Not setting a timetable on social care reform would be a mistake by Andy Burnham

The Prime Minister is right to warn that the NHS will collapse if policymakers do not grasp the nettle on social care and fix the system once and for all.

This newspaper has long warned of the dangers of ignoring social care reform. And the country has already experienced the consequences of reform into the long grass with every winter crisis at the NHS getting worse. It is as a direct result of the failings in social care.

However, the Prime Minister is on his way to repeating the same mistakes as his predecessors by refusing to put a timetable on reforms.

Social care campaigners have long argued that changes need to be made to the system now. The sector cannot wait for further reviews and delay. The Dilnot report on social care was delivered in 2011, yet it sits on the shelves of Whitehall gathering dust.

Instead of delivering reform, Sir Keir Starmer’s government asked Baroness Louise Casey Baroness Louise Casey to lead another commission into social care. No one refutes the idea of further information on how best to deal with social care in this country or Baroness Casey’s ability to lead such an inquiry but campaigners are understandably frustrated that recommendations in the past have not been acted upon and have little faith that another review will change that.

Unlike NHS care, social care is not free at the point of use, and high costs sometimes mean people are forced to sell their homes to pay for what they need. People with savings worth more than £23,250 are not entitled to help with the cost of care from their local council. This only leads to the burden on the NHS increasing.

Now is as good a time as ever for Burnham to deliver on unfinished business, after the plans that he set out while health secretary under Gordon Brown 14 years ago were scuppered.