Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2022
I am afraid that I must make progress, as I have only four minutes.
We must remember that, despite the incredibly important service that social care staff provide, they are among the lowest paid in our society. As a result, the cost of living crisis is hitting them the hardest and more must be done to help them. If we do not do that, they will leave the sector and seek fairer pay, and who could blame them?
No one is arguing that change and reform are not required. Of course they are needed, but we must have good change and genuine reform. Staff and service users need that change now, not in five years’ time when this bureaucratic monolith is finally set up. Were Liberal Democrats in government in Scotland right now, we would reward staff with better pay, better conditions, career progression and powerful national collective bargaining. We would set out national standards to get rid of the postcode lottery that currently exists in social care so that everyone had the same level and quality of care no matter where they live. Instead, the Government wants to remove power from local service providers, who know best how to use it, and place it in the hands of Government ministers, who have proven themselves to be incompetent time and again.
The playwright George Bernard Shaw once said:
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
The Government would do well to heed that lesson before things get worse. The Government’s plans could not have been more poorly thought out, so I urge it to think again before it is too late.