By Democrat reporter
The SNP should scrap its discredited National Care Service Bill and use its existing powers to boost rights for carers and care receivers and streamline social work, Scottish Labour has said.
Scottish Labour has launched a motion today calling on the Scottish Government to progress concrete reforms to social care including a right to respite care, Anne’s Law, ethical commissioning, collective bargaining, and the establishment of a National Social Work Agency.
The reforms reflect the recommendations of the 2021 Feeley Review which set out a pathway to delivering social care in Scotland.
The review highlighted the importance of Integration Joint Boards (IJB) in bringing Health Boards and Local Authorities to co-ordinate on social care and Scottish Labour is now calling on the SNP government to resource IJBs appropriately.
A transformative UK Labour Government budget delivered £789 million of health-related consequentials this year and £1.72 billion for our NHS and social care next year and Scottish Labour is calling on the SNP to ensure every penny is spent on health and social care.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s Health & Social Care spokesperson, left, said: “The SNP’s discredited National Care Service Bill was a power grab that wasted £30million of taxpayers’ money but did not pay for a single extra carer and alienated those on the frontline of delivering care.
“Meanwhile, families are waiting on care packages, patients are stuck in hospital due to delayed discharge, councils’ budgets are under strain and carers are demoralised due to low pay and poor conditions.
“Today Scottish Labour is setting out practical solutions as to how the SNP government can act now to implement the recommendations of the Feeley Review to create a care system that works for families and carers alike.
“After 17 years in power, the SNP cannot sit on its hands or hide behind quangos – it must deliver for families and carers now.”
Meanwhile, responding to a new briefing from the IFS that Scotland’s NHS recovery is lagging behind that of England, with waits at A&E and for cancer treatment, diagnostic tests and elective treatment all rising north of the border but falling in England, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, pictured left, said: “This is a damning indictment of the SNP’s failure to tackle the crisis in our NHS.
“Ministers have repeatedly boasted about Scotland’s superior performance to England, but this report makes a total mockery of those claims.
“Hundreds of thousands of Scots are stuck on an NHS waiting list. Every day people sit in agony at A&E departments, wondering if they will ever be seen.
“This government must stop making up bogus excuses and finally confront the emergency in front of them. That starts by rewriting Humza Yousaf’s botched NHS Recovery Plan and repairing the crisis in social care so that more people can leave hospital on time. You can’t fix the NHS without fixing care.”
Notes
Feeley Review https://www.gov.scot/publications/independent-review-adult-social-care-scotland/pages/14/
Scottish Labour Motion
That the Parliament notes that the Scottish Government formally committed to introduce a National Care Service (Scotland) Bill in September 2021; further notes that the Scottish Government’s proposed amendment to part one of the Bill setting out the establishment of a National Care Service board has been roundly rejected by stakeholders; understands that the cost to date is £30 million, without a single penny being spent directly on care; urges the Scottish Ministers to accept that the Bill now has no realistic prospect of success in its current form; calls on the Scottish Government to take immediate steps to alleviate the crisis in social care, including delivering sufficient support for health and social care partnerships, and further calls on the Scottish Government to set out a timetable, before the Parliament’s Christmas recess, for progressing reforms, including a right to respite care, Anne’s Law, ethical commissioning, collective bargaining and the establishment of a National Social Work Agency