Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged Sunday to create a universal national care service free at the point of use, putting an overhaul of Britain’s social care system at the center of his first Labour Party conference as party leader and prime minister.
Burnham said the social care system must be addressed to prevent it from placing unsustainable pressure on the National Health Service, promising to “rip the plaster off” a problem that has long challenged British governments.
The prime minister is expected to set out further details of the proposal in his conference speech Tuesday.
“It’s something that I proposed many years ago, a national care service. You have to have a situation where the care system speaks the same language as the health system. Because at the moment, social care is charged for, provided on a very different basis, and the two just don’t connect,” Burnham said.
Under the proposal, the national care service would be free at the point of use and funded in a way similar, though not identical, to the NHS. Burnham said everyone would contribute but indicated that the new system would have to be created without placing additional strain on public finances.
He did not set out the full funding mechanism.
Burnham also said the scale of the proposed reform could not be delivered within Labour’s existing manifesto. Instead, the national care service would be put before voters in the party’s manifesto for the next election in 2029.
The funding question is likely to draw scrutiny as Labour develops the proposal, including over whether the government could reconsider existing spending commitments. Questions are already being raised about what the plan could mean for the pensions triple lock, although Burnham did not say it would be abandoned to fund the new service.
The social care proposal is one of a series of measures being unveiled as Labour gathers for its annual conference. Burnham has also announced measures aimed at helping first-time buyers get onto the property ladder.
His Tuesday address is expected to provide further details of how a national care service would operate and how Labour intends to pay for it.
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