And now, the end is near...sadly, not for care reform

Wes Streeting, known in Labour Land for his karaoke, channelled his inner Frank Sinatra to declare "the best is yet to come" for adult social care.

- ANDREW GRICE

He could have added another line from Sinatra's song: "You came along and everything started to hum."

The health secretary has passed the parcel of making it hum to Louise Casey, the crossbench peer and Whitehall troubleshooter. She will chair an independent commission to propose the national care service in England Labour promised at last year’s election.

Although Casey is an excellent choice, that doesn’t disguise the most important line in Streeting’s announcement yesterday: she will not deliver her final report until 2028. It means this urgent issue might not be resolved until after the next election.

Recent history tells us that prime ministers with big majorities, like Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, tend to seek a new mandate after four rather than five years. Even if Keir Starmer holds on until 2029, there is no guarantee Casey’s proposals will have been implemented by then – or that the Treasury will find the money.

Before last year’s election, Starmer repeatedly promised to end to “sticking plaster solutions” and vowed to tackle the difficult long-term challenges previous governments had ducked. But as PM, he has now applied another plaster to the ailing care sector and again kicked reform into the long grass. This depressing timetable is worse than expected. Casey will issue an interim report next year but will not make recommendations on the crunch issue of how the care system should be funded until 2028.