Labour Party Conference 2026: Our response on social care and the Jobs Guarantee
As the week draws to a close, and a monumental Labour party conference has drawn to an end, we review our thoughts on some of the key announcements below.
Social care
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has long championed the need for a National Care Service to provide free social care for both older people and working-age adults. As Health Secretary in 2010, the ‘Building the National Care Service’ white paper pushed for a phased implementation of comprehensive free social care by 2015 (Department of Health, 2010).
The proposals were scrapped by the Coalition government, but subsequent attempts to implement social care reform have both attempted to gain cross-party consensus, and produced strong disagreements about the exact funding mechanisms.
In 2010, Andy Burnham proposed either deferring pension payments or a 10% estate levy (The Guardian, 2010). During the Coalition and then Conservative governments of 2010-24, the biggest reform proposed was a cap on total social care costs.
The 2011 Dilnot Commission on Social Care proposed a total lifetime cap of £35,000, and that only those with more than £100,000 in savings and capital would have to fund the full cost of care – up from £23,250 (Dilnot, 2011). During the General Election where she lost her majority, Theresa May was forced to ditch this proposal in 2017, which included the value of someone’s home (Full Fact, 2017).
While the 2014 Care Act legislated for a cap, it faced repeated delays until the government announced an £86,000 personal care costs cap in 2021, funded by a Health and Social Care Levy – a 1.25% additional increase in National Insurance contributions (House of Commons Library, 2024). This was scrapped in 2022. The cap itself was also scrapped by Rachel Reeves in 2024.
Andy Burnham’s proposal is to partially fund social care reform by reforming the ‘triple lock’ mechanism for funding the State Pension. While the 2007 Pensions Act guarantees the State Pension will be uprated to earnings growth, George Osborne introduced the ‘triple lock’ mechanism in 2011. This guarantees an annual increase to the State Pension linked to the highest of either inflation, earnings, or 2.5%.
The Prime Minister’s proposal is to tweak this formula from 2030/31 so it is now linked to either inflation or 2.5%, or adjusted to keep up with average earnings growth. This is a technical reform, but one which may produce savings in the long run (Cribb et al., 2026). Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis suggests that had this version of the triple lock been in place since 2011, State Pension expenditure would be £9bn lower (Cribb, 2026).
This alone would likely not fund a universal social care system. Health Foundation estimates suggest a fully universal social care system could cost £18.5bn extra in 2035/36 (Health Foundation, 2026).
Solving the funding question alone will not fix social care. Workforce challenges, a lack of integration with the NHS and postcode lotteries all require meaningful political change. The Prime Minister has outlined challenges such as unfair care charges, and extending the hours of care visits, which we welcome. However, much more needs to be done.
The voices of disabled children, and working age disabled adults need to be at the heart of reforms.
We would also like to see more consideration of the role of unpaid carers, who provide £184.3bn of care every year according to Carers UK and the Centre for Care (Petrillo et al., 2024). While the Prime Minister has mentioned the role of unpaid carers (Department of Health and Social Care, 2026), fully funded social care reform will also require investing in the people who provide care that would otherwise be provided by the NHS and social care services.
Yvette Cooper, the Health Secretary, announced plans for a champion for unpaid carers. This is an important step as unpaid carers often lack the formal representation that comes with being employed or having formal contracts, including up to one in three social care workers who also carry out unpaid care (Carers UK, 2026). We hope this is built on so unpaid carers are fully included in any rollout of a National Care Service.
We support the Centre for Care’s calls to consider measures such as carer’s leave and reforms to Carer’s Allowance as part of a wider social care reform strategy (Centre for Care, 2026). Wider societal structures also fit into this, such as flexibility from employers to ensure that carers do not fall out of work against their wishes, and strong communities that ensure the right services are provided at the right time.
Jobs guarantee
The other most significant policy development from the Labour conference came from Pat McFadden, Work and Pensions Secretary, who has indicated plans to fast-track 18-24-year-olds on disability and health benefits on the government’s Job Guarantee scheme (The Independent, 2026). While the initial scheme focused on young people out of work who had received Universal Credit for 18 months, this extension will guarantee a job for young disabled people three months after initial assessment. This would also cover 100% of wage costs up to 25 hours a week for six months (DWP, 2026b).
This proposal comes amidst concerns about the rise in young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs). The Milburn Review into NEETs has found a “whole system failure” across education, health, welfare and the job market; six in ten NEET young people now have never held a job compared to four in ten in 2005 (Milburn, 2026). This is partly blamed on the decline of the “informal scaffolding” of part-time jobs as Alan Milburn describes it.
The review has also found that 45% of NEETs are disabled, more than double from 2013/4 when the rate was 21.1% (Milburn, 2026). Our own analysis of the review has found 1 in 5 NEETs have a mental health condition and 1 in 8 have a learning disability, with those with a “limiting disability” 2.5 times more like to be NEETs (Disability Policy Centre, 2026).
Much of the public debate has focused on work conditionality for younger benefits claimants, with particular interest in the Dutch model where the NEET rate is under 5% and has greater work requirements (Resolution Foundation, 2026). Pat McFadden himself has endorsed Dutch-style wrap-around services that combine welfare, health and education support – such as ringfenced vocational funding and mental health support in schools and colleges (DWP, 2026c).
The job guarantee could prove important in reducing a stubborn disability employment gap – 29.7% in Q2 of 2024, with 52.8% of disabled people in employment (DWP, 2026a). However, more needs to be done to address this gap at all levels.
We estimate the employment gap costs the Treasury up to £38bn (Disability Policy Centre, 2024), and that targeted measures such as super-deduction of occupational health costs for employers, a social outcomes fund for Job Centres, and National Insurance incentives for employers, could decrease the employment gap.
What will be the important test for the Jobs Guarantee is whether it provides meaningful, work and is not seen to be tokenistic, or a ‘tick-box’ exercise. The emphasis must also be put onto employers to ensure that they provide accessible workplaces, rather than the responsibility always put onto the employee to ‘fit’ the environment’. Only in this way, following the Social Model of Disability, will we see change over time.
References
Carers UK (2026). ‘New carers’ champion to give unpaid carers a stronger voice in government.’ 30 September 2026. https://www.carersuk.org/press-releases/new-carers-champion-to-give-unpaid-carers-a-stronger-voice-in-government/
Centre for Care (2026). ‘Using research evidence in Social Care reform: our letter to PM Andy Burnham.’ 13 August 2026. https://centreforcare.ac.uk/updates/2026/08/using-research-evidence-in-social-care-reform-our-letter-to-pm-andy-burnham/
Cribb, J (2026). ‘New triple lock much improved but not perfect, and not enough to fund universal social care.’ Institute for Fiscal Studies. 29 September 2026. https://ifs.org.uk/articles/new-triple-lock-much-improved-not-perfect-and-not-enough-fund-universal-social-care
Cribb, J; Karjalainen, H; Miller, H. (2026). ‘How will the new triple lock work and what effects will it have?’ Institute for Fiscal Studies. 29 September 2026. https://ifs.org.uk/articles/how-will-new-triple-lock-work-and-what-effects-will-it-have
Department of Health (2010). ‘Building the National Care Service.’ 30 March 2010. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7bfe82ed915d41476221ab/7854.pdf
Department of Health and Social Care (2026). ‘PM sets out new path to fix social care together.’ 29 July 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-sets-out-new-path-to-fix-social-care-together-29-july-2026
Department of Work and Pensions (2026a). ‘The employment of disabled people 2025.’ 24 March 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2025/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2025
Department of Work and Pensions (2026b). ‘Thousands of young disabled people to be offered guaranteed jobs.’ 27 September 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-young-disabled-people-to-be-offered-guaranteed-jobs
Department of Work and Pensions (2026c). ‘UK to roll out Dutch-style employment support across Britain.’ 12 June 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-roll-out-dutch-style-employment-support-across-britain
Dilnot, A (2011). ‘Fairer Care Funding.’ July 2011. https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20130221121529mp_/https://www.wp.dh.gov.uk/carecommission/files/2011/07/Fairer-Care-Funding-Report.pdf
Disability Policy Centre (2024). ‘Plugging the Fiscal Black Hole.’ 25 October 2024. https://thedisabilitypolicycentre.org/s/25th-October-2024-Plugging-the-Fiscal-Black-Hole-Report-262n.pdf
Disability Policy Centre (2026). ‘Action on NEETs requires real incentives and support.’ 29 June 2026. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/619e1d7a522f9748f55d6a17/t/6a423ae7ca2db62893b453cf/1782725352033/29.06.2026+Milburn+Review+Analysis.pdf
Full Fact (2017). ‘What is the “dementia tax”?’ 7 June 2017. https://fullfact.org/health/what-dementia-tax/
Health Foundation (2026). ‘Social care funding: options for reform.’ 24 July 2026. https://www.health.org.uk/features-and-opinion/blogs/social-care-funding-options-for-reform
House of Commons Library (2024). ‘Introducing a cap on care costs.’ 31 July 2024. https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9315/CBP-9315.pdf
Milburn, A (2026). ‘Young people and work: interim report.’ 28 May 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/young-people-and-work-interim-report
Petrillo, M; Zhang J; Bennett M. (2024). ’Valuing Carers 2021/22: the value of unpaid care in the UK.’ Carers UK. November 2024. https://www.carersuk.org/media/mfbmjbno/valuing_carers_uk_v3_web.pdf
Resolution Foundation (2026). ‘Lost in transition.’ 28 April 2026. https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/lost-in-transition/
The Guardian (2010). ‘Andy Burnham sets out options for elderly care funding.’ 10 Mar 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/mar/10/burnham-labour-elderly-care-funding
The Independent (2026). ‘Disabled young people to get government-funded jobs at Tesco and Lidl.’ 29 September 2026. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/neet-jobs-disability-benefits-labour-dwp-b3057731.html