Meeting of the Parliament 27 November 2024
I will need to make progress, but I will try to come back to Ms Duncan-Glancy if I can.
Derek Feeley recommended that we establish a national care service, underpinned by a human rights-based approach, giving voice to people with lived experience at every level. That was accepted by the Government in full, and we have been working to fulfil that commitment ever since. Thousands of people told Derek Feeley then what they are telling us today: that things need to change. Last week, disabled people’s organisations published an emotional and powerful open letter in which they highlight that
“wholesale reform is so urgently needed.”
The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, which is a collective of third sector providers across Scotland, said that it is
“committed that as long as there is a Bill, we’ll work to make it as good as it possibly can be.”
Age Scotland said:
“The Bill is absolutely vital and it can be better, there can be more detail of course, but I think everybody has to think about what more they can do to deliver good quality social care.”
Our communities across Scotland are begging us to do the right thing. We need to get on and deliver what people want, which is a rights-based system that puts people at its heart and that allows for greater monitoring, consistency and oversight.
As outlined in the amendment that I have lodged, it is clear that there is unacceptable variation in performance across Scotland, and it is the people of Scotland who are paying the price for that. Our work on delayed discharge has shown that people are more than 10 times more likely to be delayed in hospital in the worst-performing area in Scotland than in the best.
Colleagues might be interested to know that, for example, in Ayrshire, which spans three integration joint boards and a single shared health board, delays vary from 25.5 per 100,000 in East Ayrshire to 98.2 per 100,000 in South Ayrshire. That is an absurd and unjustifiable level of variation. It is simply not good enough, not least for those who should really have been at the heart of the discussions: those who receive social care.
I will give way briefly to Pam Duncan-Glancy and then I need to conclude.