Labour Party Conference 2025

Follow Care England’s Cai Parry as he reports daily from the 2025 Labour Party Conference. Each update will capture the key announcements from Labour alongside exclusive insights into Care England’s activity and discussions at the event.

Monday 29th September

The majority of today was spent at panel events on social care and care in the community as part of the NHS 10 year plan. Speakers included MPs Stephen Kinnock (Minister for Care), Dr Simon Opher (Chair of the Health APPG), Ben Coleman (Health & Social Care Select Committee) & Sojan Joseph (Chair of ASC APPG).

 

One of the points discussed was that the “shift from hospital to the community” in the plan is so broad that it could mean anything the reader wants to project onto it, which is both an opportunity and a threat to the sector, as social care is not a core part of the 10 year plan despite Lord Darzi’s assurance that the sector must thrive if the NHS is ever to do the same.

 

GPs were seen to be potential “conductors of the [community care] orchestra” which will integrate health, social care, radiology, and also other government support and citizens’ advice which feeds into the prevention agenda. Opher pointed out the issues of funding, especially the challenges of integration while local authority and ICB social care funding remains separate and allocated from the “top down”, while Kinnock emphasised the need for “bottom up” solutions to integration. Sojan Joseph was very critical of the ICS model which he said lacked action, and Coleman said that local authority councillors should play roles on ICBs as opposed to the current plan for strategic mayors.

 

I also met representatives from the Stroke Association, discussing vascular dementia, and Motability, where I learned about the challenges of adapting electric vehicles for wheelchair users.

 

Sunday 28th

The conference for me started with attending the brunch to which Care England was invited by the LGBT Foundation. It was certainly an eye opener to see just how many of these LGBT charities really want more support for LGBT people in care and with illnesses like dementia and HIV. I met representatives from Stonewall, Translucent, Gallop, the George House Trust and the LGBT Foundation and discussed issues in the care sector that aren’t often brought to the fore, but are no less important.

 

After this it was back to the conference centre, where the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer introduced Australian PM Anthony Albanese. Whilst care wasn’t a direct topic of discussion, what happens on the main floor is a good indication of the direction that the agenda of the government is taking. Both men hinted at being more explicitly progressive in Labour’s opposition to Reform UK, and the conference later that day decided the topics for the rest of the week’s debates. “Staffing in Adult Social Care” was selected by the trade union bloc as a motion for discussion, and is expected to be debated on Tuesday.

 

Later on, I met with leaders in local authorities to discuss digital transformation in care and the provision of respite care; and also MPs Alex Sobel and Danny Beales, the latter of whom sits on the Health & Social Care Select Committee, to discuss the care markets in their constituencies. The day ended with my attending the Carer’s Trust event, where they presented a report on young carers in education, where government policy proposals would link health, care and education delivery together as part of their shift to neighbourhood health.