Reflections from Labour Party Conference – and a call for adult social care to take its rightful place in the national conversation  

By Jess McGregor, ADASS President 

Earlier this week, I attended the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. The energy and commitment to public service were palpable, but I left wanting to hear more about where adult social care sits in the Government’s agenda. 

At a Carers Trust roundtable, I was introduced to a young carer who, through school and into university, quietly held a world of responsibility: booking hospital appointments, navigating paperwork, providing daily care. Yet at no point did anyone ask if she needed support. Only when she began university did someone finally help her understand that she was a carer. Now, she is facing difficult choices about her career ambitions and her caring role. Her experience is heartbreaking – but it is not rare. 

Adult social care is the means by which many of us continue to live the lives we choose when disability, illness or age make independence harder. It ranges from a few hours of help at home to full-time care — and it embraces the unpaid care family and friends provide. It is part of the invisible scaffolding of our society. It allows us to work, to study, to belong. 

In the Prime Minister’s speech, themes of growth and reform resonated. But adult social care was largely unseen. That silence matters. Millions depend on care today; millions more will in the coming years. But if care stays out of the spotlight, reform will stall. 

Still, I found hope. I heard research from Ipsos and the Health Foundation reminding us that whilst many believe care is free, just like the NHS, that belief shifts when people hear about the reality. I had conversations with employers, unions and MPs about the fragile relationship between care and work, and how something as simple as reliable short breaks or paid carers’ leave can make all the difference. Over the week, I encountered unions, employers, providers, MPs and charities ready to act, ready to reimagine commissioning, ready to help weave a narrative about care that resonates far beyond the sector. 

We’ve started to tell a better story about care, but there’s so much more to do. We need to take more opportunities to talk to more people about care. We must also place care at the heart of the growth agenda, side by side with childcare and transport. We must turn the invisible support for carers into visible systems: information that makes sense, pathways that are clear and easy to navigate, carers’ leave people feel able to use, small but regular breaks that preserve wellbeing. And we must talk about care in ways that connect, that explain how it works and how it’s financed. When people grasp that, they stand with us. 

There is something every one of us can do. Employers can open conversations with their staff about support for carers. Policymakers can name care when planning reform. And all of us can ask someone in our lives, who we know is caring, how they are and what they need. Simple acts of noticing can shift perspectives. 

The conference reminded me that we won’t make headway by talking about care only amongst ourselves. We need a national, open, honest conversation about what good care looks like, and how we make it real. ADASS will continue that work in councils, in health, in civil society. If you have a story about care, giving it, receiving it, navigating it, please share.  

Stories are our most powerful tools. And through stories, we change minds. Through changed minds, we change policy.