COUNCIL leaders have warned that the Scottish Government’s plans to set up a National Care Serve “poses a serious risk to councils’ ability to deliver a wide range of services”.
Cosla, the umbrella group for Scottish councils, has previously set out its opposition to the principle of centralising care services, amid warnings of a power grab away from local authorities.
The National Care Service plans would lead to people being supported in their homes by loved ones in the community wherever possible.
The flagship plans to overhaul adult social care in Scotland also aim for a seamless transition between community and at-home services, a social care charter of rights and responsibilities being drawn up and visiting rights for residents living in adult care homes.
But Scotland’s council leaders have unanimously warned that plans for a National Care Service could jeopardise service delivery.
Following a meeting of local authority leaders on Monday, the health and social care spokesman for Cosla, said that the proposals risks “destabilising” local authority workforces.
Cosla said the plans could see up to 75,000 members of local authority staff transferred away from councils to newly-formed care boards.
The Bill was introduced last month, with council leaders and opposition parties claiming it constituted a “power grab”, but local authorities have said they will work with the Scottish Government to improve the policy before it makes its way through Holyrood.
The service will be set up with the aim of supporting people in their own homes where possible, with seamless transition between services, according to Health Secretary Humza Yousaf.
A charter of rights and responsibilities would also be developed for social care with a robust complaints process in place.
Paul Kelly, the health and social care spokesman for Cosla, said: “All council Leaders were in agreement that, as it stands, the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill with the power to transfer local authority functions, staff, property and liabilities to a National Care Service, poses a serious risk to councils’ ability to deliver a wide range of services for communities including non-social work and care services.
“Leaders were very clear that this approach would result in destabilising the local government workforce and potentially impacting on the sustainability of some councils to carry out their functions and responsibilities.
“Cosla is committed to the change, improvement and investment needed in our social care system and will continue to work with the Scottish Government and partners to better the experiences of both those using and delivering social care services now and in the near future and not wait until a National Care Service is in place.
“Cosla will seek further engagement with the Scottish Government in an attempt to ensure that there is no disruption to local services by ensuring that local authority staff remain in local authorities.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here