In an emotional speech he praised those caring for his father, who has Alzheimer’s, and said he wanted to deliver changes to help “my dad and the millions like him”.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said he wanted to extract more from existing budgets to fund the reforms.
“I think we owe it to the public before we talk about tax rises.. you first have to look the public in the eye and say ‘Are we doing everything we can do from within what we’ve got?'”
For example, he said his announcements on improving pay and training for the social care workforce “will be fully funded”.
But he added that fuller reforms “will require difficult decisions” and these “would be put before the country at the right time, and we will hopefully proceed with people’s consent”.
Burnham said in “an ideal world” he would not want anyone to have to sell their home to pay for care, describing it as a “really awful process”.
He added proposals he previously put forward, when he was health secretary in 2009, were intended to stop that, saying: “If everybody on the NHS principle contributed a little, it would mean everybody could protect the majority of what they’d worked for.”
He later held talks with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey and Conservative shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew as part of efforts to get cross-party backing for any changes. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was unavailable.
The Conservatives have previously urged the prime minister to rule out tax rises or increased borrowing to pay for social care changes.
Speaking to the BBC’s Radio 4 PM, Andrew said it had been important to set “red lines” around funding.
He acknowledged finding funding would be a “challenge” but added that there was “a significant amount of money in the system – it’s just sometime it is not in the right place”.
Burnham did not invite the leaders of Reform UK or the Green Party of England and Wales to the talks. Both parties have expressed disappointment at this.
The PM said there was a feeling at Westminster that social care was “too big a political risk” to deal with, adding he wants to take on the challenge as the “risks of failing to act are too great”.
Burnham highlighted the financial impact of care costs on people and spoke of how fixing issues in social care could ease the pressure on the NHS and make savings.
The PM said Baroness Casey’s review should consider how to pay for a national care service, adding there needs to a system that becomes “highly integrated” with the NHS.
Burnham said he wants to “immediately” focus on the social care workforce, noting a fair pay agreement is due to come into force from 2028/29 and described it as a “massive building block of a national care service”.
