What Should The New Prime Minister Do To Support Social Care?
Kari Gerstheimer, CEO and founder of Access Social Care writing in The Carer 20th July 2026.
Writing in The Carer (Issue 293), Kari Gerstheimer argues that social care reform has been treated like an architect's plan that's all blueprint and no building — endlessly discussed while people who need care right now are left waiting at the door.
With Andy Burnham as the next Prime Minister, Kari highlights how he inherits a familiar pattern: recognition that the system is broken, promises of reform, and then the political reality of funding making everything harder to deliver.
Kari points to Baroness Casey's work as a reminder that fixing social care means grappling honestly with the social contract, not just the money. In Kari’s view the problem isn't only funding — it's that people's legal rights and entitlements often exist on paper but not in practice. Care users and unpaid carers frequently don't know what they're entitled to, can't get clear answers from local authorities, and have nowhere effective to challenge decisions when they're wrong.
Cutting of Kari’s article in The Carer.
Kari also raises the workforce crisis — pay, status, retention and training — and argues that long-term funding reform, whether through social insurance or taxation, can't keep being ducked, pointing to Germany and Japan as examples of more stable alternatives to the UK's current model.
The new PM has a rare opportunity in his first 100 days to show social care reform is a genuine priority rather than something that gets kicked further down the road.
Read the full article in The Carer Digital, Issue 293 — Kari Gerstheimer is CEO of Access Social Care (accesscharity.org.uk).