Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Praise for record health and social care funding
Airdrie MSP, and anti-poverty campaigner, Neil Gray has welcomed the move in the Scottish Government Budget that is providing record funding to health and social care.
This includes £12.9 billion for health boards to support patient services and ensure frontline funding increases by at least £2.5 billion by 2026-27.
The funding will be part of a total £18 billion allocated to the sector as it faces up to the continued challenges of Covid-19, and Mr Gray says it also “places the onus on local governments to deliver a £10.50 minimum hourly rate for adult social care workers in commissioned services, in line with the public sector pay policy”.
In addition to this funding, Mr Gray highlighted how the Budget also provides more than £1.6 billion for social care and integration to lay the groundwork for the National Care Service, over £1.2 billion for mental health services, £147.6 million to address drug deaths and tackle harms from alcohol and £554 million for health infrastructure, expanding Scotland’s network of National Treatment Centres Mr Gray, the deputy convener of the SNP’S social justice and fairness commission, said: “I am delighted to see that Scotland’s army of social care workers are getting recognised and moves are in place to see them receive a pay level which reflects the work they do.
“All through the pandemic they have continued to work tirelessly, many of them being paid the minimum wage for a job that many people could not do but so many rely on.
“As the Scottish Government prepares the groundwork for the new National Care Service, it is only right that those employed in the sector are taken care of. I hope that local governments will ensure that these vital members of the country’s workforce receive this new pay level as soon as it practicable.”
The Scottish Government is investing Barnett consequentials in full, with additional spend in excess of £1 billion in health and social care.
More than 50 per cent of frontline spend will go towards community health services, delivering on a commitment to increase primary care funding by 25 per cent over this Parliament, providing more care for people in a place and way that meets their needs.