At some point in our lives, we will all rely on social care. Whether for ourselves or those we love. We should expect a social care system that is ready for us at our point of need – to help us live well in our own homes, to be connected to the people and activities we love and to recognise our rights and choices as individuals. We should expect trained and registered workers to support us, we should expect care packages to be ready for when we need them, we should expect to have care which is tailored to us.
With this budget, adult social care workers will continue to be paid the real living wage. This does not respect our trained and registered staff, who are paid less than staff in the NHS and local authorities doing equal work. With this budget, we were told that there would be further action to reduce delayed discharge. We urge the Scottish Government to involve not-for-profit social care providers as genuine partners with innovative solutions in those conversations.
With this budget there is a clear expectation gap. An expectation gap between what people in Scotland need and are entitled to, and the reality of national and local budget decisions which don’t resource that expectation. The Scottish budget could have been an opportunity to address the long-term lack of recognition for Scotland’s social care workers and those they support. It could have strengthened people’s rights to access good quality social care for them or their loved ones. It could have increased the wage for adult social care staff in the not-for-profit sector to respect and deliver Fair Work for the 40,000 staff who deliver support to people in our communities.
Let’s be clear, Scotland has choices when deciding how to prioritise the investment of public money. Last year, NHS Scotland spent £440million on caring for people in hospital, when none of those people had a clinical need to be there. Investing in communities would have led to far more people living at home, surrounded by their families and living better lives.
Carr Gomm’s commitment to providing quality person-centred social care support to people in Scotland remains. And we will continue to call on the Scottish Government to match that commitment by making better choices.
For press enquiries, please contact Beth Johnstone at bethjohnstone@carrgomm.org