What does the pledge mean?

This pledge refers to a proposed fundamental reform of adult social care in England (social care is devolved in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales). 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.

Most publicly-funded social care in England is provided through local authorities and is financed from council budgets, though this is topped up by the UK government’s 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 a person needs to pay towards the cost of their own care. This typically means people who have £23,250 or more in savings and other assets are required to pay for all of their care.

Rates of acceptance for council-funded support and the costs of care can vary across the country, which charities have warned has created a “postcode lottery” for those trying to access social care services.

Labour’s manifesto 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.

The manifesto did not assign funding to a NCS nor provide a timeframe or framework for the policy.

What progress has been made?

We are rating this pledge as “in progress”, as the government has set out some details on what its NCS will include and has said it will launch in the next Parliament. A commission into the NCS is also underway.

Previously, as a “first step”, in January 2025 the government announced an independent commission into adult social care, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey, which aims to “build consensus” on the proposed NCS, and “make clear recommendations” on how to rebuild the adult social care sector.

Initially, this was due to report in two phases but the government has since said this had changed to a “single, accelerated process” which will release a final report in summer 2027.

In September 2026, in his first conference speech as Labour leader and Prime Minister, Andy Burnham said the government “will start laying the ground now for the National Care Service and introduce it in the next Parliament”.

Mr Burnham said the NCS would be “a person-centred, high-quality care service that starts in the home”, that it will be “free at the point of use and no care charges paid out of your basic state pension”.

He also said Baroness Casey’s review “will advise us on exactly how”, and that the government will “seek to build the maximum national consensus around her recommendations”.

Further detail was provided in a government press release, which said the NCS “will be introduced in phases” and “will include personal care, helping with things like eating, bathing and using the toilet”, but “will not cover bed and board, for which existing means-tested council contributions will remain”.

Labour’s 2024 manifesto didn’t set out how a NCS would be funded, but the government said savings from its plan to change the triple lock “will be used for a new National Care Service”.

However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank has called the estimated saving “very uncertain” and said it will not “be the answer to funding universal social care”.

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.