The need for social care reform is ‘bleedin’ obvious’ and Government must announce plans in 2025, Dilnot urges

The Prime Minister’s backing for long-awaited reform will be “absolutely critical” if much-needed change is to be made, Sir Andrew Dilnot said.

He described it as “blindingly… bleedin’ obvious” that something should be done in an area which remains “pretty invisible” in the public discourse.

The economist, who was the architect of plans for a care costs cap more than a decade ago, welcomed the fact that a newly announced commission would be “another chance to try to raise this set of issues up the agenda”.

But Sir Andrew insisted to the Health and Social Care Committee yesterday that it should not take three years to produce a final report and recommendations, suggesting it is “perfectly feasible” for the Government to set out by the end of this year what it is going to do.

He described it as “completely unnecessary” to wait until 2028 to decide what to do and urged Sir Keir not to “hide behind waiting until everybody has agreed” because he leads a Government with a “very, very large majority” in Parliament.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting last week announced that an independent commission, led by Baroness Louise Casey, will begin in April, but the Government confirmed that a second phase, making long-term recommendations, might not report until 2028.

Sir Andrew branded this an “inappropriate length of time” and too close to an election, saying a decision on a major issue like this “ideally is made in the first half of a parliament because otherwise events get in the way”.

Mr Streeting has said the commission will “work to build a national consensus around a new National Care Service able to meet the needs of older and disabled people into the 21st century”.

It will be split over two phases, with the first, reporting to Sir Keir in mid-2026, looking at the issues facing social care and recommending medium-term reforms, and two years later reporting from its second phase.

Sir Andrew led a review into the future of funding social care and published his proposals in 2011.

But despite Dilnot-style reforms having been accepted by previous governments, they have yet to be enacted.

Labour faced criticism last summer for scrapping plans for an £86,000 cap on the amount anyone in England would need to spend on their personal care over their lifetime, having argued the proposals were not “deliverable” in the time frame.

North Yorkshire’s Independent Care Group has said that thousands of people have been “cheated” out of a good quality of life due to decades of inaction on social care reform.

Chair Mike Padgham said: “We agree with Sir Andrew Dilnot … that it shouldn’t take three years for that commission to report. It needs strong political leadership to make it happen.

“We have now reached a point where there are two million people living without the care they need and very little sign that things are going to get any better, with the current government looking intent on kicking the issue down the road again.

“In 2025, that shames the country and shames politicians who have let it get so bad.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Sir Andrew is “absolutely right” on the timing for reform, adding: “The social care crisis is forcing patients to be treated in hospital corridors while elderly people sell their homes to pay for care.

“After years of being let down so badly by the Conservatives, they cannot afford to wait while the Government drags its heels for another three years.”

Responding to a plea from Sir Ed in the Commons to speed up the work on reform to make 2025 “the year we finally rise to the challenge of fixing care”, Sir Keir said he wanted “cross-party consensus” on the issue.

The Prime Minister noted social care funding announced in the Budget as well as an increased carer’s allowance, but did not commit to a new timetable for the commission.