Council chiefs warn frontline services at risk in National Care Service plan

COUNCIL leaders have warned that vital funding for frontline services could be put at risk under “mammoth” plans to create a National Care Service.

Cosla, the umbrella group for Scottish local authorities, has issued a stark warning after SNP ministers gave them “a few hours’ notice” before revealing plans that will see addiction support and children’s services swept up in proposals to set up a centralised system on the same footing as the NHS.

Nicola Sturgeon has not shied away from the widescale overhaul her National Care Service plans involve – labelling it “the biggest public sector reform that Parliament will ever have undertaken”.

But ministers have been warned that funding in the coming years for key services including social care and drug and alcohol addiction could be put at risk – while lessons must be learned from the problematic formation of Police Scotland.

Under the Scottish Government plans, a National Care Service will provide equal standards of care across the country and will cover adult social care services “at a minimum”. But a consultation document published earlier this month revealed the scope of the project could be extended to a host of other services – after Drugs

Policy Minister Angela Constance told MSPS before the summer recess that addiction services could be included in response to calls for improved rehabilitation.

Cosla president Alison Evison said: “Local government was surprised by the expanded scope of the proposals to include children’s services, community justice, alcohol and drugs services, social work and elements of mental health services.

“The consultation contains very little by way of costings relating to the development of the proposed National Care Service or how it would be funded and limited evidence to support the proposals.”

She added that while lengthy discussions are held over setting up a National Care Service, funding for existing social care and addiction services, already under heavy strain, “would be very much in jeopardy”.

Cosla’s resources spokesperson, Gail Macgregor, said: “If councils need to invest, they are going to be thinking twice about doing that if there’s a certainty in two years’ time that things are going to get wrapped up into a National Care Service.

“I think it could have a detrimental impact in the shortterm on the service users and the potential of the delivery of services.”

Cosla’s vice president, Graham Houston, who was part of the police authority board that helped to set up Scotland’s single force, has stressed that mistakes cannot be repeated.

He said: “We have seen in the past, other national organisations formed in Scotland which has been done quickly and at pace and we’ve paid the price for that and had to take time to recover.

“I think it’s crucial we must learn from those examples.”