Meeting of the Parliament 27 November 2024
I declare my interest as a practising national health service general practitioner.
The motion that is before us highlights the SNP’s mismanagement of its flagship National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. At the heart of the failure is Maree Todd, the minister who is in charge of social care, who told me yesterday that she was in charge of the bill, although she was, seemingly, not trusted to lodge the Government amendment today. Time and again, the minister has assured us of her commitment to reform, but her actions tell a different story.
The handling of the bill has been a shambles. So far, it has cost the taxpayer £30 million—money that could have gone towards delivering care for our most vulnerable people. The money could have paid for a million hours of social care, or it could have funded 1,500 care workers for one year. Instead, the bill is dead in the water and has been rejected by stakeholders, experts, trade unions and councils.
How did we get here? The SNP has had 17 years to address the issues in social care, but it has squandered every opportunity. The best part of four years has been wasted on the flawed bill, which has caused more uncertainty than progress. Instead of improvement, we have chaos. The minister’s approach has been one of denial and deflection. She has tried to pit one group against another.
In yesterday’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee meeting, I asked Maree Todd whether she had been entirely truthful about her dealings with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the representative body for local authorities, and she claimed that she has been. COSLA has been clear since February—which was nearly 10 months ago—that serious issues with the bill remained unresolved, so its withdrawal of support two months ago was no surprise to anyone, except Maree Todd.
By June last year, there were three outstanding matters on which the Scottish Government simply refused to listen. The Government produced its draft amendments to the bill, which COSLA was not shown until one hour before they were made public. The amendments caused further significant concerns, which showed, again, that COSLA was simply not being listened to.
A particular sticking point was the SNP’s decision to include children and justice social work services, directly against COSLA’s wishes. Council leaders repeatedly warned the SNP that such changes required more consultation and agreement between the various spheres of government, but their concerns were simply ignored.
The SNP’s mishandling extends beyond the bill itself. Scotland’s hospitals remain gridlocked, and families who are seeking respite care are left unsupported. Meanwhile, morale among care workers is at rock bottom. Maree Todd’s leadership has failed to deliver not just the policy, but basic immediate solutions for those who are in need.
Under Labour-backed policies at Westminster, employer national insurance contributions are set to rise while the salary threshold for employee contributions is lowered. The changes are already hitting care organisations that are struggling to recruit and retain staff.
Let us be clear: by her own admission, Maree Todd is responsible for the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, so she bears primary responsibility for the crisis. If the minister is actually in charge, she has shown gross incompetence. The bill is a costly distraction and has failed to gain public confidence. As the cabinet secretary said, we need to make things better, but Scotland deserves better than this parade of incompetence.
I move amendment S6M-15613.2, to insert after “directly on care”:
“, despite over 6,000 people in Scotland currently waiting for a social care assessment to enable them to live independently at home or in the community”.
Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.