National Care Service plan delayed by Scottish Government

First Minister John Swinney has continued to defend his government's plans for a National Care Service, despite the legislation being delayed

Writing to the parliament’s health committee, social care minister Maree Todd confirmed the government would not press ahead with the National Care Service Bill as planned while it considers next steps.

Given the delay and significant opposition to the bill, it is unlikely to legislation will be able to achieve sufficient parliamentary support this session. 

The Scottish Greens withdrew support for the bill at its conference this autumn, meaning there is now no majority in the parliament for it.

Speaking at FMQs, Swinney insisted his government was "listening" to concerns, but added service users wanted a National Care Service.

He said: "The government will take its time to ensure we get the proposals right, and therefore get proposals that can command parliamentary support."

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said the plans were a "complete mess" and welcomed the apparent shelving of the bill.

He added: "It should not just be delayed, it should be binned. Why won't John Swinney put taxpayers' money into the frontline where families will actually feel the benefit?"

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called the National Care Service Bill "nothing more than an expensive power grab".

He said 9,000 people were currently waiting for a care assessment or care package, and argued this could have been delivered without the bill.

He described the situation as a "shambles", adding: "His government can deliver nothing more than failure, waste and incompetence".

Swinney said his government had invested in social care, including increasing the wages of care workers.

He added: "I accept that there is a lot of opposition to the National Care Service from a variety of institutions and stakeholders, and I recognise the issues within the parliament.

"That is why the govenrment is taking the time to engage substantively on the issue of the National Care Service, to put in place the arrangements that will tackle issues that I think Mr Sarwar and I agree on, which is the unacceptable variation of care in dfferent parts of the country."

The National Care Service is also opposed by Cosla, the council umbrella body, and trade unions, who feared the new body would remove powers from local areas and centralise it.

The decision has been welcomed by the Scottish Trades Union Congress. General secretary Roz Foyer said: “This is a deeply welcome move from the Scottish Government and one that the STUC and our social care sector have long demanded. It is correct that they have, albeit belatedly, listened to the voices around the table who urged them to see sense.

“The bill, as it stands, was deeply flawed and had lost the confidence of workers and other sector partners. It does nothing to address the key weaknesses within the current system – low pay, insecure conditions, chronic staff retention and a complete overdependence on highly financialised, profit-driven providers.

“We can wipe the slate clean. Whilst we await full confirmation the Bill is dead for the foreseeable, that doesn’t mean we can’t implement the reforms our social care needs for the here and now.”

Writing to the health committee, Maree Todd said: “The Scottish Government remains committed to the plans for a National Care Service, and work continues to progress this as quickly and effectively as possible.

“That work involves careful consideration of the views of this committee, stakeholders, members of the public and political parties. The Scottish Government wishes to take the time that is needed to fully reflect those views in our approach to stage two of the bill.

“For those reasons the Scottish Government is not seeking to start stage two consideration of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill on 26 November, and will work with the committee and parliamentary bureau to agree a revised timetable, for the new year.”

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the government had "wasted" £30m and four years in the "wrong solution" to problems in social care.

He also urged the government to lift the earning limit on carers allowance, as had been announced in England in the UK budget.

Swinney said he was "engaging constructively" with this and other proposals on the budget.