National care service proposal is slammed
Perth and Kinross Council has raised several concerns with the Scottish Government over its proposal for a National Care Service.
Councillors have slammed the Scottish Government’s centralisation proposals as a “power grab”and going“way beyond”the recommendations made in the Feeley Report.
Councillors approved the local authority’s response on Monday (October 25) with three SNP councillors voicing their dissent.
In August 2021 the Scottish Government published a consultation paper on the creation of a National Care Service (NCS) following an independent review of adult social care by Derek Feeley.
The Feeley Report - published in February 2021 - recommended improvements to adult social care in Scotland.
At Monday’s (October 25) meeting of full council, PKC officers and councillors expressed “surprise”at the scope of the proposed NCS. The consultation sought PKC’s views on the establishment of an NCS with responsibility for children’s services, justice social work services, social work and social care and nursing, prison health and social care, alcohol and drug services, and some mental health services.
Conservative Strathtay councillor Anne Jarvis said:“Centralising social care to the extent proposed in this consultation will mean that local services cannot be tailored to local needs because it will all be dictated to centrally.
“In my opinion this is just a power grab, it’s a cost-cutting exercise and it’s not a genuine attempt at approving social care for our elderly. And that’s where Feeley started from but this proposal is unacceptable with all the add-ons.”
PKC’s chief officer for health and social care Gordon Paterson said it was“quite unclear to what extent if at all”there had been engagement with the additional services included in the proposal.
PKC’s head of finance Stewart Mackenzie told councillors the implications in terms of resource transfer amounted to“quite a significant sum”.
PKC’s response to the Scottish Government states it would be“in the region of £90 million and 23 to 25 per cent of the council’s current revenue management budget.”
PKC has estimated around 20 per cent of its workforce could be affected.
Moving to approve the response council leader Murray Lyle said the consultation paper and its proposals raised“more questions than answers.”
The Conservative leader said the Feeley Report in its recognition of“social care’s important role in improving outcomes for service users; the valuable contribution of Scotland’s unpaid carers; the importance of involving people with lived experience in designing services, and the need for greater investment in social care services and the value of preventative services.”
He added:“What is unclear from the Feeley Report is what evidence there is to support the proposition that these issues can best be addressed by significant structural reform, and by the centralisation of services through the proposed creation of a National Care Service.”
Seconding Conservative councillor John Duff said:“These proposals to establish a National Care Service - if implemented in full - would be the most fundamental change to the role of local government and local accountability since the reorganisation of local authorities in 1996.”
SNP councillor Eric Drysdale- chair of Perth and Kinross Integration Joint Board - said: “Rome wasn’t built in a day but the evolution of a national care service has to start now.”
A response from PKC was approved.