Press Releases

The Scottish Conservatives have warned that the SNP’s Bill to create a National Care Service will result in up to £1.3billion being diverted from frontline social care to bureaucracy.   

The party were responding to today’s publication of Scottish Government proposals to centralise the provision of social care and make individual care home bosses directly accountable to ministers.

But the SNP’s own figures reveal that establishing the NCS could cost £1.3 billion over five years in admin costs, with up to 700 civil servants – rather than social care professionals – required to staff it.

Shadow Social Care Minister Craig Hoy has urged the SNP to scrap the plans because of the huge costs involved, warning they are a further “assault” on local councils by the SNP and amount to a power grab by ministers.

He added that the NCS would be like Police Scotland, another example of the SNP centralising regional services into a national body with negative results.

Craig Hoy also highlighted that the proposals reveal that the NCS could lead to more bureaucracy, less input from those accessing care and lead to a poorer service for those in rural or remote areas.

Scottish Conservative Shadow Minister for Social Care Craig Hoy MSP said: “The SNP have spent years hollowing out local councils with savage funding cuts and now they are mounting a direct assault on them with their plans to scrap local accountability and impose total ministerial control via a National Care Service.

“Social care provision in Scotland is in crisis. But the last thing we need right now is a major bureaucratic overhaul of the system which would see precious resources diverted away from the frontline and into employing hundreds more management and admin staff.

“The SNP Government’s own figures show that establishing a National Care Service could cost an eye-watering £1.3 billion in administration costs. We simply can’t afford to see that sort of money diverted from frontline local services.

“The plans to create a National Care Service will just be a repeat of Police Scotland on an even larger scale, which led to years of scandal, financial problems and leadership crises.

“The Scottish Conservatives have been opposed to the SNP’s National Care Service proposals from the start and were the first party to do so.

“We need to see the SNP abandon these plans and put every penny into local care services, especially when there’s a real risk of those accessing care not having their voices heard and at a time when social care provision in remote areas is deteriorating.”

Notes

The SNP’s plans for a National Care Service will cost up to £1.3 billion with up to £496 million set to be spent just on creating a national body. The upper cost estimates for the National Care Service are £1.26 billion. It is estimated that the establishment of a national body will cost up to £496 million, with the establishment of care boards could cost up to £726 million. (Scottish Parliament, National Care Service Bill – Financial Memorandum, 20 June 2022, link).

The National Care Service is expected to recruit up to 700 new staff, many of whom will work in management and administration. The financial memorandum says that ‘total headcount is expected to grow to the region of 500 – 700 people, which is in line with other large areas within government, such as social security’. (Scottish Parliament, National Care Service Bill – Financial Memorandum, 20 June 2022, link).

The policy memorandum confirms that the National Care Service will be staffed by civil servants not social care professionals. It says ‘at a national level, the Scottish Government intends to establish the NCS either as an Executive Agency or as a part of the core Scottish Government, and it would be staffed by civil servants. As it will share the legal identity of the Scottish Ministers it does not need to be established in the Bill itself. The care boards will be separate public bodies accountable to the Scottish Ministers and have their own legal identity.’ (Scottish Parliament, National Care Service Bill – Policy Memorandum, 20 June 2022, p9, link).

The policy memorandum also admits that there is a risk that the National Care Service will lead to more bureaucracy, less input for people accessing care and a poorer service for rural and remote areas. It says risks identified included: the potential loss of the voice of people accessing care and support and of care workers; impact on local services, understanding of local needs and local accountability; the variation of needs especially where more rural and remote areas such as the Islands are concerned, and staffing concerns with regards to retention and morale; and the potential for increased bureaucracy and disruption to those areas that currently work well.’ (Scottish Parliament, National Care Service Bill – Policy Memorandum, 20 June 2022, p15,16, link).

The SNP’s plans for a National Care Service amount to a blatant power grab. After years of hollowing out councils, the SNP government is now mounting a direct assault on local government, scrapping local accountability and imposing total ministerial control. (Scottish Conservatives, A Local Care Service, 19 March 2022, link).

Previous experience shows that centralisation can be costly and chaotic – and result in cuts to local services. The SNP Government’s proposals for a National Care Service could lead to an increase in ‘out of area care’, where an individual is moved outwith their local community due to a lack of local provision. Local best practice could also be extinguished as services are folded into a new national bureaucracy. (Scottish Conservatives, A Local Care Service, 19 March 2022, link).

The SNP Government does not have a happy history when it comes to public sector centralisation. Their botched merger of local police constabularies resulted in years of scandal, financial chaos and leadership crises.(Scottish Conservatives, A Local Care Service, 19 March 2022, link).

Costly new legislation and centralised structures will leech funding from frontline services. This could be compounded by a loss of local decision making and accountability, financial instability and the risk that upheaval will negatively impact the most vulnerable in our society. (Scottish Conservatives, A Local Care Service, 19 March 2022, link).

The Scottish Conservatives would offer a Local Care Service to protect individual choice and control. No one should be forced to access care miles away from their community, family and support networks. That is why our Local Care Service would  include a local care guarantee, which would ensure that support is delivered as close as possible to those who need it, especially in rural and island communities. (Scottish Conservatives, A Local Care Service, 19 March 2022, link).