Members of Holyrood’s finance committee say they still face difficulties in properly scrutinising the National Care Service Bill, despite being sent an updated financial memorandum.

In a lengthy evidence session last week, social care minister Maree Todd MSP said she believes the committee have been given “full information” which should allow members to appropriately scrutinise the Bill.

She also admitted that the government’s planned changes to the Bill have come partly as a result of the challenging fiscal environment and the level of resistance among key delivery partners.

Members of the Finance and Public Administration Committee raised concerns that the economic benefits of the proposals have not been captured by the refreshed financial memorandum.

Committee convener Kenneth Gibson added that, with current financial pressures, members are unconvinced of how viable implementing the Bill will be.

Ms Todd said she is “certain” the Bill will deliver economic benefits but difficulties in measuring the unmet need of people in need of support and their carers makes estimates challenging:

“I do not think that it is fair to say that we have not provided any economic detail; indeed, I think that we have provided really solid economic detail in the business case.

“However, I accept that we cannot be absolutely certain. Those are estimates; we have used calculations and formulas and have made a best guess at what we think that it will deliver, but I accept that there is uncertainty around that.

“What I would state time and time again is that I am absolutely certain that this is the right thing to do. I am also certain that it will deliver economic benefits.”

 

A flagship policy in tight financial context

Ms Todd was invited back to speak with the committee, following the publication of an updated financial memorandum for the National Care Service Bill in December.

Changes to the proposals mean the government now estimates NCS set-up over the next 10 years to sit between £631m and £916m.

Mr Gibson said he was unimpressed by the assurances given by officials, including Director of Social Care Donna Bell, at an evidence session earlier that week.

He said committee members are now concerned that a lack of resources will hinder the implementation of the Bill, which the government has now spread out over four years rather than the two foreseen in the original proposals.

The convener said: “There are very challenging financial circumstances across the Scottish government and we all worry that a bill of this magnitude and quality, if it is delivered as it should be, might not end up doing what it says on the tin because of resources.”

 

Co-design

The end of stage 1 fast approaches, with delays now meaning MSPs across the chamber are due to debate the proposals by the start of March.

Social Care Director Donna Bell said that while co-design of the framework legislation has now finished, this is likely to continue over the next few years to develop details of the new service.

The Minister told the committee that she sees “no way around having the co-design process

continue through secondary legislation”.

Committee member Liz Smith said this will make it difficult for the committee to understand what the potential costs of the proposals will be in the future, never mind at the moment:

“You have said that there are a number of things that you are still working on, such as costs related to carers. Do you accept that it is very difficult for us to scrutinise the longer-term costs of the Bill in relation to your projected economic benefits? The data for both those things does not seem to be particularly complete.

“That is the issue for us. Never mind party politics: this is about scrutiny of what the convener has described as one of the Scottish government’s flagship policies and of how workable that policy is.”

Cooperation of delivery partners

The NCS Bill has been met with strong opposition from a range of stakeholders since being introduced to parliament in June 2022.

Maree Todd told the committee that that the third and private sector are now happy about the direction of travel of the NCS, but there is still uncertainty:

“People do not like change and uncertainty. There are many excellent groups that operate out there in our mixed market economy for accessing social care, and they have nothing to fear from the change.

“We are going to improve quality right across the board and improve the pay and conditions of people who work in social care.

“The change is to be welcomed, but I absolutely acknowledge that there is uncertainty and concern about how it will impact on individual businesses and individual charities.”

A key change to the legislation will be that integration joint boards will be reformed, rather than scrapped, with the NHS board playing a larger role than previously proposed.

Maree Todd said voting rights on these integration authorities, or how exactly money will flow between these bodies, has not yet been decided.

 

Read more: Millions less needed to deliver NCS; Questions for “fundamentally changed” NCS; Outstanding questions stall NCS scrutiny

 

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