RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from The Straits Times — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 2 sourcesBritain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham, whose father has Alzheimer’s, has campaigned to fix the social care system for years.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledges to reform the social care system to ease pressure on the NHS and aims for substantial change during his term. Burnham plans to create a publicly funded National Care Service, free at the point of use, to replace the current privatised, means-tested social care. He also seeks to reduce welfare costs by tightening benefit conditions to encourage work, building on but advancing beyond previous reform attempts. AI generated
LONDON - British Prime Minister Andy Burnham vowed in an interview aired on July 27 to overhaul the country’s social care system to ease pressure on the beleaguered National Health Service.
Unlike the publicly funded NHS, which is struggling with long waiting lists and stretched resources, social care for elderly and disabled people is largely privatised in Britain.
“Whatever political capital I have, I will put into fixing broken social care , and I would not want to leave office without having brought in the substantial change,” Burnham told the BBC in an interview one week after taking office.
Burnham, whose father has Alzheimer’s, has campaigned to fix the social care system for years, including as a health secretary under Gordon Brown between 2009 and 2010.
He had proposed the creation of a publicly funded National Care Service, which would be free at the point of use like the NHS, when he was health secretary, but those plans fell through.
“I will go as quickly as I can on the reform of social care,” said Burnham, adding that while bringing in a new system would “take time”, he still hoped to achieve “substantial change” while in office.
Currently, the system for home and residential care is means-tested, and local authorities who are responsible for providing the services are struggling to keep up with the demands of an ageing population.
The NHS’s chronic bed and staff shortages stem partly from its inability to discharge elderly and dependent patients who don’t have social care in place.
The Prime Minister also acknowledged the need to reduce Britain’s ballooning welfare Bill and suggested tightening conditions for accessing benefits to encourage people to return to work.
“It’s about changing the nature of the support and making some of the support conditional upon people taking opportunities that are presented in front of them,” said Burnham.
His predecessor Keir Starmer had attempted to reform the welfare system but was forced to scale back the changes after facing opposition from within his own party. AFP
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.