Tomos Morgan
BBC Wales News

As we mentioned in our earlier post, the prime minister’s plan will not have a direct impact in Wales - as social care is devolved.

Currently, anyone with more than £50,000 of capital may have to pay the entire cost of residential care in Wales.

Average private care home costs here are roughly £1,156 a week, external for residential care and £1,394 a week for nursing care.

For non-residential care, anyone with more than £24,000 in savings, external (not including the value of your home), or a "high level" of disposable income, may have to pay up to £100 a week towards costs.

The new Plaid Cymru government said in its manifesto for May’s Senedd election that it wanted social care to be free at the point of care, like the NHS.

It also said it wanted to end the division between social care and health care, and would work towards creating an integrated service.

Angus Cochrane
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Burnham's plans on social care reform will only apply to England.

That's because the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are in control of their own social care systems.

Across the UK, the issues are similar - soaring costs, a struggle to recruit and retain staff and a widely accepted need for reform without an obvious path to it.

The Scottish government had hoped to be the first UK nation to create a national care service - taking social care responsibilities away from local authorities into a new national agency. However, those plans were scrapped last year after becoming unworkable.

Similar proposals are now being discussed as part of the Casey review for England.

Another idea being discussed is free personal care - which already exists in Scotland.

That includes things like helping frail elderly people wash and dress and go to the toilet, but does not cover accommodation, food and everyday living costs which are subject to means testing.

The Health Foundation think tank estimates that implementing a Scottish-style system in England would cost £7.5bn a year by 2036.

Image source, Reuters

Andy Burnham has finished his speech and taken questions from media - here's a recap of what we've heard from him.

• The prime minister started by praising care teams, saying they should be the "best paid people in society, not the worst" and blamed his generation of politicians for failing to reform social care
• Burnham made three announcements on social care, the first being that he's asked Baroness Louise Casey to bring forward her review by a year - from 2028 to 2027 - and focus on how the government could set up a National Care Service
• The second announcement was about how the government could reform pay, training and progression for social care staff to bring it in line with the broader NHS
• The third announcement was about the beginning of cross-party talks between Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats
• Moving on to questions from reporters, Burnham insisted his plans would be fully funded but said reform would require "difficult decisions"
• At the same time, Burnham also recommitted to Labour's manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT

Image source, Reuters

The Independent asks the prime minister if he can guarantee people will no longer have to sell their homes to pay for care.

Burnham says that in an ideal world no one should have to sell their home to pay for care and that it's an "awful process" to live through.

"The system isn't right," he says.

The PM also pleads for a "factual debate" on social care to allow people to weigh up the options put forward by the Casey review.

Burnham is also asked about how reforms to the current system will be paid for. He describes how focusing on financing one element of social care is "a failure of the past".

He says viewing the issue as a whole may give the opportunity for "financial solutions" to come from "doing things differently".

Burnham was asked if he will rule out tax rises and whether he can commit to 3% of GDP spending on defence by 2030.

Burnham says he will stick to commitments made in the Labour manifesto, including on taxes.

On defence spending, Burnham says he will honour Nato commitments. However, he adds, it will mean being prepared to look at challenging issues, including young people not in employment or training.

Image source, PA Media

Andy Burnham has now finished taking questions from the media.

Over the next few posts, we'll detail some of the queries the new PM faced.

This marks the first question and answer session Burnham has participated in since he became prime minister last week.

Burnham is then asked about the threshold to qualify for social care help.

In England, people with savings worth more than £23,250 are not entitled to help with care costs from their council.

Burnham says he feels service in England is just as unfair as it is in America.

"The vulnerable pay with everything and it can completely leave them with nothing," he says.

The prime minister then answers a question on his stance on assisted dying, saying the funding of palliative care and social care needs to be fixed before a wider conversation can be had on the topic.

Burnham is then asked by ITV News if the government can realistically transform social care without raising taxes.

The PM says this is a question of standards within organisations, adding that care is variable across different organisations.

He says there is profiteering in the sector and "unnecessary and dangerous" cost cutting on the backs of vulnerable people.

Burnham adds more can be done with existing resources and clarifies that today's announcements will be fully funded.

He says that there will be some things that the government wants to do that will "require difficult decisions" but he will be honest with people about those and put them before the country "at the right time".

The BBC's Alison Holt has asked Burnham what would be different this time, noting that there have been cross-party talks before.

Referring back to his experience as health secretary in 2009-10, Burnham says reform to social care was probably left too late then as it was too close to a general election.

"It's better to do it sooner and further away from an election," Burnham says, adding that it's one of the reasons why he's asked Baroness Louise Casey to bring the review forward.

"I don't know whether it's possible to find agreement, but let's give it a try," he says.

Responding to whether the proposal for cross-party talks was late notice, Burnham says he had two approaches at the weekend from the Tories and Lib Dems and he was responding to that ask.

He says these talks are "just the start".

Just before he concluded his speech, Burnham said his third announcement is the initiation of cross-party talks about tackling the issue of social care, describing it as "the right thing to do".

He adds that such an approach is the "first big test" to ending political point scoring on the topic and Lib Dem leader Ed Davey was right to say there needs to be "give and take" between the parties.

Burnham says common ground must be found, and "that process starts today".

He says he wants to do his best to find a solution to social care issues, before adding: "I would never forgive myself if I left without having tried."

The prime minister ends his speech by striking an emotional tone, saying he is going to tackle the problem "for my dad and the millions like him up and down the country".

Burnham has finished his speech and is now taking questions from the press.

We will bring you a few more details from his speech here, and then outline what we learn from his Q+A with the media.

Burnham says the government has agreed a fair pay agreement for social care staff to come in 2028/29 financial year and pays tribute to Keir Starmer for bringing that forward, calling it a "massive building block" of a national care service.

But he says he wants to discuss how to turn the fair pay agreement into a bigger reform to lift up the social care workforce.

The PM adds that he wants to lift up the workforce in terms of training too, including a progression route for young people coming into social care so they can progress from social care into NHS positions as well.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he has three main announcements today.

First, he has asked Baroness Louise Casey to bring forward her review by a year (it was due to report in full in 2028). Burnham would like it to be even sooner but says they have to be "realistic".

"Social care is different, it has to be person-centred", Burnham says, but adds it also has to be preventative and integrated with the wider health system.

Burnham says he is asking Casey to deliver a report that outlines how his government can deliver a National Care Service.

The second announcement is to focus on the social care force. Burnham has asked the ministerial group to look at how to turn the fair pay agreement into a bigger reform, to improve the social care workforce.

He wants to integrate it more with the NHS workforce.

His third announcement is a cross-party approach, involving the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

Burnham continues and says that the social care system is "intrinsically linked" to the NHS, which he says cannot be "restored" without social care reform.

He says the country needs to face up to fixing social care "with a new determination".

The prime minister adds people need to try their best to solve "this issue", because it "affects all of us in one way or another".

Burnham goes on to say that it is estimated around two million adults in England have unmet care needs.

He adds that adults with disabilities who say they face unfair care charges need to be recognised - and adds that the situation is bad for NHS staff too.

The prime minister says it is very difficult to "stop the drag of the system" once people are hospitalised, calling it a "lose-lose situation". He says that people being discharged is a pressure the NHS "struggles to meet".

Burnham says that there is only one group to blame for current challenges in social care - and that is his generation of politicians.

He says there has been a "major dereliction of public duty that parliament has not faced up to this of all challenges".

The PM says it is "shameful" that politicians have put point scoring above fixing this issue.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham starts by saying that some in the room will be having a sense of "déjà vu", but "this time we're going to do it".

Drawing on his lived experiences, as his father has Alzheimer's, Burnham says the only thing he can do is talk from those emotions to make the change.

He starts by praising caring teams, saying he's been "overwhelmed" by their care, skills and professionalism.

"To me, they should be the best paid people in society, not the worst," Burnham says.

He also points to how many people from other countries have been caring for his father.

"I want those carers to know we appreciate you, we appreciate what you are doing to support people here [in the UK]," he adds.

Cooper then hands over to Baroness Louise Casey, who is speaking before Burnham.

She says that for the past 18 months she has heard how people are living in "difficult circumstances" and that in some cases, the state is making it worse.

She says that some of the answers in her review will need to be modest, while others will be "not so modest".

Out of all the 22 reviews into social care, she says no government consulted the public when consdering social care reform.

Baroness Casey says that hospitals are filled with "huge numbers of frail, elderly people...that simply never needed to be there in the first place".

She announces that she is launching the Big Conservation on Care - a consultation process on social care that will address questions surrounding when the state steps in and who pays.

Baroness Casey describes this as "a game changer".

Before the prime minister started speaking, Health Secretary Yvette Cooper took to the stage.

She says that the topic is "personal for many of us and matters for all of us".

Later this year, the government will introduce a "dementia tsar", she says.

Cooper shares that her own mother has dementia and that there have been 22 different attempts to reform social care since she was elected to Parliament.

She adds: "We cannot keep walking away from this problem."

The health secretary says that alongside the Casey review, she will chair a new ministerial group to accelerate government response to issues.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has started speaking.

We will bring you key lines here. You can also watch his speech live in the stream at the top of the page.