Prime Minister Will Have ‘No Excuse’ Not to Start Fixing Social Care Before General Election, MPs Say
The Health and Social Care Committee has urged the next Prime Minister to confirm that full proposals to fix adult social care should be published before 2028 and that work to implement reforms must not be delayed to the next general election.
The Committee’s intervention comes in a new report (PDF attached) based on evidence from Baroness Casey, who was appointed in April 2025 to lead an Independent Commission on social care reform.
Casey told MPs on 24 June that she will be ready to publish her recommendations much earlier than the timetable indicated by the government – “by 2028”.
In the same evidence session, Care Minister Stephen Kinnock told the Committee he disagreed with the Treasury’s preference to hold up social care reform until 2029.
He said this would “effectively, have meant that you are going into the 2029 general election with a manifesto pledge rather than having agreement much earlier in this Parliament”. Kinnock argued that the closer proposals get to the date of a general election, the more “politically fraught” the debate will become, making consensus harder to reach. He added that this would be “self-defeating”.
Sticking to the government’s current timetable would also exclude adult social care reforms from being factored into the next three-year Spending Review period, Kinnock said, meaning the Treasury could put off finding a way to pay for reforms.
One of the main proposals that Baroness Casey is investigating is how the government could establish a ‘National Care Service’. Mr Kinnock told the Committee the government is “absolutely committed” to that idea.
Health and Social Care Committee Chair Layla Moran MP said:
“There are no more excuses left to hide behind. The next PM must state loudly and clearly that Baroness Casey will be free to publish her findings as soon as she is ready, and work to reform adult social care will then begin in earnest. This must not be allowed to drag on into 2029 where it will inevitably be consumed in another unedifying game of political football.
“We know there is a huge cost to the country, both economically and in human suffering, to kicking the can down the road and letting political game playing obstruct us from fixing one of the biggest problems this country has faced for nearly two decades.”
The Committee’s report follows another that it published last year which examined the ‘cost of inaction’ over social care. 1.5 million unpaid carers face cutting their working hours or leaving employment altogether to look after a loved one, and too many underpaid care workers need to claim in-work benefits.
The Institute for Government, Care England and the Royal College of Nursing have also called for quicker implementation.
