Thirteen years ago, as shadow health secretary, I visited Jewish Care in Golders Green for the first time.
What struck me wasn’t just the extraordinary quality of care, although that was obvious. It was that everyone seemed to be pulling in the same direction. Staff, volunteers, carers and even families were working together.
I left thinking: this is what good social care looks like.
This morning, over a decade later, I came back to Golders Green to announce that I’m making the choice to fix the social care system nationally.
Because for too long politicians have not faced up to the challenges, putting point scoring above problem solving instead.
Jewish Care continues to provide some of the finest care anywhere in Britain.
I don’t think that’s an accident.
Part of it is the extraordinary people who work and volunteer there. Since my own dad developed Alzheimer’s, I’ve seen first-hand how amazing our carers are right across the country. The skill, the patience, the humanity. It is work our country too often takes for granted. And as part of our new system, I’ll make sure they’re finally paid what they’re worth.
But what sets Jewish Care apart is that model of community. It’s those values that they practice proudly each and every day – it’s those Jewish values.
What this community understands, and what the system too often forgets, is that care is not a task list. It is knowing that the kosher meal matters, that Shabbat matters, that the challah delivered to someone’s door is not a nice extra but part of the care itself.
They understand that care means treating people not as the sum of their different ailments, but as a human being with history and character, deserving of all the dignity and respect that comes with that.
I never forgot that. That’s why it will be at the heart of our approach to delivering a National Care Service.
For too long, adult social care has been treated as the poor sibling of the NHS. Families have been left to navigate a maze of different organisations, each with their own stretched budgets and boundaries. That’s meant that too often, people only receive help when they reach crisis.
That’s not just bad for social care - it’s bad for the entire NHS. Because when vulnerable people can’t get the support they need at home, they have nowhere to turn but hospitals.
We have to turn that model on its head.
Today, I spoke about how we build a service that gives every family the confidence that good care will be there when they need it. A service that values the people who provide care, supports people to stay independent for longer, and ensures their dignity and comfort when they are at their most vulnerable.
But, in truth, that’s not the only reason I came back today.
When I think back to that visit thirteen years ago, it isn’t just social care that’s changed – Britain has changed too.
When I first visited Golders Green, I saw a community full of confidence. Deeply rooted in its faith, clear in its identity, and immensely proud of both. Things were as they should be.
Today, it pains me to see that so many British Jews no longer feel that same sense of security.
Since the horrors of October 7, we’ve seen a disgusting rise in antisemitism. The appalling terror attack in Golders Green was another reminder that fear has become part of daily life for far too many.
I don’t accept that that is something the Jewish community should simply learn to live with.
No Jewish person should have to think twice about living a full Jewish life in Britain – and that is the standard I will hold my government to.
The values on which Jewish Care was built – community, dignity, respect – aren’t just the foundations of that remarkable organisation. They are values that have enriched Britain for decades. They are British values.
That’s why it mattered to me that today’s speech was delivered in Golders Green. Because building a stronger care system and building a stronger country begin with the same belief: that every person belongs, that every community matters, and that no one should ever be made to feel like a stranger in the place they call home.
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