Andy Burnham will use a speech next week to promise a universal system of social care in England — a pledge he first made when he was health secretary in 2009, and one that No 10 acknowledges is among “the most difficult issues facing the country”.
Downing Street said the prime minister would also separately address youth unemployment and devolution in the coming week, in what a Number 10 source described as an attempt to show he is “hitting the ground running”. The same source added: “Andy is going to run towards problems that have been neglected, giving people hope again.”
“Burnham to make social care speech next week, vowing reform amid funding questions”
Polling suggests the strategy is already resonating. Luke Tryl of the research group More in Common told Channel 4 News that “voters like that Burnham ‘has hit the ground running’.”
But Burnham’s ambitions will face immediate scrutiny over funding. Unlike the NHS, social care is not free at the point of use: people with savings above £23,250 must cover their own costs. The Conservative chairman, Kevin Hollinrake, demanded: “Where’s the money coming from, Andy? We’re all dying to know. It is all well and good for the prime minister to promise to fix the issues facing our country, but how is he going to pay for them?”
Burnham is far from the first leader to attempt reform. In 2019, Boris Johnson vowed to “fix the crisis in social care once and for all”. Five years later, Keir Starmer scrapped plans for an £86,000 cap on personal care costs, drawing criticism.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who has pushed for reform, said on Saturday: “This has to be the start of a real effort to end the social care catastrophe. I’ll fight to ensure family carers aren’t forgotten. We need cross-party consensus, and I hope the PM’s door is open.” Burnham replied on X: “It most certainly is, Ed. Let’s work together to find some common ground.”
The prime minister has already packed his first week with pledges: ending rough sleeping in England, cutting VAT from domestic electricity bills this financial year, and reducing the cap on… But the speech on social care will be the test of whether he can turn a decade of broken promises into lasting change — and whether he can answer the question that shadowed every predecessor: how to pay for it.
