Andy Burnham wants to fix social care - what are the options?

ByBen ChuPolicy and analysis correspondent, BBC VerifyPublished27 July 2026Updated 1 hour agoPrime Minister Andy Burnham has said he wants major reform of the social care system in England, calling the current situation "bad for everybody".

In a speech at a care home on Wednesday he announced that cross-party talks involving the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats would start later.

Burnham also said he had asked Baroness Casey - who is carrying out a review of social care - to bring forward her report by a year. She will now set out her recommendations in 2027.

He confirmed that her review will also look at the question of how to pay for any reforms.

BBC Verify has looked at four options for approaching reform and how much they could cost.

It has been estimated that around one in seven people aged 65 and over face lifetime care costs of more than £100,000.

One proposal is to cap these costs with the government picking up the bill above a certain cash threshold.

In 2011 a commission headed by the economist Andrew Dilnot proposed a lifetime cap of £35,000.

Dilnot estimated his proposed reforms would cost between £1.3bn and £2.2bn a year. The cost today would be higher due to inflation and the ageing population.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, led by David Cameron, accepted Dilnot's recommendations.

But after the 2015 general election, which delivered a Conservative majority, Cameron delayed the implementation of the cap to 2020 over what he said were pressures on the public finances.

Image source, Getty ImagesIn 2017, when Theresa May was in No 10, the Conservatives' general election manifesto proposed a different way to reform social care.