Last Updated on September 30, 2026

Major social care announcements were delivered by the Prime Minister yesterday at the Labour Party's annual conference.

In his speech, the Prime Minister announced that the pension Triple Lock, which guarantees the State Pension rises by whichever is highest out of inflation, wage increases or 2.5%, will be adjusted from 2030, to remove the direct link with wages. Savings from removing the Triple Lock will be put towards plans for a free at the point of use National Care Service in England.

Commenting on the announcements, Tim Coolican, Partner and Head of Health and Social Care at Anthony Collins, said, 'While [yesterday's] speech has outlined the broad ambitions for social care reform, a National Care Service will stand or fall on how it meets rising demand whilst avoiding the postcode lottery and backlog of demand currently found in the NHS.

'Providers need to know who will commission services, how contracts will be funded and whether fees will reflect the real cost of providing good care. A more consistent national approach could help, but it must not leave providers navigating another layer of bureaucracy. At the same time, a National Care Service must still find ways for individuals to have real choice over their care and support.

'As specifically highlighted by the Prime Minister, recognition of care workers through better pay is long overdue. The challenge is that workforce reform and social care funding are inseparable. If Government wants NHS-style standards and career pathways, commissioners and providers must have the resources to deliver them. Otherwise, there is a real risk of raising expectations that the system cannot fund.

'There is not yet enough detail for providers to plan ahead, but what they can do now is ensure that they, and the people they support, are actively engaged as the proposals take shape. At this point in time when the NHS is also going through significant change, the best proposals will come from listening to the voices of those that rely on social care whilst comparing those wants and needs with examples of what already works well in jurisdictions, such as Norway, Scotland and Japan, to see what might be mirrored without reinventing the wheel.'

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, said, 'The Prime Minister's commitment to social care reform is hugely welcome, after decades of dither and delay. A modern, progressive social care system, free at the point of use, would be transformational for older and disabled people, and their families too. We're excited about this aspiration at Age UK and we will do everything we can to support [the Casey Commission] in thinking through what it should look like, and politicians on all sides in bringing it about.

'Good social care support that you can depend on is certainly critical for older people if they're to live decently in retirement, but so too is financial security. For a generation, the Triple Lock has given older people confidence that the value of their State Pension won't be eroded in an uncertain and volatile world, and now the Government wants to change it from 2030, when their manifesto pledge expires. Pensions policy is notoriously complex so we postpone judgment on the overall impact of their proposed reform until we can scrutinise the detail.

'However, much will depend on where we are by 2030, including what level the State Pension has reached by then. We will need to be absolutely certain that those who are reliant on the State Pension alone can attain a decent standard of living, and that means the Government must have a cast iron plan to ensure no-one is left behind. There is much to do, including moving to a new approach whereby the older people on the lowest incomes actually receive the top up benefits they are due - at present fully one in three are missing out.

'Pensioner poverty has not been vanquished and the last few years show how insidiously it can come creeping back if governments look away. Protecting those older people who are vulnerable, or on the lowest incomes, should be the ultimate test of this Government's reforms - it can't be social care or financial security, in a civilised society it must be both.'

Michelle Dyson CB, Chief Executive at Alzheimer's Society, said, 'For decades, people affected by dementia have paid the price for political failure on social care. [Yesterday] the Prime Minister [...] set out a vision to change that.

'Families have been pushed to breaking point by patchy support and impossible choices about how to care for someone they love. From his personal experience Andy Burnham, like the millions of people across the UK affected by dementia, understands why people can no longer be asked to wait for change. That's why we welcome the Prime Minister's commitment to build a National Care Service, which could be a historic turning point.

'Dementia is one of the biggest drivers of demand for social care and, as the Prime Minister pointed out, if social care continues to fail, pressure on the NHS will only grow. People living with dementia must be at the heart of these plans. That means access to high-quality care and support when it is needed, a skilled and valued workforce with dementia expertise, and better support for unpaid carers.

'The measure of success will not be the ambition of [yesterday's] announcement. It will be whether people living with dementia and their families finally get the care and support they have been denied for far too long. This must be the moment social care is finally fixed.'

Baroness Glenys Thornton, Chair of the Board for the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), said, 'This is an exciting moment for social care. I welcome the Prime Minister's commitment to ending the political "capitulation in the face of the social care crisis", as well as his ambition for a person-centred, high-quality and home-first National Care Service.

'As plans develop, it is essential that the National Care Service is built on the core values of a caring society: equity and fairness, independence and wellbeing. It must enable people of all ages, not just older people, to live with dignity, choice and control. Working-age adults account for around half of all local authority spending on adult social care; their needs, aspirations and rights must be at the heart of reform alongside those of older people.

'The foundations for reform have already been laid through decades of hard work from people with lived experience, professionals and organisations, and it is vital that this experience and expertise shape the Casey Commission's recommendations.'

Karolina Gerlich, Chief Executive at The Care Workers' Charity, said, 'The Prime Minister is right. Care workers have held this system together for years, often at real cost to themselves, and too rarely been seen for it. Hearing that said from the conference stage matters, and so does the commitment to a National Care Service built around people, not profit.

'Care workers have heard ambition before, and they will judge this by what changes in their working lives. Our 2025 Wellbeing Survey found that 72% of care workers do not feel financially secure, and more than a third are considering leaving their roles. A National Care Service will only be as strong as the people delivering it, so fair pay, professional recognition and a genuine voice for care workers must be built in from day one, alongside the Fair Pay Agreement and the Care Workforce Pathway.'

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive at Care England, said, 'Social care reform has been ducked for decades, and the consequences are now felt every day by people drawing on care, their families, providers and the NHS. Andy Burnham is right to confront an issue that too many governments have found easier to postpone than resolve.

'The starting point must be what delivers the best care. Across our membership, providers are united by a focus on quality, choice and outcomes for people, regardless of operating model. Independent providers deliver the vast majority of social care in this country, employ more than a million people and provide essential support that keeps people well, independent and out of hospital.

'There is enormous potential in getting reform right. We support broader access, sustainable funding and better outcomes. We also need a system that encourages innovation, makes the best use of public money and recognises the expertise and capacity that already exist across the sector. Reform should be shaped by what works for people, not by ideological preferences for who provides their care.

'The ambition and urgency are clear, but so is the timetable. If the National Care Service is to be introduced in the next Parliament, this Parliament must be used to prepare the ground for it. Baroness Casey’s Commission can help determine the shape of the future system, but Government does not need to wait for every detail to be settled before acting. Progress can begin now on commissioning, workforce reform, regulation, NHS integration and the financial sustainability of care.'

Liz Jones, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Policy Director at the National Care Forum (NCF), said, 'In a passionate speech setting out his plan for Britain [yesterday], we heard the Prime Minister echo our core message that social care should be for people, not profit as he expanded on his long-held pledge to create a National Care Service.

'He also celebrated the skilled and professional work of care workers, recognising their dedication, and spoke explicitly of the "commitment, skill, humour and humanity with which they care for other people's parents" and the importance of better pay, terms and conditions. It was very refreshing to hear him describe care as an essential public service, as crucial to people as water, energy, transport and homes and to make social care reform such a key policy priority for his Government.

'We believe the National Care Service should have not-for-profit care and support at its heart and we have a number of recommendations for how the Government might support the not-for-profit sector to grow over the next ten years.

'Andy Burnham was very clear about how crucial the Casey Commission's recommendations will be to the framing of the National Care Service. The public's response to the question posed in The Big Conversation on Care: "When we are old or disabled, or have a serious illness, who should support us and how" will be of intrinsic importance as plans are laid out next year in line with the Prime Minister's accelerated timetable.

'Listening also to his focus on the importance of a stronger offer to support young people into work and training, and enabling them to start work well, it is clear that there are many opportunities for employers across the care and support sector to provide career choices for young people. The care sector, as essential public service, offers huge potential to support the Government's ambitions for growth in every postcode and we urge them to work with us to harness this opportunity.'

Dr Jane Townson OBE, Chief Executive at the Homecare Association, said, 'The Prime Minister is right to put social care at the heart of his programme, and right that care should start in the home, where most people want to live for as long as possible. Nobody can sensibly plan for years of care, and nobody should lose their home or savings because of the illness they happen to develop. We support the direction of travel and want to help make it work.

'But "free" describes what the citizen pays, not what the state buys. Where care is already free, removing charges has not always been matched by sufficient funding for the care itself. The result can still be rationed minutes, insecure work and unmet need. A promise made to the public must not be paid for by the workforce, or by the people whose visits are cut short.

'The Prime Minister has promised that the National Care Service will be fully funded. That must mean funding the real cost of good care, including fair pay, travel time, training, supervision and sustainable provision, rather than transferring the cost from individuals to an underfunded commissioning system.

'He also said care should be about people, not profit. We agree that people must come first. In homecare, the immediate threat to quality is often not excessive profit but public bodies purchasing care at prices below the cost of lawful employment. A provider paid £19.29 per hour has no profit to extract, and a council-run service paid the same would face the same arithmetic.

'Reform should therefore start with people, not systems: what people need to live fulfilling lives, the support that will help them achieve that, what they should be entitled to, how we pool the cost fairly, and how people can exercise genuine choice and control over their support.'

Mark Hindle, Managing Director at Tunstall Healthcare, said, 'I believe there's more capacity across the care system than we currently unlock and technology has a massive role to play in helping us use it better. Technology supports people in staying independent for longer by identifying risks earlier, but it can also enable a more connected approach to health, housing and care around the individual.

'But technology alone won't solve the problems we face. Fragmented services and the "who pays, who benefits" problem has held back prevention and innovation for far too long. If we want a genuinely joined-up care system, we need to organise funding around people and outcomes rather than organisational boundaries. Once that is achieved, we can make better use of the capacity we already have, shift from crisis to prevention and, crucially, reduce pressure on the stretched NHS.'

To read the Prime Minister's speech in full, visit the Labour Party website.

In other news, thousands of people across England are being invited to register for the public panel on adult social care.