What does the pledge mean?

This pledge refers to a proposed fundamental reform of adult social care in England. Social care helps those living with illness or disability, and can include a range of services or activities, such as help from a paid carer, home adaptations, or housing such as a care home.

Like health, social care is devolved from Westminster to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, meaning this pledge only applies to England. (The Scottish government previously separately proposed to restructure social care in Scotland into a national care service, but these plans have since been scaled back, while the Welsh government has said its own ambition to establish a national care service could take 10 years.)

Most publicly-funded social care in England is provided through local authorities, and is financed from council budgets. The UK government provides some funding to local authorities for social care—including children’s social care—in the form of the social care grant.

If a person has been assessed as being eligible for social care, councils then undertake a financial assessment to determine how much of the cost of their care a person needs to pay themselves.

In England, this typically means that those who have £23,250 or more in savings and other assets are required to pay for all of their care.

Councils can decide how much to allocate to social care, with different councils having different budgets for this purpose. Rates of acceptance for council-funded support can vary across the country, while costs for those paying either in part or in full can also vary.

Charities have warned this has created a “postcode lottery” for those trying to access social care services.

The UK government has initially committed to implementing national standards to drive consistent care across England, and a focus on “home first” care in a bid to reduce the numbers of people in hospital who are waiting for social care in other settings.

In previous iterations proposed by Labour, a National Care Service included free personal care for older people, with an ambition to then roll this out to working-age adults who require care. We’ve asked the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) whether this is still part of the government’s plans.

However, no funding was specifically assigned to the National Care Service in Labour’s 2024 manifesto costings, nor did the manifesto commit to a specific timeframe or framework for the policy.

(Separately, Labour pledged before the 2024 election to create a “new legal right” for people in care homes to see their families.)

What progress has been made?

It is hard to assess what progress has been made towards establishing the National Care Service, as its proposed form has not yet been fully set out by ministers.

We have asked the DHSC for more information on this and will update this page if we receive a response.

For this reason, we are currently rating this pledge as “wait and see”.

As a “first step”, the government announced an independent commission into adult social care, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey.

This aims to “build consensus” on the proposed National Care Service, and “make clear recommendations” on how to rebuild the adult social care sector.

The first phase is due to report in 2026 and “set out the plan for how to implement a national care service” with “tangible, pragmatic recommendations that can be implemented in a phased way over a decade”.

The second phase is due to report by 2028 and “make longer-term recommendations for the transformation of adult social care”.

Ministers have been urged by some experts in the sector to accelerate the timeframe for this reform of adult social care.

However, the government has pointed to other measures and reforms it has announced on social care, outside of the National Care Service proposals, including an additional £3.7 billion for local authorities for social care (which also includes children’s social care) in 2025/26, and an increase to the Carer’s Allowance Weekly Earnings Limit, the main benefit for unpaid carers who spend at least 35 hours a week looking after a person with a disability or illness.

It’s also worth noting that previous governments have proposed large-scale reforms in this sector, but these have sometimes proved controversial amid delays and disagreement on how adult social care should be funded.