Andy Burnham chose not to make social care the centrepiece of his first speech as prime minister. Instead, rough sleeping was named as his top priority upon entering 10 Downing Street. Given that earlier attempts at overhauling social care have flopped, he was wise not to over-promise on day one. Louise Casey, who is leading the independent commission on the issue, says that “an honest conversation with the nation” is needed. If Mr Burnham agrees, he will have to wait before making any big announcements. The public outreach phase of her work has not even begun.
Social care has personal significance for Mr Burnham. In recent days he revealed that his father’s Alzheimer’s means that he does not understand that his son is the prime minister. But he was right to name social care as an area on which “to expend quite a lot of political capital”. If public trust in politics is to be lifted from its current low base, and faith in the welfare state restored, politicians need to show that they are capable of gripping these seemingly intractable problems. For relatives of people with unmet needs, and others who see the system’s flaws closeup, feelings of helplessness and injustice can undermine confidence in society and the state overall.
