Meeting of the Parliament 02 March 2016
Integration of health and social care is one of Scotland’s major programmes of reform. At its heart, health and social care integration is about ensuring that people who use services get the right care and support, whatever their needs, at any point in their care journey. Our 2016-17 budget sets out our plans to transfer £250 million from the national health service to health and social care partnerships to protect and grow our social care services. That is on top of the £500 million that we are already investing over three years to support the integration of health and social care.
In 2016-17, we will allocate more than £8 million for carer support. That includes £3 million for the voluntary sector short breaks fund and £4.75 million going to health boards for carer information strategies. Much of the funding to health boards is distributed to the third sector, including carers centres. The Scottish Government funding proposals for the coming financial year deliver a strong financial settlement for local government.