SNP ignoring the immediate needs of staff and service in power grab of social care sector

By Bill Heaney

Labour and the Tories are not the only ones who care to care about the care services in Scotland.

Every one seems to be in agreement that the Health and Social Care Partnerships which run alongside councils such as West Dunbartonshire are not the answer.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today said that the SNP are ignoring the immediate needs of staff and service users by continuing with their ministerial power grab of the social care sector, after a survey revealed big drops in satisfaction with care services.

LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, Tory leader Russell Findlay and Labour’s Anas Sarwar.

The Health and Care Experience Survey included respondents who said that in the last 12 months they had received help for themselves with personal or household tasks, help for themselves with activities outside the home or help such as adaptations and/ or equipment for their home.

Comparing the results of respondents between 2015/16 and 2023/24, the survey showed:

• The proportion of people who agreed that they had a say in how their help, care or support was provided decreased from 80% to 53%;
• The proportion of people who agreed that they felt safe decreased from 85% to 66%;
• The proportion of people who agreed with the statement that ‘the help, care or support improved or maintained my quality of life’ fell from 85% to 62%;
• The proportion of people who rated the overall help, care or support they received as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ dropped from 82% to 63%;
• The proportion of people agreeing with the statement ‘I was supported to live independently as possible’ fell from 85% to 65%.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar spoke about this during FMQs on Thursday as did the new Tory leader Russell Findlay (See Notebook).

Mr Cole-Hamilton is equally vexed about the way care services are organised and run.

He said: ““It couldn’t be clearer that Scotland’s care services are in crisis. Staff have been let down and service users are telling us how badly it is impacting upon them.

“The SNP’s only answer is an ill-fated power grab that would wrench away control from local communities and completely fail to tackle the core problems in social care.

“My party is the only one that has opposed this legislation from day one. We’ve now been joined by the unions representing frontline staff and councils.

“They can all see that waiting for the wrong solution in 2029 isn’t going to fix the care crisis that thousands of families are struggling with right now. It’s a billion-pound bureaucracy that no one wants.

“We can’t begin to fix the care crisis until the Scottish Government admits their pricey power grab is doomed. They must drop it and put the money into frontline services and staff instead.”

Top of page picture: Fortress Crosslet, West Dunbartonshire Council’s idea of what a care home should look like.