Scottish Labour has said it will begin developing a plan for the nationalisation of social care services that have found themselves at the epicentre of the covid-19 crisis.

Trade unions, charities and others are being asked to contribute to the party’s development of a vision for a national care service.

It says problems experienced by the sector – including accessing PPE and testing – meant Scotland’s care homes and homecare services found themselves at the centre of the outbreak.

Since the beginning of June more deaths linked to covid-19 have taken place in care homes than in hospitals in Scotland.

Problems caused by issues such as a lack of PPE have been exacerbated, the party says, by ‘the fragmented ownership of Scotland’s care homes and home care services, and the endemic low pay and zero-hour contracts across the sector.’

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has said the mixed model of social care provision in Scotland should be subject to a review, while the head of the body representing charitable social care providers in Scotland has warned against a rush to “glib solutions” such as creating a national care service, in the wake of the covid-19 crisis.

Scottish Labour Leader Richard Leonard says his party will consult with local government, third sector organisations, trade unions and others, and will use the summer to investigate the ‘potential for reform’:

“This crisis has shone a light on the fragmented nature of Scotland’s care system and the negative effects this has had on residents’ care and staff pay and conditions.

“Scotland needs to know that when our loved ones require additional support that the primary purpose of the organisations which deliver it is maximising the wellbeing of our mothers and fathers, not maximising profit.”

Leonard added: “Scottish Labour believes a National Care Service, that will deliver better pay, unionised jobs, with extended scrutiny and control over the care sector, must be established.

“Over the summer, we will engage with a range of organisations and experts to explore different models to increase public control and ownership of the care sector.

“The time has come to put people, not profit, first. The time has come for a National Care Service. Scotland’s vulnerable people deserve no less.”

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