People should be “protected from the catastrophic costs of upfront care” that see them forced to sell their homes, Wes Streeting has suggested.
The Health Secretary was speaking as he announced the first steps towards creating a National Care Service, with an independent commission expected to begin in the spring.
The timeline means that proposals for the long-term funding and major reform of social care in England may not be delivered until 2028.
Mr Streeting told the PA news agency he is confident long-term reforms in social care will be a “triumph of hope over experience” and vowed to “break the cycle” of failure.
“We’re determined to grip the crisis in social care,” he said.
“That’s why we’ve taken immediate action in our first six months, whether on workforce, through fair pay agreements, investment, through the Budget and the disabled facilities grant, and the biggest expansion of carer’s allowance since the 1970s.
“And we’ll be doing more over the coming year to address the immediate crisis.
“But we’ve also got to break the cycle we’ve seen of short-termist sticking plaster politics, where parties, frankly, shoot each other in the foot and themselves in the foot, and have led social care to the crisis that we see today.”
It comes as Mr Streeting told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that, for him, a national care service is “about national standards – consistent access to higher quality care for older and disabled people everywhere in the country”.
Asked whether it meant that people will not have to sell their homes to pay for their care, he said: “I would certainly like to see people protected from the catastrophic costs of upfront care that sees people forced to sell their homes and move out.”
The Government came under fire last summer after Chancellor Rachel Reeves scrapped proposals from Sir Andrew Dilnot, whose findings had been accepted by the previous government.
That plan would have introduced an £86,000 cap on the amount an older or disabled person would have to pay towards their support at home or in care homes.
After spending £86,000 on their care, people with a high level of need would also have had their care costs paid for by local councils.
The threshold for getting council support to pay for costs, before exceeding the cap, would also have meant people were allowed to keep more of their savings.
The new independent commission looking into social care reform, led by Baroness Louise Casey, will begin in April.
Mr Streeting told PA the work will “hopefully build a national consensus” around what is a new National Care Service, with talks with opposition parties starting next month.
He said: “That means that whoever’s in government, not just in five years’ time, but 10 years, 20 years, 30 years’ time, hopefully we will have built the national consensus.
“That means that every government delivers for social care in the way that, frankly, successive governments have failed in the past.
“We’re trying to break that cycle of failure and build a new national consensus around social care, with cross-party talks starting next month. I think that is the right approach. It’s the grown-up approach.”
The commission will be split over two phases with the first, reporting to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in mid-2026, looking at the issues facing social care and recommending medium-term reforms.
The second phase is expected by 2028 and will make recommendations for the longer term.
However, a number of organisations have raised concerns about timing.
The current timetable to report by 2028 is far too long to wait for people who need social care, and their families
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of the King’s Fund, welcomed the announcement and said it “could offer a real opportunity to break the cycle of failure to reform social care”, but urged the Government to “accelerate the timing”.
“The current timetable to report by 2028 is far too long to wait for people who need social care, and their families,” she added.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said this “risks becoming yet another report that gathers dust while the sector crumbles”.
He added: “This commission will simply confirm what we already know – how many more reports must we endure before action is taken?”
Hugh Alderwick, director of policy at the Health Foundation, also warned the commission “must move quickly” or run the risk of “history repeating itself”.
Responding to concerns, Mr Streeting said if the Government “wanted to just kick the can down the road on social care or produce yet another report that gathers dust” it would not have appointed Baroness Casey to lead the commission.
An independent commission is an opportunity to start a national conversation, find the solutions and build consensus on a long-term plan to fix the system
He hailed her as “one of our country’s best social reformers” and a “very well known doer”.
“I’m confident that the Casey Commission will be the triumph of hope over experience,” Mr Streeting added.
“Goodness me, this country needs some hope at the moment.
“More than that, we need a serious plan for a National Care Service, and we do need cross-party support for that plan so that it survives successive governments, and it doesn’t chop and change with general elections, as we’ve seen in the past.
“That’s been how we’ve ended up in this failure.”
Meanwhile, the Government committed more investment to the Disabled Facilities Grant, which allows people to apply for funding to carry out work such as widening doors, improving access, installing ramps or stairlifts, or building an extension.
The £86 million boost for this financial year is on top of the £86 million announced at the Budget for the next financial year and brings the annual total to £711 million.
About 7,800 more elderly and disabled people could benefit, ministers estimate.
Baroness Casey said millions of older people, disabled people, their families and carers rely upon an effective adult social care system to live their lives to the full, with independence and dignity.
She added: “An independent commission is an opportunity to start a national conversation, find the solutions and build consensus on a long-term plan to fix the system. I am pleased the Prime Minister has asked me to lead this vital work.”
