Ministers plan biggest shake-up of adult social care in England for decades

‘By 2050, there will be four million more people over the age of 65 in England than there are now,’ Wes Streeting wrote in the Guardian. Photograph: Katharine Andriotis/Alamy

Ministers are to launch a historic independent commission to reform adult social care, as they warned older people could be left without vital help and the NHS overwhelmed unless a “national consensus” was reached on fixing a “failing” system.

The taskforce, to be led by the cross-bench peer Louise Casey, will be charged with developing plans for a new national care service, a Labour election manifesto pledge, in the biggest shake-up to social care in England in decades.