Council leaders call for action to deal with ‘crisis’ in social care

Social care services in Scotland are in crisis, council chiefs have warned as they urged ministers to develop a “properly resourced” plan at pace.

Local authority body Cosla said services face an “extremely challenging winter” and there needs to be “meaningful and concerted action to protect our health and social care services”.

Paul Kelly, health and social care spokesman at Cosla, said: “I cannot stress enough how urgent and necessary a national, properly resourced and co-ordinated plan is and this must be developed at pace with local government and our delivery partners across social care.”

His plea came amid concern over Scottish Government plans to set up a new National Care Service.

The SNP administration has pledged to set up the system – which would be similar to the NHS set-up – by the end of this parliamentary term, with ministers insisting the new model will have “equality, dignity and human rights at its heart”.

However public spending watchdogs at Audit Scotland have warned the costs set out in Government papers could “significantly understate” the funding needed.

Meanwhile Eddie Fraser, chief executive of East Ayrshire Council, said social care services – many of which are provided by local councils – are “truly unstable” in the present circumstances.

He told Holyrood’s Health and Social Care Committee: “We have no certainty as local authority leaders on what services are going to look like in the next three to four years.”

Mr Kelly continued: “In the midst of a crisis in social care, Scotland’s communities deserve meaningful and concerted action to protect our health and social care services as much as possible, over what will be an extremely challenging winter.

“Council leaders expressed real concern at the pressures within the system which are impacting on people and communities’ access to much needed care and support.”

He said Cosla had “emphasised to Scottish Government for several months now the importance of a strong, well-resourced, whole system approach to dealing with these pressures”.

He added that leaders had made clear their “disappointment with the lack of a co-ordinated, joint response to the crisis in social care as reflected in Scottish Government’s Winter Resilience Overview”.

He said: “With no new action and no new investment being made available ahead of a challenging winter and amidst a cost-of-living crisis, councils are left to confront and react to these challenges as best as they can.”

A Scottish Government spokesman blamed “pandemic backlogs, Brexit-driven staff shortages, and inflation costs” as factors which have contributed to the “most challenging winter the NHS has ever faced”.

“We have jointly agreed a number of overarching priorities with Cosla which will help guide our services this winter,” the spokesman said.

“The Scottish Government’s Winter Resilience Overview sets out £600m of total investment to support winter resilience across our health and care system.

“These measures across our health and care system will help ensure people get the right care they need at the right time and in the most appropriate setting.

“This includes £124m for care at home capacity, £40m for multi-disciplinary teams and £20m for interim care arrangements.

“Providing appropriate care for people either in their own home, or in a suitable care setting remains the statutory responsibility of local authorities.

“The Winter Resilience Overview includes recruitment of 1,000 additional staff, flexibility for boards to offer pensions recycling to support staff retention and £45m investment in the ambulance service to support ongoing recruitment, service development and winter planning.”