Summary

  • Andy Burnham is taking questions after giving a speech about social care in England - watch live above

  • In his speech, Burnham began by talking about care given to his father, who has Alzheimer's. He said carers "should be the best paid people in society, not the worst"

  • He said the lack of reform is a "major dereliction of public duty" but added "this time we are going to do it"

  • Burnham confirmed that a review by Baroness Casey will report a year earlier than planned - 2027 - and will look at creating a "national care service"

  • He also pledged to "lift up" care workers through pay and training, and said there would be a "cross-party" approach on social care

  • There have been 22 failed attempts to update the system in the past 30 years, writes our correspondent Alison Holt

  • Social care involves help for someone with an illness or disability, and is a devolved issue - meaning governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland run their own systems

  • It is mostly provided by companies rather than directly by the state, and is mainly used by elderly people. Read this explainer for more

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  1. Cross-party talks are 'just the start', Burnham sayspublished at 10:55 BST

    In the Q+A with journalists, the BBC's Alison Holt notes that there have been cross-party talks before, and asks the prime minister what he will do differently this time.

    Referring back to his experience as health secretary in 2009-10, Burnham says reform to social care was probably left too late then as it was too close to a general election.

    "It's better to do it sooner and further away from an election," Burnham says, adding that it's one of the reasons why he's asked Baroness Louise Casey to bring the review forward.

    "I don't know whether it's possible to find agreement, but let's give it a try," he says.

    Responding to whether the proposal for cross-party talks was late notice, Burnham says he had two approaches at the weekend from the Tories and Lib Dems and he was responding to that ask.

    He says these talks are "just the start".

  2. Burnham wants cross-party talks to tackle social care issuepublished at 10:49 BST

    Just before he concluded his speech, Burnham said his third announcement is the initiation of cross-party talks about tackling the issue of social care, describing it as "the right thing to do".

    He adds that such an approach is the "first big test" to ending political point scoring on the topic and Lib Dem leader Ed Davey was right to say there needs to be "give and take" between the parties.

    Burnham says common ground must be found, and "that process starts today".

    He says he wants to do his best to find a solution to social care issues, before adding: "I would never forgive myself if I left without having tried."

    The prime minister ends his speech by striking an emotional tone, saying he is going to tackle the problem "for my dad and the millions like him up and down the country".

  3. Burnham taking questions from mediapublished at 10:47 BST

    Burnham has finished his speech and is now taking questions from the press.

    We will bring you a few more details from his speech here, and then outline what we learn from his Q+A with the media.

  4. Burnham aims to uplift social care work forcepublished at 10:44 BST

    Andy Burnham, who has short dark hair and glasses, speaks while wearing a business suit, with people seatedbehind him listening

    Burnham says the government has agreed a fair pay agreement for social care staff to come in 2028/29 financial year and pays tribute to Keir Starmer for bringing that forward, calling it a "massive building block" of a national care service.

    But he says he wants to discuss how to turn the fair pay agreement into a bigger reform to lift up the social care workforce.

    The PM adds that he wants to lift up the workforce in terms of training too, including a progression route for young people coming into social care so they can progress from social care into NHS positions as well.

  5. Burnham plans to look at creating 'national care service'published at 10:41 BST

    Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he has three main announcements today.

    First, he has asked Baroness Louise Casey to bring forward her review by a year (it was due to report in full in 2028). Burnham would like it to be even sooner but says they have to be "realistic".

    "Social care is different, it has to be person-centred", Burnham says, but adds it also has to be preventative and integrated with the wider health system.

    Burnham says he is asking Casey to deliver a report that outlines how his government can deliver a National Care Service.

    The second announcement is to focus on the social care force. Burnham has asked the ministerial group to look at how to turn the fair pay agreement into a bigger reform, to improve the social care workforce.

    He wants to integrate it more with the NHS workforce.

    His third announcement is a cross-party approach, involving the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

  6. NHS can only be restored with social care reform, says prime ministerpublished at 10:40 BST

    Andy Burnham, who has short dark hair and glasses, speaks while wearing a business suit to a group of people seated in a circle around him

    Burnham continues and says that the social care system is "intrinsically linked" to the NHS, which he says cannot be "restored" without social care reform.

    He says the country needs to face up to fixing social care "with a new determination".

    The prime minister adds people need to try their best to solve "this issue", because it "affects all of us in one way or another".

  7. Adults with disabilities facing unfair charges need to be recognised - Burnhampublished at 10:39 BST

    Burnham goes on to say that it is estimated around two million adults in England have unmet care needs.

    He adds that adults with disabilities who say they face unfair care charges need to be recognised - and adds that the situation is bad for NHS staff too.

    The prime minister says it is very difficult to "stop the drag of the system" once people are hospitalised, calling it a "lose-lose situation". He says that people being discharged is a pressure the NHS "struggles to meet".

  8. Burnham says politicians to blame for social care challengespublished at 10:30 BST

    Burnham says that there is only one group to blame for current challenges in social care - and that is his generation of politicians.

    He says there has been a "major dereliction of public duty that parliament has not faced up to this of all challenges".

    The PM says it is "shameful" that politicians have put point scoring above fixing this issue.

    Burnham
  9. Care teams 'should be best paid' in society - Burnhampublished at 10:27 BST

    Andy Burnham, who has short dark hair and glasses, speaks while wearing a business suit

    Prime Minister Andy Burnham starts by saying that some in the room will be having a sense of "déjà vu", but "this time we're going to do it".

    Drawing on his lived experiences, as his father has Alzheimer's, Burnham says the only thing he can do is talk from those emotions to make the change.

    He starts by praising caring teams, saying he's been "overwhelmed" by their care, skills and professionalism.

    "To me, they should be the best paid people in society, not the worst," Burnham says.

    He also points to how many people from other countries have been caring for his father.

    "I want those carers to know we appreciate you, we appreciate what you are doing to support people here [in the UK]," he adds.

  10. Baroness Casey announces new social care consultation processpublished at 10:25 BST

    Baroness Louise Casey, who has shoulder-length fair hair, in a grey jacket

    Cooper then hands over to Baroness Louise Casey, who is speaking before Burnham.

    She says that for the past 18 months she has heard how people are living in "difficult circumstances" and that in some cases, the state is making it worse.

    She says that some of the answers in her review will need to be modest, while others will be "not so modest".

    Out of all the 22 reviews into social care, she says no government consulted the public when consdering social care reform.

    Baroness Casey says that hospitals are filled with "huge numbers of frail, elderly people...that simply never needed to be there in the first place".

    She announces that she is launching the Big Conservation on Care - a consultation process on social care that will address questions surrounding when the state steps in and who pays.

    Baroness Casey describes this as "a game changer".

  11. We can't keep walking away from this problem, says health secretarypublished at 10:21 BST

    Yvette Cooper, who has short blonde hair, wearing a grey suit jacket

    Before the prime minister started speaking, Health Secretary Yvette Cooper took to the stage.

    She says that the topic is "personal for many of us and matters for all of us".

    Later this year, the government will introduce a "dementia tsar", she says.

    Cooper shares that her own mother has dementia and that there have been 22 different attempts to reform social care since she was elected to Parliament.

    She adds: "We cannot keep walking away from this problem."

    The health secretary says that alongside the Casey review, she will chair a new ministerial group to accelerate government response to issues.

  12. Burnham begins speaking - watch livepublished at 10:18 BST

    Prime Minister Andy Burnham has started speaking.

    We will bring you key lines here. You can also watch his speech live in the stream at the top of the page.

  13. Reform and Greens feel snubbed from cross-party talkspublished at 10:08 BST

    Harry Farley
    Political correspondent

    While the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats will attend the talks today with Andy Burnham, other parties including Reform UK and the Greens are not invited.

    Nigel Farage said it was evidence of "the uniparty in action" - essentially his accusation is the traditional three big parties are part of the same establishment.

    "It’s now clear that Burnham is conspiring behind closed doors with the failed political establishment to foist further tax rises on the country," he said.

    The Green Party, I understand, is also irritated particularly because they - unlike Reform - have a dedicated health spokesperson who has offered to work with the new prime minister.

    From speaking to people in government, the response they give is this is just the first of many cross-party talks in the weeks and months ahead. They add that Ed Davey from the Lib Dems and Kemi Badenoch from the Conservatives have both approached Andy Burnham to work together on social care.

    But the talks this afternoon are just the start of a months' long process, not a major summit with any conclusion expected.

  14. Efforts to reform social care ongoing for 30 yearspublished at 10:04 BST

    Alison Holt
    Social affairs editor

    The prime minister is staking a lot on achieving meaningful reform of the care system that supports older and disabled people in England.

    There have been 22 failed attempts to update it in the past 30 years, including his own 2009 plan to introduce a National Care Service funded by a £20,000 levy on people’s estates after they have died. That was labelled a death tax by political opponents.

    He wants to draw a line under the political point scoring which all parties have been involved in.

    The question he will need to answer is: what will be different this time?

  15. Better service means 'less people tripping into hospital', says Caseypublished at 09:54 BST

    Baroness Casey sits in the Today studio, with a green microphone in front of her

    Baroness Louise Casey has said the government "missed a trick" coming into the 21st Century, with public services now having to "keep up" with a much older population.

    The leader of a commission into adult social care in England tells Radio 4's Today programme that the NHS has been withdrawn from communities in recent years, with the number of district nurses and their teams having gone down and people struggling to get GP appointments.

    She says: "If we were much better at running a much better service, whether it's care or health in the community in the first place, you would have less people tripping into hospital."

    Casey says her vision for the country is a national health service that is "delivered locally by local people".

  16. The politics of social care (and cross-party talks)published at 09:51 BST

    Andy Burnham has said "the NHS will collapse" if social care is not reformed but he could not put a timeline on changes.

    In an letter to the prime minister at the weekend, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch urged him to rule out tax rises in order to fund any reforms to social care.

    Burnham invited the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats for cross-party talks on the best way forward to reform social care in England.

    Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey - who has repeatedly said the "current system is broken" - said he would attend remotely. Badenoch cannot be there and is sending shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew instead.

    Burnham did not invite the leaders of the Green Party or Reform UK.

    Reform leader Nigel Farage complained of the snub, while Green leader Zack Polanski saw the invitation of opposition leaders as "positive".

  17. Governments have kicked social care 'down the road' for decades - Burnhampublished at 09:46 BST

    Andy Burnham has said it is time to "draw a line under" people playing politics on the topic of social care.

    The prime minister says in a video posted on X: "For decades, governments have kicked this issue down the road because they have seen it as too risky, too difficult and too complicated."

    He says that "common ground" needs to be found to fix the issue, urging people to "work together to build a care system that gives people dignity, security and the support they deserve".

  18. 'A moment of reckoning in social care': What is the Casey review?published at 09:39 BST

    Louise Casey
    Image caption,

    Baroness Casey is chairing a review into adult social care

    As we mentioned earlier, Andy Burnham is expected to announce he's speeding up the Casey Commission when he speaks later today.

    Here's what that is:

    Baroness Louise Casey is chairing an independent review of adult social care in England. Her work began last summer and she is expected to report the review's findings by 2028.

    The review is split into two phases. The first, medium term, looks to set out a plan for how to implement a National Care Service. This should report in 2026.

    Phase two considers how social care is funded in the longer term, and is expected to report back by 2028.

    And here's what Casey has said so far:

    In March, Baroness Casey told the BBC the UK is facing a "moment of reckoning" in social care and called on the government to take action immediately to address current failings.

    This morning, speaking to the Today programme, she said: "The vision that we must have for a country when it comes to a national care service is that the public do not have to face this constant battle lines between who does what and how.

    "The idea that a member of the public is having to navigate their way through a system that tells you all you need to know about public services."

    We'll bring you more from Casey's Today interview shortly.

  19. What is social care?published at 09:28 BST

    Top of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's agenda today is social care and his plans to reform it in England. But what is it?

    Social care means services that provide practical help for someone with an illness or disability.

    This can include help with washing and getting dressed, providing meals to your home, or long-term nursing support.

    For those still living at home, the help can be carried out there; others who need round-the-clock support live in care homes where they can access those services.

    Elderly residents sit a communal area in a residential care home in Bridgwater, on October 12, 2024 in Bridgwater, EnglandImage source, Getty Images

    As things stand, the social care system is mostly provided by companies rather than directly by the state.

    Unlike the NHS, social care is not free at the point of use. In England and Northern Ireland, people with savings worth more than £23,250 are not entitled to help with care costs from their council.

    In Wales and Scotland, different rules apply in terms of eligibility.

    While social care is not limited to elderly people, they make up a large proportion of people needing this additional support. The charity Age UK estimates that there are two million older people in England now living with some unmet need for social care.

  20. Burnham set for social care speech - with questions from reporters to followpublished at 09:22 BST

    Adam Goldsmith
    Live reporter

    Andy BurnhamImage source, Reuters

    Andy Burnham is set to deliver a speech on social care reform in England later this morning - and will take questions from reporters for the first time since becoming prime minister.

    Ahead of the speech, the prime minister invited the leaders of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats for talks on the issue, and he’s expected to say that finding cross-party common ground will be crucial.

    Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said he would attend remotely but Tory leader Kemi Badenoch can't be there and is sending shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew instead.

    Burnham is not expected to set out detailed plans today for a new social care system.

    Last week he told the BBC the NHS would "collapse" if social care was not reformed, and today he is expected to announce he is speeding up the Casey Commission - an independent review that is drawing up recommendations to overhaul the care sector.

    You’ll be able to watch the prime minister's speech live at the top of the page when it kicks off at 10:00 BST, and we’ll bring you the key lines, as well as his responses to journalists’ questions.