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The new gallery of ministerial faces in charge of the various government departments with an interest in social care does nothing to suggest that there will be any marked changes of emphasis in Labour's third term. Its re-election with a much-reduced majority is probably the best that social care could have hoped for, suggesting that spending will at least be maintained while some of the government's wilder proposals for public sector reform are moderated by opposition from its own ranks.

But Tony Blair's determination to carry on the public service reform agenda should not be underestimated. His response to the briefing against him by Labour MPs over the weekend was to come out fighting, catapulting Andrew Adonis, one of the principal architects of Blair's public sector policy, into government as an education minister. This, coupled with John Hutton's elevation to Alan Milburn's old job in the cabinet, David Miliband's ascent to cabinet rank as minister for communities and local government and Patricia Hewitt's arrival as health secretary, signals business as usual for New Labour. Perhaps the most bullish appointment is that of David Blunkett as work and pensions secretary, at a time when the government has to grapple with some thorny questions about pensions policy and getting up to a million people on incapacity benefit into jobs.

The loss of community care minister Stephen Ladyman to the Department for Transport will be keenly felt: although he could be abrasive, few doubted his command of the subject or that he had the interests of adult social care at heart. His replacement Liam Byrne was first elected to the Commons only last year, yet will need rare qualities of vision and leadership to bring the radical manifesto for change in the adult green paper to fruition.

There will be more mixed feelings about Margaret Hodge's departure as children's minister. Derided for her record in local children's services, Hodge gives way to Beverley Hughes, brought in from the cold having resigned last year as immigration minister, who scarcely deserves better than her predecessor after introducing legislation that has already begun to break up asylum-seeking families. But her social work background will inspire confidence, at least among those who want to ensure that children's academic performance is not all that matters in the Department for Education and Skills.

If the reshuffle contains a message, it is that there will be no let-up in the pressure for reform. Until, that is, Gordon Brown takes over. When that will be and what precisely it will mean is another story.