Andy Burnham pledges to end 'dereliction of public duty' on social care

Andy Burnham will start cross-party talks on social care reform later today.

Andy Burnham has said it was a “major dereliction of public duty” that politicians had failed for decades to resolve the crisis in social care.

The Prime Minister said the blame lies with “my generation of politicians” who had not got to grips with the problems posed by an ageing society and unfairness in the system.

Mr Burnham, who spoke about the care received by his father, who has Alzheimer’s, said care workers should be “the best-paid people in society, not the worst”.

The Prime Minister said: “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, but that’s what’s happened.

“It’s created a feeling in Westminster that this is too difficult, and if you take it on, you’re taking on too big a political risk.”

As previously reported by The Yorkshire Post, Mr Burnham revealed he had asked Baroness Louise Casey to accelerate her independent commission into social care to report next year.

She has previously been due to make long-term recommendations in 2028.

“We ideally want to do it even sooner, but we’ve got to be realistic,” he said.

“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.”

This morning, Baroness Casey launched The Big Conversation On Care, allowing the public to have their say on the future of adult social care.

She said: “For too long, we have been stuck in the same cycle: crisis, promises of reform, another review, and then retreat, while the people who need care, and their families, bear the brunt.

“Social care affects every family in this country: whether we need care ourselves, care for someone we love, work in care, or pay for it through our taxes.

“That’s why I am launching The Big Conversation on Care today. I want people across England to help us face the hard questions about how we can build a national care service.”

Mr Burnham has long been clear of his desire to make social care free at the point of use, and worked on a national care service when he was health secretary under Gordon Brown.

He insisted is social care reforms would be “fully funded”, adding that the first thing will be to “do more with what we’ve got”, but admitting the full reforms will require “difficult decisions”.

Mr Burnham said the savings to the NHS from fixing issues around social care could help fund a reformed system.

But he acknowledged tax rises could also be necessary, although he insisted Labour’s manifesto commitments not to increase workers’ income tax, national insurance or VAT rates would remain in place.

The Prime Minister said it costs the NHS around £2.5bn a year to have people who are medically fit to leave remaining in hospital because there is no care available in the community.

He suggested the lack of a “preventative front-end social care service” stopping people from needing to go into hospital in the first place was costing the NHS “several billion pounds a year”.

He said “I think we owe it to the public before we talk about tax rises” to “do more with what you’ve got”.

Later today, Mr Burnham is set to meet Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey and Shadow Health Secretary Stuart Andrew to start cross-party talks around the reforms.

“I stood on the steps of Downing Street just a few days ago, and I said I wanted to create a new way of doing politics in this country, more problem solving, less point scoring, and this is the first big test of that, and I mean what I say. We won’t fix this through politics as usual,” he explained.

He said parties would need to find “common ground” to get a “lasting solution” and that “that process starts today”.

He added: “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, and I would never forgive myself if I left without having tried because of some of the headlines that will inevitably appear and some of the efforts that some people will make to create scare stories about the whole issue.”