The prime minister – who teared up as he spoke about his father who is currently receiving care for Alzheimer’s – said it was a “major dereliction of public duty” that politicians had failed for decades to resolve the crisis in social care.
Mr Burnham condemned the ‘poverty pay’ social care staff were forced to live on.
During his speech, the prime minister:
- Said he had accelerated Baroness Louise Casey’s review of social care so it will report next year
- Promised reforms to improve the “strength and the capability” of the social care workforce
- Confirmed he would begin cross-party talks with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, insisting it was the “right thing to do” to try to find a consensus
- Acknowledged there would have to be “difficult decisions” on tax as part of social care reform, but vowed to “be honest with people” and “do more” within existing resources first
- Said in an “ideal world” people would not be forced to sell their homes to fund their care
“It’s shameful, to be honest, that politicians have put point scoring before fixing this issue, but that’s what’s happened”, he said.
“It’s created a feeling in Westminster that this is too difficult, and if you take it on, you’re taking on too big a political risk.”
While he acknowledged tax rises could also be necessary, he insisted Labour’s manifesto commitments not to increase workers’ income tax, national insurance or VAT rates would remain in place.
The prime minister said it costs the NHS around £2.5bn a year in England to have people who are medically fit to leave remaining in hospital because there is no care available in the community.
“I think we owe it to the public before we talk about tax rises” to “do more with what you’ve got”, he said.
Reflecting on how care workers were on “poverty pay”, Mr Burnham described the “humbling” experience of watching carers look after his father, concluding: “They should be the best-paid people in society, not the worst.”
He called for the care workforce to be “more integrated” with the NHS workforce, adding that the government will “start to think about progression routes for young people coming into social care, so they they can progress from social care into NHS positions as well, and think about it as one workforce.”
“We will not get the care service we all want until we improve the strength and the capability of care at the very front of the service, and that means lifting up the social care workforce as best we possibly can”, he said.
Mr Burnham is set to hold a cross-party meeting to discuss tackling the crisis in adult social care, acknowledging that real change would require “give and take” from different factions within the government.
“If we’re going to get to a solution, we’re all going to have to listen to each other,” he said. “Something we don’t do particularly well in politics [is] actually, engage and listen to other perspectives. We’re going to have to find common ground here.”
On tax rises, he said: “To come back to the tax point, I will stick to the manifesto. That is important. There is a manifesto. There are commitments there on tax, and I will stick to those commitments.”
I agree that carers are underpaid but who will pay for a big increase in salary? Most care is also privately run where profit outweighs salary considerations. The cost of private care is already hugely unaffordable for many people – so let’s also have a conversation about who pays as this will inevitably require tax increases or cuts elsewhere. It’s too easy for the wealthy to avoid tax – that has to change. Also, why does Amazon pay such a small amount of tax in the UK when it turns over millions each day?
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