Harrop was the co-author of a major report commissioned by Labour and Unison last year on what a National Care Service should look like.

The report made 48 recommendations to transform adult social care, including making care available for everyone - regardless of means, giving people control and choice over the support they get, a fair workplace settlement and end-to-end support under a shared brand delivered together by national government, local councils and licensed care providers.

The report was followed by a summit in March 2024 bringing together social care leaders with then shadow health and social care secretary Wes Streeting and shadow care minister Andrew Gwynne to assess how a National Care Service could be implemented.

Finally, the thinktank began work on more detailed short-term policy thinking on the early implementation of the National Care Service which ended when Labour came to power.

Streeting has set out his expectation that the National Care Service will take 10 years to fully implement, while the Fabian Society has set a target date of 2028.

Considering the current financial constraints faced by Labour, Harrop said it was important to think about the National Care Service as a ‘process' with the Government already having taken steps in the King's Speech to implement the thinktank's proposal of a Fair Pay Agreement for workers.

Rather than a ‘big bang' rebrand, Harrop said the National Care Service was more likely to be introduced piecemeal as the Government chooses which areas to prioritise. He also noted the importance that the rebrand does not come before the Government has anything to show for it.

The Labour advisor argued the direction of travel towards a more centralized model had already been unwittingly set in motion by the Conservative Government over the last three years.

‘There has been a lot more central intervention and central funding of adult social care than before the pandemic on reforms on things such as data and digital records – quite prosaic things but moving social care far more towards an NHS model of a department running the sector,' Harrop said, noting the centralization had been ‘a pragmatic response by ministers to the pandemic'.

The thinktank boss said the workforce would be the immediate priority of the new Government and this has been borne out by steps already taken to end the doctors' dispute with an improved offer.

Harrop also noted the pressing need for a new local government finance settlement on social care, highlighting the current ‘sticking plaster' nature of current short-term support.

‘You could go on for another year or two with short term bail outs but sooner or later you are going to have a proper rebalancing of the financing systems,' Harrop said. ‘The financial model doesn't work and we need reform of how you allocate money fairly so that it is closer to meeting the needs of every community.'

The Local Government Association warned mounting social care costs would leave English councils facing a £6.2bn financial black hole over the next two years ahead of the General Election.

Harrop also highlighted the pressing need to address waiting lists for social care assessments and people being turned away from support with obvious support needs.

There are an estimated 2.6m people over the age of 50 who can't currently access the care they need due to tightening eligibility criteria.

While suggesting the roadmap to a National Care Service would be an evolutionary process, Harrop said there would still be a need for a ‘reset' moment.

‘The purpose of having a National Care Service as a brand gives you a reset opportunity where you are saying to the public and to the sector itself this is a moment of change,' he emphasized.

‘It also clarifies the offer to citizens themselves. There is huge confusion about what social care is and who provides it. People think it's free. People think it's provided nationally not locally. There is an opportunity to reset expectations between government and the public. There is also an opportunity to bring the whole social care world together around a common project and ambition and bringing the sum of the parts together on a reform journey together.'

As well as providing a new brand and identity to unite around, Harrop said primary legislation would also be required to formalize national government accountability for social care.

‘The Care Act is still a good foundation for social care but we think you have to have some primary legislation that marks the national responsibility of government for social care,' he stressed.

The thinktank has proposed the secretary of state for health and social care has responsibilities for discharging adult social care nationally that mirror his NHS responsibilities.

‘It's not creating the NHS again but it does require national responsibility from the secretary of state and department and more national co-ordination and consistency,' Harrop said.

‘It should be the job of government to ensure that wherever you live older and disabled people are able to access good care. It will always be delivered and shaped locally with local government and the NHS working hand in hand on that but there is a very strong case for accountability stopping with a minister. For too long it's been notionally devolved to local government but they have not had the tools to do the job.'