Cross-party talks over the future of social care will begin next month as the health secretary hit back over criticism that a commission on the issue would take too long to bring about change.
Wes Streeting said he wanted all parties to “agree on the direction on social care for the long term” and that the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform party had all said they would work together on it.
An independent commission to reform adult social care in England was launched on Friday but attracted criticism for kicking much-needed reforms “into the long grass”. Its final recommendations will not be made until 2028.
The taskforce, led by the cross-bench peer Louise Casey, will be charged with developing plans for a new national care service, which was a key Labour election manifesto pledge.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Streeting faced repeated criticism for squandering the opportunity presented by a parliamentary majority to implement change quickly and instead launching another commission.
Streeting said: “I think that would be a fair criticism if we weren’t already acting on social care, if we hadn’t already done a lot in the first six months, if we weren’t announcing further action today, and if we weren’t clear about the fact that part one of the Casey commission isn’t reporting in 2028 – it’s reporting next year, and it will outline what we need to do during this parliament to lay the foundations for a national care service.”
If implemented, the idea is billed as the biggest shake-up to social care in England in decades, but its parameters will not be defined until the commission reports back.
Describing what he thought it would entail, Streeting said a national care service would be “about national standards – consistent access to higher quality care for older and disabled people everywhere in the country”.
Asked whether it meant people would not have to sell their homes to pay for their care, Streeting said: “I would certainly like to see people protected from the catastrophic costs of upfront care that see people forced to sell their homes and move out.”
Since 1997, social care has been the subject of three government commissions, three independent commissions, five white papers and 14 parliamentary committee inquiries. Streeting said Labour had been prepared to go ahead with the social care proposals set out in the Dilnot Commission but “we found the money wasn’t there” and “even if the money had been there, councils hadn’t been prepared to implement it from October 2025”.
According to Streeting, the new commission is needed to build a “national consensus” on the issue similar to the broad political support for the National Health Service built in the years after it was established in 1948.
“We will have cross-party talks next month,” Streeting said. “And I’m really encouraged by the fact that since the election, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Reform have all said that they want to work across-party on this, and those talks will begin next month.
“We will work on the setup of the commission. We will work throughout the commission, and I hope that when the commission reports ahead of the next general election, we can all agree on the direction on social care for the long term. In the meantime, this government is getting on with the job.”
The cross-party talks will be focused on getting buy-in for reform across parliament. Streeting said: “We want to make sure that from the outset of this commission that other political parties are bought into the commission and have a chance to feed into the commission’s terms of reference and have a say in how they want to engage with the commission during its working.”
