Minister reveals £17.4m cost of civil servants working on National Care Service

Work to legislate for the delayed National Care Service (NCS) has cost the Scottish Government £17 million.

In a written answer to Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy, health minister Maree Todd said £17.4 million had been spent on preparations for the policy as of November, with a £9.77 million cost in this financial year alone.

Ms Todd also said 160 full-time equivalent civil servants had been working on the policy.

But the plans have been criticised after the Scottish Government’s desire to pass a framework Bill to create the service and finalise detail using secondary legislation.

The regulations would be created using a process of “co-design” the Scottish Government has said, which would include a number of different interested parties, including patients, trade unions and the social care sector.

In December, the Scottish Government announced the service would be created in 2029 – a delay of three years – in a bid to save £1.2 billion.

Mr Hoy described the spending as “eye-watering”, calling on the Government to scrap its plans.

“This is typical of how the SNP recklessly squander taxpayers’ money,” he said.

“It is astonishing that 160 civil servants are still working directly on these plans – at a cost of over £800,000 per month – when they have been roundly opposed by stakeholders.

“The SNP’s social care minister, Maree Todd, needs to accept reality and ditch her party’s illogical plans for centralised social care in Scotland, rather than throwing good money after bad.

“The scarcely believable £10 million costs for civil servants earmarked for this year should be urgently diverted towards local care services which are buckling on the SNP’s watch.

“Patients suffering delayed discharge or insufficient care – along with dedicated frontline staff – need those vital resources, but they are seeing them being frittered away by an arrogant SNP Government who typically think they know best.”

Ms Todd said: “The Independent Review of Adult Social care recommended that we have a National Care Service (NCS) and public service partners, including local government and the NHS are agreed that change is needed.

“The subsequent co-design work has engaged with thousands of people and multiple stakeholders across Scotland who support these much-needed changes to improve our social care service.

“£2 billion for social care and integration is committed next financial year, £1 billion more than 2021-22, and two years ahead of our target to increase social care spending by 25% over the course of this Parliament.

“The NCS is an investment for the people of Scotland to ensure consistent, high quality social care support and community healthcare that meets people’s needs across the country.

“It is a complex programme of change and the need to ensure that such change is managed effectively has been well documented by Audit Scotland.”