Health and Social Care Leaders Urge Next Prime Minister to Deliver Long-Promised Reforms
Health and social care leaders have called on the next Labour leader and Prime Minister to seize a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to improve the nation’s health and finally tackle long-delayed social care reform, following Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation. Responding to the leadership transition, The King’s Fund and The Care Workers’ Charity said the incoming leader must prioritise adult social care, preventative public health measures and digital transformation of the NHS, while delivering on commitments already made to improve pay, conditions and support for care workers across the country.
Responding to the resignation of the Prime Minister Kier Starmer, Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund said:
“The next leader of the Labour Party has the chance to define how the next generation experiences health and care. In their in-tray will be a colossal set of both opportunities and risks.
“At the heart of these opportunities is both the chance to reverse our declining national healthy life expectancy and revamp an approach that champions good health in all policies, as well as to finally deliver on the reform of adult social care. These reforms remain the biggest unresolved policy question of the past 25 years, and has left too many people living with unmet needs, unable to access the care they deserve. Whether it is through accelerating the timetable for the Casey Commission or proposing a concrete model for reform, the test of the next prime minister will be if they can deliver reforms where so many have previously failed.
“Another clear opportunity is in seeing through the work to establish a Single Patient Record, which is part of the Health Bill currently working its way through parliament. The opportunity to link disparate sets of health data and deliver care that is less fragmented and more tailored to our individual health needs is to too large to squander.
“Just days before his resignation, Prime Minister Starmer used one of his last major addresses to the nation to announce plans to restrict access to social media for younger people. This has kick-started an approach to understand how a social media ban could be implemented to deliver better wellbeing and mental health for children in this country. Together with the smoking ban first proposed under Prime Minister Sunak, this is the type of bold action on prevention that any future government should be thinking about to deliver a healthier nation.”
Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive of The Care Workers’ Charity, said:
“We are looking forward to working with the next Prime Minister upon their appointment. Care workers have heard ambition before, and they have welcomed it. What they need now is delivery, and the political consistency to see it through. The Fair Pay Agreement, the funding behind it and the work on Delegated Healthcare Activities are the foundations to build on, not the finish line. We ask the next leader to act on the recommendations coming out of Baroness Casey’s Commission now, not in 2028, and to bring the Fair Pay Agreement forward so that care workers feel the difference. We invite the successful candidate to meet us and to hear directly from care workers through our Advisory Board, so that the reform that comes next is built with them, not around them.”
In a statement the charity stated:
“Labour set out the framework for the first Fair Pay Agreement, committed £500 million to support it, and continued the work on Delegated Healthcare Activities. These were important steps, and they gave the sector a foundation to build on. Adult social care is not a sectoral concern. It is something every person in this country will rely on at some point in their lives, whether for themselves, for a parent, for a partner or for a child. Whoever takes on the role inherits work that is far from finished, and the charity stands ready to support the successful candidate in carrying it forward.”
The Care Workers’ Charity is calling on the next leader to:
• Name adult social care as a first order national priority, with implementation set out within the first 100 days of taking office.
• Act on the recommendations emerging from Baroness Casey’s Commission, in parallel with and not dependent on its final report.
• Bring the Fair Pay Agreement forward, backed by the legislation and sustained funding needed to deliver a unified sector, with interim support for pay and conditions ahead of 2028.
• Co-produce reform with care workers themselves, including through bodies such as the Care Worker Advisory Board.
