The Prime Minister delivered a landmark speech at Jewish Care’s Maurice and Vivienne Wohl Campus as he launched a major new plan to tackle patchy social care provision across the country.
Andy Burnham said Jewish Care meets “the highest standards of care,” and is the “gold standard” service for the community that everyone would want.
He met the charity’s longstanding president Lord Michael Levy, who said it was a “tribute” to Jewish Care and Anglo Jewry that the new PM chose to make such a big speech at their headquarters in Golders Green, north London.
Burnham, who became prime minister last week, toured the facility and spoke to residents including Dorothea, 103, who came to the UK on the Kindertransport, and Doreen, 98.
He said he first visited Jewish Care with local MP Sarah Sackman, “and I remember then thinking this is the gold standard.
“I see it in the faith-based charity that supports my dad,” he added.
Andy Burnham meets at Jewish Care on July 29, 2026 (Getty Images)POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Jewish Care is funded primarily through a mixture of voluntary donations and legacies.
Lord Levy said that the prime minister choosing the charity for his first major address “is not just a tribute to Jewish Care, what it stands for and what it achieves, but it is a tribute to Anglo Jewry… and the way we care for our own.”
“It’s not just about the Jewish community; it’s about everyone in the UK to get the best possible care,” he said.
“Care for the community, no matter what illness you have got, it is so important that the right care is given by society.
“We are privileged in Anglo Jewry that we have a caring community,” Levy, who played table tennis with the prime minister at the Michael Sobell Jewish Community Centre on the campus, said.
The Prime Minister playing table tennis with Lord Levy at Jewish Care (Jewish Care)[Missing Credit]
Recognising the proximity to the site of Golders Green stabbings, Secretary of State for Health, Yvette Cooper, said the location was chosen in “solidarity” with the community.
“We are here in north London in solidarity with the Jewish community who have too often faced the most brutal antisemitic attacks,” Cooper said as she introduced the prime minister.
Baroness Casey was alongside the prime minister at the charity as the government launched its "big conversation on care".
She said: “It is a privilege to be here in Jewish Care again”, and the care offered at the facility is “what we would want for people.”
On the launch, she explained: "It's not a consultation. It's an involvement with the general public on where we are as a country right now."
Burnham, 56, teared up as he told the room that he was tackling social care for his dad, who has dementia.
“I’m going to do it for my dad and a million like him across the country.
“Many people from many countries have been supporting my dad, and I want to say we appreciate you,” he said. “To me, they should be the best paid people in society, not the worst.”
He launched a social care conversation for members of the public to share their views on the current system.
Burnham said it was his priority to tackle social care challenges. “We’re paying for failure,” he said, adding: “Social care in England is as unfair as American healthcare.”
Burnham, who served as the Health Secretary between 2009 - 2010, said: “There is only one group to blame and that is my generation of politicians.”
The prime minister said he would fast-track the Baroness Louise Casey review into social care by a year, so final recommendations will be out by summer 2027.
He also pledged to “lift up the social care workforce as best as we can” and ensure that cross-party talks on social care build a consensus on the issue.”
This was the first time Burnham had taken questions from journalists and he was also asked his position on assisted dying.
“Fixing the funding of palliative care and social care needs to happen first,” he said.
Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham meets Jewish Care resident, Doreen, as launches a major new social care conversation at the Jewish charity (Getty Images)POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Speaking to the JC after the event, the MP for Finchley and Golders Green, Sarah Sackman, said: “My family has seen first hand the brilliant work of Jewish Care, where my father has volunteered with dementia sufferers over many years.
“There is a lot that can be learned from Jewish Care, who do brilliant work caring for the elderly in the Jewish community.
Jewish Care embodies the values of gemilut hasadim, acts of loving kindness, and I am pleased that the prime minister chose the Golders Green campus to announce his plans to fix adult social care.”
Chief executive of Jewish Care, Daniel Carmel-Brown, welcomed the commitment to place social care at the centre of the national conversation and the decision to accelerate Baroness Casey's review.
“As a sector, we know that meaningful reform will require long-term commitment, cross-party consensus and recognition of the extraordinary contribution made by care workers every day.
“We look forward to working constructively with government, Baroness Casey and partners across the sector to help build a social care system that delivers dignity, security and support for all who rely on it,” Carmel-Brown said.
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