Hansard

The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has undertaken extensive scrutiny of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill since its introduction in June 2022. That has included two calls for written evidence, 18 panels of witnesses, three oral evidence sessions and multiple exchanges of correspondence with the responsible minister. The committee held a number of informal engagement sessions with a range of people with lived experience and different experiences. To inform its scrutiny further, the committee commissioned a literature review of international models of social care, including a combination of different models in UK countries, European Union countries, Nordic countries, Switzerland, Alaska, the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The committee also went to Aberdeen, where members met representatives of the Granite Care Consortium and visited the Camphill community to engage with staff and service users. We visited Dumfries, where members had informal discussions with Stewartry Care and other organisations that represent registered care homes and that provide registered care-at-home services, as well as with wider community and third sector organisations. On a visit to Glasgow, committee members met representatives from the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland and service users and front-line staff from the organisation Key, before holding a formal meeting at the William Quarrier conference centre.

Meanwhile, six other committees have undertaken their own scrutiny of aspects of the bill that are relevant to their remit.

On 12 July last year, the Scottish Government wrote to inform the committee that it had reached an initial consensus agreement with COSLA on a partnership approach that will provide for shared legal accountability with respect to the proposed national care service. On 20 September, the Government confirmed its intention to lodge amendments to the bill to reflect the changes that were required as a result of the consensus agreement with COSLA. My committee subsequently wrote to the Government on 7 November requesting additional information regarding the precise implications of the consensus agreement for the bill, and we received a detailed response from the minister on 6 December.

The committee’s stage 1 report, which was published last week, sets out in detail the conclusions and recommendations that we have reached as a consequence of our exhaustive scrutiny. The consensus agreement with COSLA on the shared legal accountability means that a number of key aspects of the bill will need to change. Accountability for social care will no longer be transferred from local authorities to Scottish ministers. Integration joint boards will no longer be replaced by local care boards. Instead, a national care service board is proposed, and local government will now retain social care functions, staff and assets.

The Scottish Government has made clear its intention to bring about those changes to the bill through amendments at stage 2. On that basis, a majority of the committee has recommended that the general principles of the bill be agreed to. However, we have done so on the understanding that further scrutiny of the changes that the Scottish Government now proposes to make to the bill should take place as part of an elongated stage 2 process. That would include a further written call for evidence and the gathering of additional oral evidence before we progress to the formal part of stage 2, which is the consideration and disposal of amendments to the bill.

I regret that it was not possible for the committee to reach a consensus position on the general principles of the bill at stage 1. However, I underline my commitment to ensuring that substantial further scrutiny takes place at stage 2, as I have outlined.