OPPOSITION parties have urged Nicola Sturgeon’s successor to scrap her controversial plan to overhaul Scotland’s social care system.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats said all candidates for the SNP leadership should commit to abandoning the National Care Service Bill.
Speaking as her party opens its annual conference in Edinburgh, Scottish Labour deputy Jackie Baillie said common sense must be put before pride on the issue.
The Bill would consolidate council care services under a national body in a move Ms Sturgeon calls the biggest public service shake-up since the foundation of the NHS in 1948.
READ MORE: Minister urged to 'throw in the towel' over National Care Service
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, a possible contender in the leadership race, has also promoted it as a way of ending the “postcode lottery” on care.
The aim is to harmonise standards country-wide and improve workers’ conditions.
But councils have branded it a power grab that will take care services out of local control.
SNP MSPs have called creating a new system to improve a handful of poor care homes using a “sledgehammer to crack a nut” and a “blank cheque for the public purse”.
Audit Scotland have also warned estimated set-up costs of £1.3billion are too low, as they are based on old inflation data.
Five Holyrood committees have flagged worries about the Bill, especially its vagueness, as it creates a framework that ministers add details to later.
Ms Baillie said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s failed National Care Service Bill is a toxic and damaging piece of legislation that her successors must run a mile from.
“What is being offered is nothing more than a National Centralisation Service which will do nothing to support care receivers or the workforce.
“Workers don’t want it, care providers don’t want it, experts have raised the alarm and parliamentary committee after committee have demanded that the bill be paused.
“Not a single penny of the estimated £1billion required to create the service will go to providing care. Instead of wasting money the SNP should plough funding into care packages and to social care pay. That would overnight transform people’s experience of social care.
“SNP leadership candidates need to put common sense before the pride of the outgoing First Minister.
"Today I am sending a message to the SNP – this damaging and dangerous bill needs to be paused – and these plans scrapped altogether.”
READ MORE: MSPs concern over ‘uncertainty’ around powers of National Care Service
She was echoed by Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, who said the scheme was “doomed to fail” and helping staff and patients was the priority.
He said: “After abandoning their plans to break up the UK, the first thing Nicola Sturgeon’s successor must do is scrap the billion-pound bureaucratic takeover by ministers of the social care sector. This plan is doomed to fail.
"The government must listen to [council umbrella body] Cosla, trade unions, health board bosses, its own backbenchers and numerous other organisations when they say its proposals won’t work.”
Care minister Kevin Stewart last week insisted the NCS would ensure the workforce was supported and rewarded, and people with direct experience wanted "change to address standards and consistency across Scotland".
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