Responding to the Prime Minister’s speech at the 2026 Labour Party conference, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said:

“Social care reform is one of the great moral challenges of our time and nursing staff see every day the consequences of the shameful failure to deliver it. The Prime Minister spoke movingly about the needs of the vulnerable going unmet, with many forced to endure unsafe, undignified care in hospital corridors as a result. This human cost, and that to the NHS, must remain front and centre even as debate rages. Our profession won’t look kindly on politicians who don’t grasp this opportunity and work cross-party to deliver the change needed.

"A national care service which starts at home, delivering care to a population with increasingly complex needs, will need to be led by registered nurses. The Prime Minister is right to recognise the skill and dedication of staff in social care, and to acknowledge how badly they’ve been failed, but the reality is nurse numbers alone have fallen by a third in the last decade. His vision also needs a plan, both to grow the domestic workforce and ensure reforms to immigration don’t push out dedicated migrant nursing staff.

"Our profession has seen visions for social care come and go, but this time must be different. Nursing stands ready to use its expertise to help shape what a nurse-led, highly effective and compassionate national care service looks like."

ENDS