She is the no-nonsense civil servant from Portsmouth who was called upon by four prime ministers to tackle deep-rooted social issues, including rough sleeping, antisocial behaviour, victims’ rights and troubled families.

Now Louise Casey has been t asked by a fifth to chair an independent commission into adult social care. Her mission? Develop a plan to save the sector.

Lady Casey must build a consensus around a new national care service able to meet the needs of millions of older and disabled people for decades to come. It will be her toughest challenge yet.

Casey, a crossbench peer and go-to troubleshooter for governments of all stripes, has never been shy about getting stuck into thorny issues – or speaking truth to power. “If No 10 says bloody ‘evidence-based policy’ to me one more time, I’ll deck them,” she once said in a speech.

She became a deputy director of the homeless charity Shelter at the age of 25 and was made head of the government’s rough sleepers’ unit in 1999, where she successfully led the strategy to reduce the numbers of people living on the streets by two-thirds.

Casey went on to head the national antisocial behaviour unit, the Respect taskforce and the Troubled Families programme. She also served as the UK’s first victims’ commissioner.

More recently, she produced an excoriating report on the culture of the Metropolitan police, finding institutional racism, sexism and homophobia across the force, after the murder of Sarah Everard.

Saving adult social care will be by far the biggest challenge of her career.

The sector has been in crisis for decades. While the NHS, which has a host of serious problems of its own, typically grabs the headlines and taxpayers’ cash, adult social care is always the neglected relative.

A devastating analysis sent to ministers by leading voices in the sector last year warned that high employment costs, low fee rates and councils struggling to balance their books were all threatening its overall sustainability.

Collapses in social care provision would leave those in need without care, add to the responsibility on family carers and pile pressure on the NHS, said Care England and the Homecare Association.

Politics and politicians are to blame for the crisis being left unresolved. While most voters have little to complain about when ministers propose extra funding for hospitals, suggestions for novel ways to fund adult social care – like the “dementia tax” – often prove controversial and end in tears.

Ministers hope to avoid that by appointing Casey to build a cross-party consensus. Their idea is to ensure the new national care service survives governments of different shades, just as the NHS has for the last 76 years.

After her appointment was announced, Casey said: “Millions of older people, disabled people, their families and carers rely upon an effective adult social care system to live their lives to the full, with independence and dignity.

“An independent commission is an opportunity to start a national conversation, find the solutions and build consensus on a long-term plan to fix the system.”

Speaking on the Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast in 2023, Casey said she would only work for Keir Starmer if it was a job where she “could get something done”. Millions will be hoping it is and she can.