Meeting of the Parliament 25 February 2026 [Draft]
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak. I will use my time to talk about the importance of funding social care like it matters—not just because it matters for the many people who use it but because it matters for all of us.
Almost all of the population will use or experience social care. That might be directly, it might be because someone close to us needs support, it might be because we work in care or it might be because we provide unpaid care. It is essential infrastructure for the delivery of a Scotland where opportunity is available to all. Funding it well is not only the right thing to do—it is the economically sensible thing to do, too.
Social care unlocks freedoms. It is what makes ordinary things possible. I am one of the many people who rely on social care to live, study, work and build a life. Social care freed me, and that is why I want to use the opportunity, in what will be the last budget debate in this place that I will speak in, to talk about its importance.
Social care changed my life, and it did so because of the hard work of the incredible women who support me with the things that many people never need to think about. They support me in getting up, getting dressed, managing pain, cooking, cleaning, fixing my wheelchair, getting out and getting on with my day. Like the almost 200,000 people who work in care in Scotland, they work their socks off. Because they do that, I can work my socks off, too. On the record, I say to them and the care workforce across Scotland: thank you.
Because of social care, disabled people can take their place in society and contribute. That matters. Social care is an investment in people, society and our economy. Because the workforce is predominantly made up of women, social care is an investment in the women who are employed as carers. It is also an investment in the ability of women to take up work elsewhere, because unpaid caring responsibilities will be properly supported.
All of us in the Parliament know that social care is stretched. People are fighting for the care that they need and workers are still too often waiting for the pay and conditions that they deserve. I acknowledge the change in the budget to meet the real living wage, which the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland has talked about. However, that will only take us back to the status quo, because the level of funding is far short of what is needed to stabilise and guarantee the long-term sustainability of the sector.
When funding is tight, the consequences are not abstract. People miss appointments because there is no one to support them to get there, people lose out on social time and community life and people go without the personal support that they need to stay well and independent. As we all know, that leads to lower participation rates, lower employment levels and poorer health.
It is not only the lack of care that holds people back; charges for care also do so. Facing significant funding pressures, councils charge disabled people for the care that they need, and those charges are increasing. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation put it perfectly last year when it said:
“Despite aiming to develop a system that is fair, current charges are inconsistent, mask unmet need and cause significant financial hardship to disabled people. There are things that could be done to make the system fairer, but ultimately these charges need to end.”
It is simply not right that a service that is designed to support equality can deepen financial inequality. Care is not an optional extra, and nor is it a luxury; it is essential. Care enables people to get up in the morning, to work and to live an ordinary life, and people should not be penalised for needing it. I again call for non-residential care charges to be scrapped.
I say to future legislators in the Parliament that, when they next set budgets, they should remember that social care must be considered not as a cost but as an essential investment for all of us, and it must be prioritised and funded as such.