Starmer vows substantial social care reform as NHS faces collapse warning

In his first major interview since entering No 10, Keir Starmer said the NHS "will collapse" without reform of adult social care. He said he would not want to leave office without bringing in "substantial change" to the system, but could not put a timetable on when those changes would arrive.

Starmer also linked the issue to the wider welfare bill, saying the country had to get serious about bringing it down and suggesting it should be harder to claim benefits.

Kemi Badenoch wrote to the prime minister saying he should rule out using money earmarked for other purposes to pay for social care reform. Any overhaul will have to answer who pays, and when.

In 2020, Sir Simon Stevens, then head of NHS England, said plans to adequately fund social care needed to be in place within a year and said Covid-19 had shone a "very harsh spotlight" on the resilience of the care system. The Department of Health would bring forward a reform plan.

The Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto pledged to find a cross-party solution to reduce pressure on the care system, and the 2021 white paper Build Back Better: Our Plan for Health and Social Care set out reform ambitions while leaving major funding questions unresolved. By 3 January 2025, long-term social care reform was unlikely before 2028, a timescale Wes Streeting defended.

On 3 July 2026, the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee said the next prime minister would have "no excuse" not to start fixing social care before the general election and urged full proposals before 2028, basing its intervention on evidence from Baroness Casey.