SNP under attack for ‘ditching education’ after National Care Service pledge

NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of ditching education as her focus after she told union leaders that setting up a National Care Service will be a “top priority”.

Speaking at the STUC Congress yesterday, the First Minister insisted that the recovery from the pandemic “cannot simply involve turning the clock back to 2019”.

She stressed that “perhaps the most substantial reform we will make in the next term will be in our social care sector”.

Ms Sturgeon said: “One of the first acts of an SNP government will be to take the first formal steps to create a National Care Service. This will make a real difference not just to those who receive care – but also to those who care for them with such dedication.

“The National Care Service will oversee the delivery of care, improve standards, ensure enhanced pay and conditions for workers and provide better support for unpaid carers.”

She added: “For the first time, it will allow us to introduce a national wage for care staff and enter into national pay bargaining.

“I know that a National Care Service is a key ask of the STUC in this election and if re-elected, it will be a top priority of the SNP in government.”

But the Scottish Lib Dems have pointed to a previous SNP commitment that education is the party’s most important priority, claiming Ms Sturgeon’s declaration was “game over for education”.

The party’s election campaign chairman, Alistair Carmichael, added: “That was the top priority for five years and every objective was missed.

“People who use care services and care workers deserve better than a part-time government that would much rather spend their time arguing about independence than improving social care services.

“The SNP restarted their second referendum campaign in September at the start of the second wave. If they cared about social care they would not have done that.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, also addressing the STUC congress, warned against a National Care Service being set up “in name alone”.

The Labour leader said a National Care Service must place dignity, quality and human rights as a central theme, rather than profits.

He added: “It means properly rewarding social care staff, it means making sure that there are no charges for people and no residential charges for people that require it on a care service and to make sure that every family gets the justice they deserve.

“Too many families felt let down through this pandemic and one of the biggest failures through this pandemic, I think, has been the response in our care homes.

“We’ve got to make sure it’s not just a National Care Service in name, it must be a National Care Service in terms of how it delivers services for people across the country – services based on quality of services, not on profit.”