The National Care Service

Millions of people rely on social care every day, but it has long been a service in crisis with soaring demand, workforce shortages and inadequate funding, putting ever greater pressure on council finances. Against this backdrop, the Labour government was elected on a promise to set up a National Care Service. In this episode, acting editor Martin George is joined by former care minister Paul Burstow, who now chairs the Social Care Institute for Excellence, and Andy Harrop, a director at Public First who as general secretary of the Fabian Society wrote a report for the Labour party setting out a roadmap to a National Care Service, to explore what a National Care Service could look like in practice, and how it could change the role of councils.

You can listen to The National Care Service online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The National Care Service is an episode from The Local Authority Podcast by LGC.

This episode is 37:02 long.

This episode was published on Feb 18, 2026.

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