Britain vows - again - to reform social care, but no plan until 2028

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's latest plan to overhaul increasingly costly care for older and disabled adults will not be delivered until 2028 at the earliest, the government said on Friday, as it announced a three-year independent review to come up with proposals.

The Labour government, which took power in July, said in its manifesto it would create a "National Care Service" to meet the needs of vulnerable people and better integrate social care with the state-funded National Health Service.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said on Friday he had tasked Louise Casey, a former senior official who has led previous high profile reviews, to chair a commission to decide how social care should be organised and funded.

There have already been multiple policy papers, inquiries and reports into social care this century, but governments have failed to find a fix for the sector and to agree how it should be funded in the long term.

Former Prime Minister Theresa May set out a plan during the 2017 election campaign to make those who could afford it pay a greater share of the costs of care, but it was dubbed a "dementia tax" by opponents and she abandoned it after her poll lead halved. She lost her governing majority in the election.

The new commission, which opposition parties will be invited to join, will identify the critical issues by mid-2026 and make long-term recommendations by 2028, the government said.

Streeting said work had already started to stabilise the sector, which lawmakers said in September report faced chronic underfunding, severe staff shortages and rising waiting lists.

But with an ageing society and with costs of care set to double in the next 20 years, longer-term action was needed, he added.

"The independent commission will work to build a national consensus around a new National care Service to meet the needs of older and disabled people into the 21st century," he said.

"We are appointing one of our country's leading public service reformers, and Whitehall's greatest do-er, to finally grasp the nettle on social care reform."

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Toby Chopra)