Andy Burnham urged to ban private companies making profit from social care

Andy Burnham has been urged to ban private companies making profit from social care. A new report from the Co-operative Party, Labour's sister party, argues that the co-operative model, which reinvests profit rather than extracting it, should be part of the solution to Britain's social care crisis.

Co-operatives are usually owned by their staff and the model means that any excess profit is reinvested in the business. This comes against a backdrop of 80% of the largest care home providers in the UK being owned or backed by private equity firms.

Mr Burnham, now the Co-operative Party MP, has previously expressed strong interest in reforming social care. The report highlights Be Caring, the largest employee-owned social care co-operative in the UK, which is calling for more providers to adopt the model.

The focus on removing private profit mirrors a model set out in Wales where laws were passed to ban private profit in children's social care. Councils are currently spending £23.3 billion a year on adult social care services.

Co-operative Party General Secretary Joe Fortune said: "Private profiteering is poisoning our social care system at the expense of staff, patients and families. The model offers the opposite - social care businesses owned by the people who keep them going every day and profits reinvested in the care they deliver. Social care needs radical reform and the co-op model should be at the heart of it."

Mr Burnham's desire to reform social care dates back to his time as a health minister and later Health Secretary. He previously proposed the creation of a National Care Service in 2009 to ensure elderly or disabled people can access care that is free at the point of use.

Baroness Louise Casey, who is leading the major review into adult social care in England, said her interim report later this year will suggest some quite big changes to the system. She confirmed she had been in contact with Mr Burnham, who has spoken recently on the potential for a care levy.