burnham says Casey’s social care review to be fast-tracked, so final recommendations out by summer 2027
Burnham says he has asked Louise Casey to produce her final report with recommendations on social care reform by the summer of 2027.
That is a year earlier than planned, he says.
So, working with, Yvette [Cooper] and with Angela [Rayner] and other colleagues, we want to expedite that review.
We ideally want to do it even sooner, but we’ve got to be realistic.
But if we say a year from now that we have that independent review, then I think we can rise to this challenge with the urgency it requires.
Burnham says he agreed with what Ed Davey said in his Today interview this morning about the pressures carers are under.
We see people struggling in in their homes looking after a partner or a relative.
It can break people if they’re kind of left without that support that they need.
In fact, it does break people, and that needs to be recognised.
It needs to be recognised that people can see everything they’ve worked for wiped out by the costs of care. Hundreds of thousands of pounds can just disappear paying for care.
Adults with disabilities will say that they face very unfair care charges just to live, just to live their life. That needs to be recognised.
Burnham calls for media to be responsible in way social media crisis is reported
Burnham says this is a challenge for politicians and the media.
There is something here that is a test for the political and the media culture in this country when it comes to this issue, how it’s spoken about, how it’s reported.
It’s for everybody. Everybody needs to take on board, what is being launched today with this Big Conversation, because I think everybody needs to engage in it responsibly, needs to remember who they are talking about, what they are talking about, the people who work within it, and to do it respectfully and to do it accurately.
Burnham says it’s ‘shameful’ politicians have put point-scoring ahead of fixing social care issue
Burnham says he wants to celebrate “the good in social care” before turning to the need for reform.
Turning to the problems, he says his generation of politicians is to blame.
How have we got to this position when it comes to the bad?
I think there’s only one group really to blame, and that’s my generation of politicians.
It’s almost 30 years since the Royal Commission on Social Care, 30 years. And in that time, what did Yvette say? Twenty-two reviews.
It’s a major dereliction of public duty that parliament has not faced up to this of all challenges, something so fundamental to life as this.
It’s shameful, to be honest that politicians have put point-scoring before fixing this issue.
