Arabic version: بيرنهام يحذر من انهيار هيئة الخدمات الصحية الوطنية دون إصلاح الرعاية الاجتماعية

According to BBC News, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has warned that the NHS will “collapse” unless social care is reformed, while declining to set a timetable for creating a new system. In his first major interview since becoming prime minister, he said he would not want to leave office without delivering “substantial change”.

Burnham said the NHS risked being overwhelmed by caring for people who “really not needed to end up in the NHS system” if social care was not fixed. He is due to make a speech on adult social care on Wednesday, but is expected to speed up the Casey Commission rather than unveil a replacement system. Baroness Louise Casey’s final recommendations are not expected until 2028.

Adult social care supports people to live more independently, including through help at home, but it is not free at the point of use. In England and Northern Ireland, people with savings above £23,250 are not entitled to council help with care costs. Sarah Woolnough of the King’s Fund said one in seven people pay more than £100,000 for social care.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has urged Burnham to rule out tax rises or additional borrowing to fund reform. Reform Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said his party would oppose a “universal death tax”, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for a lasting cross-party consensus and said family carers must be central to any new system.

Burnham also said the government might increase conditions attached to receiving benefits, arguing that some people could enter work with the right support. He said he would not “go straight to blaming” benefit claimants and pointed to young people in their 20s who had been let down by a lack of support.