What is Andy Burnham's Plan to 'Fix' Social Care?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello. Occasionally there is a news story and you realise, I'm so glad this podcast exists because it means I can get my really smart colleagues together. We can talk for quite a long time and go into quite a lot of detail. And by the end of it, we will all be better off as a result. And that has happened today because Andy Burnham's done another big intervention in his first fortnight as Prime Minister. This time, his thoughts on reforming social care in England. And for newscasters who have complained that all of his announcements or most of them have been about England, I suppose that's just the way the cookie has crumbled with this Prime Minister. But this is such a good episode with so many insights from people who have been covering these stories and looking at the trade-offs for decades in some cases that it's definitely worth listening to this episode of Newscast.
What will you do?
Stare at a wall.
Hello, it's Adam in the Newscast Studio, and we're going to focus this whole episode on the thorny issue of adult social care in England. Although there are knock-on effects, because social care has to be delivered, well, in every country in the world. And so I've assembled three of my great colleagues to help me understand what Andy Burnham was saying at his speech today at a social care facility run by a Jewish charity in North London. Please welcome back to the Newscast Studio, BBC social affairs editor, Alison Holt. Hi, Alison. Hello. And you've been covering social care...
A very, very long time, yes.
How many years do you think you've had on this beat now?
I don't even dare count it, but I will say I interviewed Andy Burnham in 2009 when he was launching his plan for a national care service.
The first time round.
The first time round. So I do feel I've been here.
And of course, the point about that was he was announcing it too late in the lifetime of that Labour government. It was never going to happen because there was an election less than a year away.
Exactly. So then his plan was to put a £20,000 levy on people's estates after they died to fund a national care service. That in the general election became dubbed a death tax.
By the Conservatives.
By the Conservatives. And in a sense, it also started this real political football, which I'm sure we'll get into, which went on for years. Death tax, dementia tax, death tax, etc.,
Yeah, and also famously, Ken Barlow from Coronation Street did an advert for the Conservatives about the so-called death tax in that election.
My, you do have a good memory.
I mean, it's quite a famous moment of British electoral history, so I'm not going right into the archives there. Also joining us, Ben Chu from BBC Verify. Hello, Ben. Hello, Adam. And Jim Reid, our health correspondent, is here too. Hello, Jim. Hey, Adam. Right, so Ben, you've been looking at some numbers and also a bit of political history as well, yeah? Yeah, that's right. And Jim, you've just got quite a lot of experience of the things that have been going wrong in the system thus far.
Yeah, I've been speaking to families today reacting to the announcement.
What did Andy Burnham announce about reforming social care in England?
And every time you speak to any family that's caught up in this, honestly, your heart just goes out to them because they've often been through the absolute ringer. And it does bring back...
just how many people are affected by this there's some statistic that i think it's pretty much everyone in the country knows someone or has had to deal with these kind of issues yet they are not talked about perhaps as much as they should be although allison will come on to the details if we call them details of andy burnham's speech today but that whole idea of the pain that families go through the hard work it is for the workers and how terrible it is for the people who need the care a lot of the time was a big feature of this speech from andy burnham wasn't it
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:51
2
What did Andy Burnham announce about reforming social care in England?
3:51–28:15
3
How does the current means-testing system leave people exposed to care costs?
28:15–35:33
4
What numbers explain how much England spends on social care versus the NHS?
35:33–40:41