HEALTH Secretary Wes Streeting denied kicking much-needed social care reform into the long grass today as campaigners continued to criticise the timescale of his new commission.

He however hinted that 14 years of Tory austerity and chaos following the publication of the Dilnot commission’s recommendations for the sector in 2011 was to blame.

There is a 25-year history of plans to reform social care being ditched by different governments and Labour this summer came under heavy criticism for scrapping changes to the system proposed by the Dilnot’s report. 

Mr Streeting said that Labour had been prepared to go ahead with its proposals but “we found the money wasn’t there.”

“Even if the money had been there, councils hadn’t been prepared to implement it from October 2025.”

Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams said Mr Streeting was “essentially correct” as Tory government U-turns left many councils concluding that it was “not a good use of time or money to put everything in place locally to make a success of actioning the [Dilnot] plan.”

She added social care faces different pressing issues following 14 years of austerity.

Mr Streeting added that cross-party talks starting next month will “agree on the direction on social care for the long term” with the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform party all agreeing to would work together on it.

He said that for him, a national care service is “about national standards — consistent access to higher-quality care for older and disabled people everywhere in the country,” adding: “I think one of the reasons why we’ve ended always back into this short-termist cycle of failure is: whenever we talk about social care, there are costs involved.”

The Dilnot report recommended the introduction of an £86,000 cap on the amount an older or disabled person would have to pay towards their support at home or in care homes.

The new independent commission on reforming adult social care in England will not deliver its final report until 2028 at the earliest.

Care England chief executive Professor Martin Green said this “risks becoming yet another report that gathers dust while the sector crumbles.

“This commission will simply confirm what we already know — how many more reports must we endure before action is taken?”

Health Foundation director of policy Hugh Alderwick warned the commission “must move quickly” or run the risk of “history repeating itself.”