𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Health Secretary James Murray has been urged to speed up reforms to social care by an over-60s campaign group.

Dennis Reed, the director of Silver Voices, has written to the new Secretary of State asking him to prioritise the social care crisis.

Mr Reed said: “We are urging James Murray to give equal priority to the social care part of his brief, as to the NHS.

“His predecessor Wes Streeting was happy to kick the social care crisis into the very long grass by imposing a ridiculously elongated timetable on the Casey Commission, to the detriment of older people and the sustainability of the NHS.

“Baroness Casey is an efficient and seasoned operator and I am sure she could produce final recommendations by June 2027 if instructed to do so”.

The Independent Commission into Adult Social Care, often referred to as the Casey Commission, is chaired by Baroness Louise Casey.

It was set up by the Government to recommend fundamental reforms to the adult social care system in England and to lay the groundwork for a new National Care Service.

Mr Reed told Mr Murray in his letter that Silver Voices is “very disappointed” by the official Government’s response to the group’s petition calling for the Casey Commission to be wound up.

In response to the petition with more than 10,000 signatures, the government said: “The Government will not abolish the Casey Commission. Social care needs long-term reform that people agree on. The Commission is building that consensus while the Government makes improvements now.”

But Silver Voices believes it is “acting as a barrier to desperately needed social care reform because of its ridiculously elongated timetable”.

Baroness Casey will not produce her final recommendations until 2028.

Mr Reed added: “If the Government is not willing to abolish the Casey Commission, then at the very least it should accelerate the timetable, indicate that it is open to radical reform, and define what it means by a National Care Service. Given that there have been two dozen public inquiries into social care over the last 30 years, and multiple public consultations, it should be possible for Baroness Casey to produce final recommendations within a year, by June 2027. We should be grateful if you would consider these proposals seriously.”

It comes as Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham said he would not flinch from fixing the UK’s social care system.

He said: “It is urgent, the need to fix social care, and I personally would look at all of the kind of implications of that in relation to inheritance tax and care charges and everything. I wouldn’t flinch from it.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “This government inherited a social care system in desperate need of reform, and we are delivering on the commitment to build a National Care Service.

“We are also already taking action – investing over £4.6 billion extra for adult social care by 2028-29, and introducing a new fair pay agreement for care workers, as well as higher carers’ allowance thresholds.

“Baroness Casey has been clear that she will not wait until the end of the Commission to recommend actions. The government has already accepted three immediate recommendations and is implementing them, with more expected later this year.”