Care analysis: How Scotland's national care service may affect care providers and their employees

The agreement aims to establish who will be responsible for people’s care once the NCS is established.  Overall legal accountability will be shared between Scottish Government, the NHS and local government. Staff will continue to be employed by local authorities, and councils will still be responsible for assets like buildings and the delivery of services. 

New governance arrangements will be introduced to ensure consistently high levels of service across the country, while building the flexibility to meet varying community needs at a local level.

HWL with our partner Scottish Care, are developing innovative approaches to improve care home staff recruitment and retention.

We outline some discussions from Scottish Care following the announcement of the agreement.

Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport

“The Scottish Government has been working closely with Local Government to find a consensus on the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, which will allow us to deliver on the urgent improvements needed to strengthen the delivery of integrated health and social care for people.

“This partnership between the Scottish Government, Local Government and the NHS helps establish where responsibility for people’s care will sit under the National Care Service. The detail of how this will work at a local level will be developed in the coming months and we will continue to update parliament on this work, along with the results of our ongoing co-design events taking place across the country, after the summer recess.”

Councillor Paul Kelly, COSLA’s Health and Social Care Spokesperson

“Further improving the experiences of people accessing and working in social care and social work services must rest on an effective partnership between Scottish Government and Local Government. Combining shared national accountability with local expertise ensures the right balance of further improvement across Scotland, whilst rightly reflecting the diverse needs of local communities.

“We know too that successful change is driven by the valuable staff who deliver services. We hope by setting out the continued role of local authorities in delivering social care and social work functions, and staff remaining employed within councils, we offer comfort and stability to the Local Government workforce.

“In recognising this important first step, we know there is still more to do. As we progress forward, we are committed to continuing to work closely with people in receipt of support and partners to design a system that ensures individuals and communities always experience high quality care and support.”

Scottish Care

“Scottish Care notes the announcement of a Partnership agreement between Scottish Government, local government and the NHS about accountability arrangements for the National Care Service (NCS).

As the representative body for the majority of organisations that provide the actual frontline care and support which people across Scotland use every day, what matters most to us is that the experience of services and supports are changed for the better.

The Feeley Review which had been widely welcomed recognised that the current system was not working and that change, and reform was needed, suggesting that a National Care Service be established. We cannot forget the lessons of those who shared their story and presume by making slight changes to reform that we are going to achieve the outcomes people want.

We note that local government organisations will continue to retain staff employment and their control over assets. However, Scottish Care members employ the majority of the 220,000 people who work in social care across Scotland and what matters to them is that their terms and conditions for the work they do are equitable, fair and dignified.

It is also important that the systems they work in create the conditions for them to deliver meaningful care and support. It is therefore absolutely critical as we move forward with a new NCS Bill that the urgent changes to contracting and commissioning are prioritised.

We note that new governance arrangements will be introduced to ensure quality and local flexibility. It is imperative that these structures have the voice of those who provide, work and use social care and support services at their heart and not the usual suspects of local and national political leadership.

What matters most is that real change happens and that we do not fall back into old predictable ways of working which have over the years achieved so little for those who use care and support services and those who provide them.

Scottish Care and its members will continue to work constructively with the new arrangements and plans and will continue to put people before process.”