Speaking to the Health and Social Care Committee this week Streeting said the Government had not ‘kicked the can' on social care since coming into office.

After coming into power in July 2024 Labour opted not to introduce reforms on capping social care costs and increasing the upper threshold for state support scheduled for October 2025 by the previous Government.

Labour then came under fire for its decision to raise national insurance on social care providers.

Social care was also largely absent from the recently published 10-Year Health Plan while the Casey Commission inquiry into the sector will not share its initial findings until 2026.

However, Streeting denied Labour had kicked the can down the road on social care since coming into Government.

‘We've only been in a year, we have increased the spending power in social care significantly,' Streeting told the committee.

The health secretary said Labour had delivered the biggest rise in the Carers' Allowance since the1970s as well as a big increase in the Disabled Facilities Grant.

Streeting said Labour had also legislated for fair pay agreements for social care workers and would soon be announcing how these will be rolled out.

‘I'm not pretending for a moment it's a panacea but those are meaningful, demonstrable steps in the right direction and there is more to come,' Streeting said.

The health and social care secretary denied social care had been left out of the 10-Year Health Plan, commenting: ‘Social care features in so far as it impacts on the NHS.'

Streeting said social care would be part of the ‘neighborhood health ecosystem', adding: ‘Much of the care delivered in people's homes will involve partnership with social care.'

The secretary of state added: ‘We want to upskill the social care workforce to be able to undertake certain health tasks that we think under proper training they could undertake and that would have to be supported with better pay.'

Streeting added social care had a ‘really big role to play' on delayed discharges, adding: ‘I would expect NHS organisations to look when commissioning intermediate care accommodation for admission avoidance and accelerated discharge, that we'd be buying more capacity with and through social care.

‘So that's how social care features in the 10-Year Plan, but of course there is a Casey Commission.

‘Report one is out next year, and then the second report will be out for subsequent to that to set the long-term direction.'