Meeting of the Parliament 27 November 2024
I am grateful to you for giving me the time back, Deputy Presiding Officer—that will probably come out of the cabinet secretary’s speech. The SNP Scottish Government has had 17 years to carry out reform, but it has failed the social care sector for those 17 years. It has responsibility right now, and that is the legacy of the SNP.
Let us take integration joint boards. [Interruption.] If the minister would be quiet for a minute. IJBs, which are responsible for the delivery of social care, are facing huge deficits. In quarter 1 of this year alone, more than £160 million has been overspent. It will be much worse as we enter the end of the year, and the cuts that they are making will have a direct impact on those who require care the most. That is happening now, on the cabinet secretary’s watch.
In that context, £30 million being wasted on the failed National Care Service (Scotland) Bill is a travesty. More than £2 million has been spent on private consultants, but not one single penny has paid for an extra carer. Instead of delivering the reform that is at the very heart of the Feeley review, the SNP is delivering a master-class in stubbornness, preferring to waste even more time and money rather than admitting that it got it wrong.
The bill is one of the worst examples of legislation that I have seen. At stage 1, reservations were brushed aside, and the committee was presented with stage 2 amendments that amounted to 41 pages, when the original bill was only 38 pages long. Every part of section 1, on the principles of the care service, was changed; in fact, little in the bill remains unscathed.
The bill is now, in effect, a brand new bill, which is preventing proper scrutiny and flouting the parliamentary process. It shows that the Government has no vision and lacks direction. If members do not believe me, perhaps they will believe Scott Wortley and James Mitchell, who are two experts in policy and law making. They described the national care service bill as
“policy-making on the hoof.”
I think that they were being unduly generous, because they were not to know that, just days before the stage 2 deadline, the Scottish Government would pause the bill again. Meanwhile, unpaid carers, care workers and disabled and older people continue to struggle in a broken system.
The Government should urgently publish a timetable that sets out how it will deliver much-needed social care reforms. The SNP repeatedly states that people who rely on social care want the bill to succeed—but not, I am afraid, in its current form.
A statement from the national carer organisations this week called for investment in social care in the upcoming budget and the delivery of a commitment to remove care charging, which was promised in the SNP’s manifesto three years ago but not delivered. The statement also called for the delivery of priorities such as Anne’s law and a right to a break from caring. It called for agreement on a shared strategy for improving the provision of social care by supporting the development of a wider market of providers across all sectors. All those things can be delivered without the national care service bill, which even the minister finally conceded at the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee yesterday. There is therefore no excuse for not acting now, rather than trying to cover the SNP’s embarrassment over its confused bill.
The UK Labour Government has delivered a record budget settlement for Scotland, which includes £789 million of health and social care funding this year and an additional £1.72 billion for next year. That is a fact. There is also up to £330 million extra for national insurance contributions. However, it is up to this SNP Government to spend it wisely and, frankly, its track record is not very good.
The SNP must address the mounting pressure on IJBs or there will be devastating consequences for people who rely on care services and for our entire healthcare system. It must deliver for front-line health and social care staff. It is time to stop spending millions of pounds on failure. The SNP Government has had years to deliver the reform of social care that is so necessary. I have been here long enough to remember the endless Government working groups on ending the postcode lottery of care. There have been lots of warm words but little action. The time has long passed to deliver real change in social care. Instead of trying to save face, the Government should get on with what it can do now.
It should deliver a right to respite for carers, through the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016; ethical commissioning, through the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014; collective bargaining, through the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015; a national social work agency, which does not even need any legislation; and Anne’s law, through the Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Requirements for Care Services) Regulations 2011.
Reform can start today, but the SNP is making a choice to delay. Those proposals command support across the chamber, and the Government should get on with delivering them.
I move,
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.
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