By Bill Heaney
“However, four years later, almost £30 million has been wasted, which could have paid for the salaries of 1,200 social care workers.
“From day one, the Scottish Conservatives were against the bill and repeatedly called for investment in front-line care. The SNP has failed to listen, just as it has failed to listen to experts, trade unions and councils, which agree that the bill is fatally flawed. However, the SNP stubbornly ploughed on, throwing good money after bad.
Dr Sandesh Gulhane, Dame Jackie Baillie, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport Maree Todd and Health Secretary Neil Gray.
“Following today’s hapless and tone-deaf statement by Maree Todd, which has shown the NCS proposal collapsing after a humiliating display of arrogance, failure and sheer waste, the SNP Government could not be trusted to run a bath, let alone be trusted with our health and social care service.
“We have a shower of charlatans before us, who have failed people who need social care, failed social care workers and failed Scotland. Today’s statement amounts to the failure of a flagship policy. Party has been put before people. In any other organisation across Scotland, such failure would lead to sackings and resignations.
“In any other organisation across Scotland, such failure would lead to sackings and resignations.
“Will Neil Gray and Maree Todd do the right thing and accept responsibility for their monumental failure and resign? “
The Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport Maree Todd replied: “People with lived experience have invested huge amounts of time, energy and emotion in trying to make the NCS work. We cannot afford to let that effort go to waste by leaving social care in its current state.”
She added: “Therefore, I will move quickly to establish a national care service advisory board on a non-statutory basis. It is my intention that the advisory board will include people with lived experience of accessing care services, unpaid carers, those who work in the sector, care providers, the third sector, trade unions, the national health service and local government.
“I expect the board to meet for the first time in March this year. I want the chair of the board to be independent—ideally someone with lived experience of accessing care or of caring themselves or someone who represents those with lived experience and who can hold the Scottish Government and all our partners to account for the improvement that is needed.”
She added: “Where it is indicated that agreed standards are not being met, progressive and targeted support will be offered to those areas to help them to improve. I will ask the board for advice on the best way to do that. The current system for integrated health and social care is not delivering for people. There is no shared understanding of what good looks like and no systematic approach to tackling problems in local areas quickly when problems first emerge. That results in performance issues in some local areas reaching crisis point.
“We will review our health and social care standards, agree local monitoring and reporting frameworks and improve access to information. That will enable a systematic approach to providing progressive and targeted support for local areas, where necessary using our powers of direction and guidance when standards are not being met.”
But Labour’s Jackie Baillie was determinedd to put her view before parliament.
She said: “We are three years on and three cabinet secretaries and two ministers later. Almost 200 civil servants have been involved, £2 million has been spent on private consultants and it has cost nearly £30 million of taxpayers’ money—just on this bill. Although I welcome the remaining provisions, the national care service is no more. Not a single penny of the £30 million has been spent on care packages. That money would have delivered a million extra hours of care and would have stopped care packages being cut and care homes being closed, yet the minister knows that the bill will do little to improve social care.
“What a waste of time and money. The centrepiece of the SNP’s legislative programme has been sidelined—a bit like the health secretary. In 2021, Humza Yousaf said:
“The creation of a national care service will be the most significant public sector reform since the creation of the NHS in 1948, and the service will be operational within the five-year lifetime of this Parliament.”—[Official Report, 1 June 2021; c 29.]
“Well, that has aged well. There is no national care service, and little difference has been made for those who receive social care. It has been yet another failure. Is it not time for Neil Gray to follow Humza Yousaf’s lead and resign?”
Maree Todd replied: “I will pick up on a number of issues in Jackie Baillie’s question. The Government committed to a 25 per cent increase in funding for social care during this session of Parliament and we have delivered on that two years early.
“For context, the £30 million that we spent developing the national care service was £30 million over three years in a system that we collectively spend £5 billion on every year. Jackie Baillie might think that that is unreasonable, but I do not think that it is unreasonable to spend 0.2 per cent of the annual budget to achieve change in a system that we all agree is not currently working. The time and money that we have spent will help us to lay a strong foundation for the future of social care and, as always, we are guided by the outputs of the co-design work that we have done in the past three years.
“We have seen progress. We have enhanced scrutiny and assurance in local areas and have made progress in reducing delayed discharge, with a focus on supporting the local areas experiencing the most challenges. We set up a collaborative response and assurance group to give us a far better understanding of the issues that are being faced, including the national and local challenges, and that has led to a whole system of national and local interventions.
“The Scottish Government, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and Public Health Scotland have established a rapid peer review and support team to provide direct support to a small number of local systems to help them to reduce delayed discharge.
“The 2024-25 budget provided a £2 billion investment for social care and integration, which means that funding for social care has increased by more than £1 billion since 2021-22.
“We have invested to ensure that social care workers are paid at least the real living wage. It is interesting that people do not want to hear that. Social care workers in Scotland are paid at least the real living wage, which is why the minimum wage paid for adult social care staff I could point to many more improvements.
“Adult social care workers in Scotland are paid around £1,000 more than their English counterparts because of the investment that this Government has made to ensure that social care workers are paid at least the real living wage.”
The LIbDem leader and healthcare spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton, pictured right, was scathing in his remarks about the SNP. He said: “Care in our country is broken, but Scottish National Party ministers have spent four years and £30 million on the wrong solutions. That is enough to pay the salaries of 1,200 care workers for an entire year. What a waste.
“Every year wasted is a year that the minister could have been getting on with fixing our broken care system. Will she apologise to everyone who is stuck in hospital because community care is not available to receive them home, to the care workers who cannot offer the care and support that they signed up for and want to offer because there simply is not enough time, and to the legions of unpaid family carers who do not have the wraparound support that they need?
Maree Todd maintained: “Thousands of people who use social care and community health services across Scotland have told us that things need to change. The independent review of adult social care, which was carried out by Professor Derek Feeley, recommended that we establish a national care service that is underpinned by a human rights-based approach and gives a voice to people with lived experience at every level.”
Top of page picture: Care workers demonstrating outside West Dunbartonshire Council’s HQ in Dumbarton.