Why is Andy Burnham talking about fixing England’s social care system?

In some cases, people end up selling their homes and using their entire life savings to fund care in their later years. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA View image in fullscreen In some cases, people end up selling their homes and using their entire life savings to fund care in their later years. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA Explainer Why is Andy Burnham talking about fixing England’s social care system? Prospective MP and potential Labour leader has said tackling the issue is a priority. But why is the system in crisis and what can be done about it? ‘I wouldn’t flinch’: Burnham on social care, markets, Brexit – and the prospect of a general election Andy Burnham has signalled he would overhaul England’s social care system this year if he became prime minister, the biggest indication yet of what his main priorities would be. Work is already under way on updating the social care system under Keir Starmer, but Burnham has suggested he would seek more radical and urgent change. He is not the first to have made such a claim, with several former Labour and Conservative prime ministers attempting to tackle the complex issue of the social care crisis in England – so what are the key issues and how much could they cost to fix? What is wrong with social care in the UK? The adult social care sector in England has been in crisis for decades, with local authorities struggling to meet the rising costs and a permanent staffing shortage making it difficult to keep up with the growing demand. There were 2m new requests for publicly funded social care in 2024-25, up from 1.8m in 2015-16, and a growing number of these requests came from working-age adults – a 31% increase – rather than elderly people. Local authorities are statutorily required to provide care, but funding cuts . Successive governments over the past 30 years have all agreed the system needs a complete overhaul, with proposals ranging from a lifetime cap on care costs to integrating social care into the NHS, but the political and financial cost of fixing it has meant little change has actually happened. The key issue at the heart of the social care crisis is who pays for it. Social care is not part of the NHS and is instead administered by councils. As well as care for elderly people, a big portion of their social care budgets goes to younger adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities or mental health conditions.