The heads of two major social care organisations say the government’s winter plan is “wholly insufficient” to address the crisis in the sector and sets a dangerous precedent for the future of care services.

Dr Donald Macaskill from Scottish Care and Rachel Cackett from Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) say their concerns about the sector ahead of winter have not been properly listened to by the Scottish government or councils’ organisation COSLA.

They say the Scottish government’s winter plan, published earlier this week, is “wholly insufficient” to address the deep crisis facing their members.

Meanwhile the Royal College of Nursing says the plan does not offer much hope to nurses working across health and social care as they head into winter.

In their joint statement, the social care chief executives – who lead organisations collectively representing more than 430 providers across the independent and third sectors – say the government has again “failed to engage with them as equal partners”.

The chief executives write:

“Both of our organisations have attempted to convince both the Scottish government and COSLA that the plan was wholly insufficient to address the deep crisis facing our members and a system that is meant to uphold the rights of individuals who require care and support.

“We have tried to be constructive in those discussions to which we have been invited, but have certainly not been engaged in any way as equal partners in finding solutions for a system in which our members deliver key public services for some of our country’s most vulnerable individuals and families. This document reflects that. The marginal changes made to an early draft following our strong criticisms do not allay the fundamental concerns we shared.”

A provision in the winter plan says local systems should prioritise care services for those at a ‘critical or substantial risk level’.

In their statement, Donald Macaskill and Rachel Cackett write that they are fearful that, in the current financial context, this will be read as “carte blanche” to reduce or remove funding from many in need in what they say is a “deeply disturbing direction” for the sector.

The two chief executives are calling for the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and COSLA leaders to clarify their intentions within the sector.

Despite calls from doctors and consistent attempts by the sector to engage with ministers to ensure care services are supported over winter, the plan does not include additional funding for social care services.

Detailed in the plan is the setting up of a ‘joint social services and social care taskforce’ to support workforce improvements and to ready the sector for an increase to care workers’ pay to at least £12.

The plan comes just months after Scottish Care members ‘extremely reluctantly’ voted to accept a 6% uplift to their national contract – a sum they say will neither be enough to raise workers’ wages nor meet increased costs of energy and food.

During those negotiations, Scottish Care said its efforts to engage with the Scottish government had been ‘fruitless’ and predicted that even more care homes would be put at risk of closure.

 

Little hope for nurses

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland joins the social care leads in their dissatisfaction with the winter plan.

RCN Scotland Director, Colin Poolman, says the government must follow through with its commitments to reform NHS nurses’ pay system and support the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce to make critical changes to support the profession which he says is in crisis.

In a statement, he writes: “[The Cabinet Secretary’s statement to parliament on winter planning] will not provide much relief or hope for our hard-pressed nursing staff working in health and care services as winter approaches.

“We agree with the Scottish government’s aim to ensure people receive care at home, or as close to home as possible, where clinically appropriate. To achieve this the community health and social care sectors must have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills, in the right place. Yet the latest workforce statistics show just how much pressure our community nursing teams are under with 11% of posts vacant.”

The RCN Scotland Director says there are persistently high nursing vacancy levels across social care and the NHS, with many staff “worn down” by years of understaffing and underinvestment.

 

Read more: Scotland's winter plan for health and social care; Care homes ‘extremely reluctantly’ accept contract; Winter funding for ambulance services

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