Tackling The Care Crisis Now
Policy Paper
Credits — Common Weal Care Reform Group
Overview
Proposals to decouple positive standalone policies to improve care from the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill.
The National Care Service (Scotland) Bill approaches its Stage 2 process in a perilous state and many stakeholders in the care sector – including the authors of this report but also bodies such as Cosla and the STUC – have withdrawn their support for the Bill in its current form. The prospect of the Bill now failing to gain Parliamentary support is growing and, in the absence of alternatives, is rapidly becoming the preferred outcome for many stakeholders.
The purpose of this paper therefore is to set out proposals either made within the NCS Bill (in amended form or otherwise) along with other ‘stand-alone’ proposals made during the co-design process to offer a package of care reform options that could be implemented whether or not the NCS as proposed goes ahead or before it is established.
Key Points
The National Care Service Bill as it stands has little support and is actively opposed by many key stakeholders. It should be withdrawn and recreated through a process of co-design.
But there is a crisis in care in Scotland are there are some things in the draft regulation which are not only worth keeping but expediting. These should be decoupled from the Care Bill.
There are three ways that this can be done; through new primary legislation to create a Care Reform Bill, by amending elements of the existing Bill to currently-progressing legislation or through secondary legislation, regulation, policy and agreement.
The remainder of the paper goes through the legislation, identifying what is worth saving and what is worth adding at this stage, and proposing the best method of progressing those parts of the legislation without waiting for the renegotiation of the entire Care Service Bill.
While this will bring change faster, it will not go far enough. Despite the many problems with the legislation introduced by the Scottish Government, Common Weal still strongly supports the principle of a National Care Service and does not want to see it lost altogether. The Scottish Government must reintroduce a Bill which has widespread support, but should not wait to begin the reform of care.
