More care homes will close due to UK Government decisions, claims minister

UK Government decisions will result in more care homes closing, a Scottish minister has said.

Addressing Holyrood, social care minister Maree Todd pointed to the recent announcement that care worker visas will be scrapped, along with the increase in employer national insurance contributions, as “delivering blow after blow to social care”.

Ms Todd urged the UK Government to “rethink”, providing funding for the national insurance increase and “work with us to deliver an immigration system that works for Scotland”.

She said: “These decisions cannot wait, in just the last month we have been notified of five adult social care services that are closing where the increases in national insurance were a major contributing factor.

“These closures alone will result in over 80 care home beds being lost. Quite simply we cannot stand by and allow the social care sector to be sacrificed.

“While we will always work collaboratively, constructively and proactively to support the social care sector in the face of substantial risk, there is only so much we can do.

“Without swift action from the UK Government, I fully anticipate that more care services will close and there will be areas of Scotland without access to social care.

“For some, this will mean difficulty in securing a care home placement or individuals being cared for many miles away from their friends, family and the community.

“That is not a future I want to see and why I find it heartbreaking that the UK Labour Government are prepared to accept that.

“It is clearer now more than ever that Scotland needs full powers over immigration to properly support our public services.”

But Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie hit out at the Scottish Government’s record on social care, pointing to the near-£30 million spent on the scrapped national care service.

“She (Ms Todd) will choose to ignore that Scottish Labour have been demanding an increase to £15 an hour for years to stop care workers leaving the profession to work in Aldi or Lidl, who pay more,” Dame Jackie said.

“That is down to the SNP.

“Nor will she talk about the 119,000 Scots who are unemployed that could be trained to fill the estimated 9,000 vacancies across all social care settings – that is down to the SNP.

“Instead of addressing any of those issues and improving the terms and conditions of social care staff, the SNP simply blames someone else for their own failures.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane accused the Scottish Government of “passing the buck and never accepting responsibility”.