The Proposed National Care Service For Scotland

2nd July 2023

The Scottish Government's troubled National Care Service Bill faced a further blow as UNISON, the UK's biggest union called on the Scottish government to withdraw the Bill. The call came from a resolution approved at the UNISON annual conference held in Liverpool recently.

The policy adopted by the Union, which is the largest in local government and the NHS, included a commitment to campaign to have the Bill withdrawn and the belief that care should be delivered on a not-for-profit basis.

Criticisms of the Bill made at the conference included that it will not solve the recruitment and retention crisis in the care sector and will extend a contracting culture in public services and responsibilities are removed from both councils and the NHS are powers are transferred to Ministerially appointed quangos.

Kate Ramsden a social worker in Aberdeenshire and member of UNISON's National Executive told the conference: "The NCS (Scotland) bill offers nothing at all to our social care members but, if passed, will devastate local government by taking staff, functions and services out of councils and giving them to unelected quangos.

"Simply put, it is the biggest threat to local government in Scotland that we've ever faced. It has serious implications for the NHS too. It's an outsourcer's charter which will expand rather than remove the market in care and will re-create the purchaser/provider split in the NHS. There is also nothing about the investment in frontline services that we all know is desperately needed.

"We need to kick profit out of care and scrap the National Care Service Bill".

Unison list the problems
Key Points about the Bill
1. The Bill does not set up a system like the NHS to directly deliver services

2. The Bill fails to remove profit from care

3. The Bill takes powers and responsibilities away from local government and the NHS and gives them to quangoes.

4. The Bill creates a system of care boards whose members are
accountable to Ministers not service users

5. The Bill aims at reducing direct public provision of public services & promotes outsourcing.
6. The Bill not only retains but expands the failed market approach to care for vulnerable individuals.

7. The Bill does not address the problem of unmet need.

8. The key interventions for driving up service quality and standards
(sectoral collective bargaining in social care, a National Social Work
Agency, better resourcing) are not part of the Bill.

9. The Bill puts the future of up to 75,000 council workers and an unknown number of NHS workers into question.

10.The lack of detail and reliance on post legislative regulations prevents proper scrutiny of the Bill.

Read more HERE

UNISON is the UK's largest public service union. We represent members across public services, including social care, social work and community health - all of which the Scottish government sees as being transferred to a national care service.

The National Care Service bill has been delayed by the Scottish Government three times and is now not due to be voted on by Parliament until January.

Will It Join The Failed Bottle Return Scheme And The Ferry Fiasco and be kicked out in the end.