Andy Burnham is to hold cross-party talks focused on the need to reform the social care system in England.

The prime minister will outline his strategy for reforms on Wednesday as Baroness Louise Casey, who is leading an independent review of the social care sector, told the BBC “the system is fairly bust”.

Burnham, who has invited the leaders of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to meet him, is expected to give a speech saying that finding cross-party common ground will be key to improving the system.

On X, he said: “We can’t kick this can down the road any longer. We have to find common ground and listen to others to find a way forward.”

“It is time to draw a line under people playing politics when the human cost of that means care is struggling, families paying the price and our NHS buckling under the strain,” he added.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he would attend the cross-party talks remotely but Tory leader Kemi Badenoch cannot be there and is sending shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew instead.

Burnham did not invite the leaders of Reform UK or the Green Party of England and Wales to Wednesday’s talks.

Last week he told the BBC the NHS would “collapse” if social care was not reformed, saying he would not want to leave office without bringing in “substantial change” to the system.

The prime minister said he would put “whatever political capital” he had “into fixing broken social care” but did not put a timeline on changes.

Burnham first proposed a universal system of social care in England in 2009, when he was health secretary under former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

He suggested a compulsory levy to fund the system and Brown’s government also floated the idea of allowing people to defer the payment until after they died, leading to the Tories branding it a “death tax”.

In his speech on Wednesday, Burnham is not expected to set out detailed plans for a new system of social care in England.

But the BBC has been told he will announce he is speeding up the Casey Commission, an independent review led by Baroness Casey which will draw up recommendations to overhaul the social care sector in England. She is due to report her full findings in 2028.

Baroness Casey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The vision we must have for a country when it comes to a national care service is that the public do not have to face constant battle lines between who does what and how.”

She added: “We have withdrawn the national health service from communities… like the number of district nurses and their teams has gone down in the last 10/15 years, people are still struggling to get GP appointments.

“If we were much better at running a much better service – whether it is care or health in the community – in the first place, you would have less people tripping into hospital.”

Baroness Casey also said that while private companies may have a role to play, she was opposed to “profiteering out of human misery and human life”.

At the speech, Burnham will be joined by Health Secretary Yvette Cooper. Baroness Casey will also be there to launch a consultation to give the public a chance to share their views on social care.

Ahead of his speech, Burnham said it was “time to draw a line under people playing politics” with social care.

“Last week I said we needed a different kind of politics: problem-solving, not point-scoring,” he said.

“Nowhere is that more urgent than social care. For decades, governments have kicked this issue down the road because they’ve seen it as too risky, too difficult, and too complicated.

“Politicians might have different views but I’m serious about fixing this issue and to do that, we have to find common ground and listen to others to find a way forward.”

Adult social care provides state support to help people live more independently, including assistance at home.

Unlike the NHS, social care is not free at the point of use. In England and Northern Ireland, people with savings worth more than £23,250 are not entitled to help with care costs from their council.

In Wales and Scotland, different rules apply in terms of eligibility.

Last week, Badenoch wrote to the prime minister saying he should rule out tax rises or increased borrowing to fund social care reform.

A Conservative spokesman said Andrew would attend in Badenoch’s place and was ready to work with Labour on measures that improved social care – provided they were not reliant on tax rises and borrowing.

“Social care is vital to protecting the most vulnerable in our society,” he said.

“Any changes must be backed by a clear, credible and fully costed plan that delivers better care for the public and value for taxpayers.

“Andy Burnham and Labour cannot rely on vague promises of reform without a clear plan for implementation and detail on what will happen when.”

Sir Ed said on X that he would attend the meeting by Zoom as he was with his family in France and has a disabled son who needed “24/7 care”.

He believes that the “current system is broken” and wants to see family care “front and centre” of any reforms as it is where “the vast majority of caring takes place”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If people are able to look after their loved ones [at home], they don’t have to go into hospitals so often and that can save huge amounts of money.”

Sir Ed complained about how some individuals face “catastrophic” choices in having to sell their homes to pay for care.

He told the BBC that if proposed changes were found in the Burnham talks on Wednesday that Labour and the Conservatives could agree on, the Lib Dems would support this “even if it is not our preferred option”.

He has previously said he was ready to do “whatever I can to find a real and lasting consensus on social care” but pointed out there had already been 22 failed attempts at reforming social care since 1997.

“To see the 23rd effort work, we need to do things differently,” he said.

Complaining of the snub, Reform leader Nigel Farage said far from leaving politics aside, Burnham had “chosen to ignore the party that led over 300 national opinion polls and represents thousands of councillors and millions of Britons across the country”.

He accused the prime minister of “conspiring behind closed doors with the failed political establishment”.

Green leader Zack Polanski, asked on Newsnight whether he should have been invited, said: “That’s a case for the prime minister. Actually, I think it’s positive he’s inviting opposition leaders at all.

“I would like to be there, of course I would, I’d encourage the prime minister to extend that invitation… the point here, though, is not politicians’ personal egos, the point is adult social care is a ticking time bomb.”

Richard Hardy has lived at Broadway Lodge Residential Home in York for two-and-a-half years.

Like many, he and his wife Diane say cost was a factor in their choice.

But at £1,100 a week they’re worried about how long their savings will last.

“I’ve done a lot of money juggling over the last few months,” said Diane.

Many other homes were more expensive and Richard is happy there, but Diane does not want to reach the point where she has to sell the family home where she lives to fund his care.

“There’s always that sort of little doubt, but I have faith in the fact that you know this is meant to be,” she said.

The care home’s owner Faizal Mohamudbaccus says they would never ask anyone to leave because of a lack of funding, but local authorities need to be quicker to step in when care home residents run out of money.

“The system for an elderly person coming into a care home is broken and there’s not enough social workers, there’s not enough organisation or planning and I think a more robust system would make it easier for the family,” he said.

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