Andy Burnham's promise for NHS-style social care 'will be for older people not children'
A care service which, like the NHS, is free at the point of use could cost up to £18.5 billion a year in 2035/6, the Health Foundation think tank has estimated
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that his NHS-style social care system will be for "older people but not for children".
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The Prime Minister will reveal the full details of how he plans to fund his new social care system tomorrow, but shared that it will be an adult-focused service - rather than a broader one that helps everyone.
Mr Burnham said yesterday that he is prepared to take unpopular choices and hike taxes to fund the system.
A care service which, like the NHS, is free at the point of use could cost up to £18.5 billion a year in 2035/6, the Health Foundation think tank has estimated.
When pressed by LBC callers on how he will ensure that care is of high quality and continuity in the home, when the NHS is under such sustained pressure, he said that it has to start in the home.
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He exclusively told LBC's Shelagh Fogarty: "We've got to start in the home and provide the highest quality care that we can.
"It's the system that's letting them down, you cannot deliver a care system of quality in 15-minute slots because the minute people's needs get beyond the simple and head towards the more moderate or severe, then things just completely break down."
If social care collapses in the UK, Mr Burnham said, it could pull the NHS under.
He says that a "totally dedicated" workforce, caring for older people with "huge warmth, humour, compassion, humanity", is holding a "threadbare system" together
He blasted previous politicians for leaving carers who are "giving their lives for other people's parents" on "poverty pay".
He added: "The system draws people towards the hospital, and it becomes very hard then to stop that process once it's underway.
"The 999 calls that the staff are told to make if there's the slightest problem and then just offload onto the NHS - that's not sustainable.
"In the long run, if we allow failing social care to collapse, it will drag the National Health Service down with it.
"And already we could say that corridor care is an everyday reality in the NHS, and social care is a large driver of that.
"The highest quality social care in people's homes, everyday care with people delivering it who are properly trained and properly rewarded."
The Prime Minister is constrained by Labour’s current manifesto commitments not to hike income tax, VAT or national insurance for workers.
His previous attempts to reform the system as health secretary, which could have been funded by a levy on estates, were condemned as a “death tax” by opponents.
But Mr Burnham is prepared to have another attempt at a taxpayer-funded national care service, despite the potential unpopularity it would cause.
He added: "Now, the thing is, obviously, this has been highly contentious. All parties have used this for point-scoring purposes— dementia tax, death tax, you name it. And the problem with that is it's put politics before people, and that's why it's been unreformed for all of these years.
"So I will put forward my ideas if the country says go faster because there's a big consensus behind it. I mean that would be one thing. I don't think that's where we'll be. We'll have to debate this.
"We'll have to get Baroness Casey, I think, to set out the detail of how it can be done. I think we will need time, if I'm honest."
Mr Burnham has said he will “lay out a very clear path for the country” in his speech at Labour party conference on Tuesday.
Speaking to LBC, Mr Burnham said: “I will lay out a very clear path for the country tomorrow and it won’t do the usual conference thing, perhaps of just going for the big attack lines on the others and the rabbits out of the hat, I will say things of substance.
“I am trying to speak to your listeners today and tomorrow in really understanding where they are, giving a speech of substance that people will then be able to hear and decide whether they think it is the right direction for the country.”
He also told LBC he would give “a very honest conference speech” to try and achieve “a better connection with the public”.