Towards a National Care Service: insights from the Westminster launch of SCIE’s new report

Shared ownership

One of the strongest insights to emerge from both the roundtables and the report is that national standards cannot succeed unless they are developed and delivered collaboratively.

This theme was evident throughout the launch event.  SCIE’s Chair, Rt. Hon. Professor Paul Burstow, opened the event by emphasising that social care reform “cannot be designed by one part of the system alone.” He pointed to the mix of people in the room as a practical demonstration of what genuine collaboration must look like if national standards are to succeed in improving the quality and access to care across the country.  

Paul also framed the moment politically, describing the launch of the Casey Commission as a “rare opportunity to reset the conversation about adult social care”. While the report provides a clear framework, he stressed that its impact will depend on how that framework is implemented—through shared ownership and collective responsibility.

Kathryn Marsden OBE, SCIE’s Chief Executive, reinforced this message in her keynote. Reflecting on the roundtable series, she described the honesty and openness participants brought to the discussions about the tensions and limitations of national standards. That willingness to confront difficult realities, rather than sidestepping them, was identified as essential if national standards are to support meaningful reform.

National standards that start—and stay—with lived experience

A core principle running through the report, and echoed at the launch event, is that national standards must be anchored in what matters to people who draw on care and support. The framework emphasises outcomes linked to equity, prevention, integration, navigability, and the sustainable use of resources—not simply what the system finds easiest to measure.

Sojan Joseph, MP for Ashford, who sponsored the event, placed this front and centre of his address at the report launch, welcoming the report’s emphasis on ensuring that standards are “anchored in lived experience outcomes.” Drawing on his role as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Adult Social Care, he stressed the impact of hearing firsthand experiences and the responsibility to act on them.

He also stressed that meaningful involvement is about more than better design. When people know they, or others with similar experiences, have genuinely shaped the system, confidence in its fairness and relevance grows. This confidence will be critical to the success of a future National Care Service.

This point was reinforced by Isaac Samuels OBE, SCIE Trustee and Co-chair of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG) and the Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) Board. They echoed one of the strongest messages from the roundtables and report: standards will only achieve their purpose if they reflect what is most important to people.

The report tackles this problem by setting out seven foundational principles. These principles are not intended to be abstract. They are grounded in existing statutory duties, co-produced frameworks and regulatory expectations, and they reflect areas where there is already broad consensus across the sector about what good care and support must deliver for people, including unpaid carers. Without a clear set of foundational principles, national standards of care risk being reduced to technical compliance, describing service activity rather than shaping a future model of care.

National standards as a tool for learning and improvement

The report makes clear that national standards should focus on learning and improvement, not function solely as a mechanism for compliance. Their success should be judged by whether they improve outcomes and experiences that matter to people.

This was a recurring them at the launch.  Kathryn highlighted that roundtable participants consistently warned against standards becoming narrow compliance exercises that add layers of bureaucracy. In response, the report frames national standards as a mechanism for clarifying expectations and defining what is essential and non-negotiable, while deliberately protecting flexibility in how outcomes are achieved locally.

The aim is to ensure that people can rely on a consistent baseline of care and support, regardless of where they live, without constraining local innovation or personalisation. Contributors to the roundtable series described this balance—between national consistency and local discretion—as one of the most important design challenges for the next phase of work.

System challenges and pressures

The report is deliberately open about what national standards can and cannot achieve on their own. This transparency was repeatedly cited by attendees as one of the report’s strengths.

Workforce challenges were a distinct and recurring theme throughout the report launch. Sojan emphasised that national standards cannot, in and of themselves, resolve staffing shortages or market fragility. He highlighted the direct impact of workforce instability on continuity and quality, underlining the need for a comprehensive workforce strategy to accompany any programme of national standards.

Anisa Byrne, General Manager at Access Care, adds, “National standards will only succeed if we actively involve frontline workers in their design and implementation. They understand what works in practice, what creates barriers to good care, and what support they need to deliver consistently high standards.”

Participants of the roundtable series echoed this, noting that even the strongest framework can only be effective if the people delivering care have the stability and support required to put it into practice. Workforce pressures are therefore not a barrier to standards, but essential context for understanding how they can be implemented well as we move into the next stages of this work.

Momentum and a shared appetite for progress

Beyond any single theme, the launch reflected an important shift. Attendees noted the energy and buzz in the room, and a shared appetite to move beyond broad reform debates towards practical, phased action guided by the report’s framework.

Many described the framework as a “living” approach—one that should evolve over time, shaped by feedback and used initially to support learning before strengthening assurance. This aligns closely with one of the report’s core messages: national standards must be dynamic, not static.

The strength and diversity of voices at the event gave weight to the sense that the sector is ready to move forward and reinforced the report’s call for shared ownership of reform.

Looking ahead

In his keynote, Sojan reflected that “talk of reform within adult social care must, ultimately, be about improving lives” and expressed hope that the report can play a meaningful role in shaping a National Care Service that delivers dignity, security and high-quality care for all.

The publication of ‘Towards a National Care Service: raising national standards of care’ and its Westminster launch mark a significant milestone in furthering the groundwork to inform this Government’s National Care Service. But this work also sharpens the focus on what must happen next. The report sets out a clear case for a phased approach to national standards: starting with a defined purpose and scope; focusing initially on priority challenges where variation and inequity are most acute; and learning from early implementation to refine standards over time, rather than attempting to introduce a comprehensive framework all at once.

This approach recognises both the ambition of national standards and the realities of the current system. It positions standards not as a single policy intervention, but as a long-term mechanism for learning, improvement and accountability—shaped by lived experience and supported by the right enabling conditions.

Building on the momentum from the launch, SCIE is now engaging directly with parliamentarians and sector leaders who attended the event, as well as with the Casey Commission, to continue developing this agenda. Alongside The Access Group, we remain committed to convening partners, contributing evidence and learning, and supporting government as thinking on national standards evolves.

If national standards are to succeed, they must be owned collectively, tested in practice, and refined over time. The conversation at Westminster showed that there is both the appetite and the opportunity to do this well. Our focus now is on turning that shared momentum into more consistent, more person-centred experiences of care for everyone.