Further consultation on National Care Service

The Scottish Government has written to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 24 June with an update on the next stages of the National Care Services Scotland Bill. They are planning further consultation over the summer and autumn, and the Scottish Parliament has published a call for views from 5 July with a deadline for comments of 30 August.

The vision for the National Care Service remains unchanged but there are some key changes which will be included in stage 2 amendments as follows

• The creation of a National Care Service Board (NCSB). The NCSB is intended to provide national oversight and improvement of social work services, social care support and community health services which fall within the scope of the National Care Service. The aim is for this to prioritise the actions that will make the most difference to outcomes for people: clear and consistent national standards, performance against those and accountability for delivery.
• Instead of creating new Care Boards, the intention is to ensure greater consistency of local planning and delivery of reformed integration authorities. The aim is to support implementation of NCS priorities by building on existing structures and good practice.

Further work will be required on a number of areas left unresolved and include:

• Direct funding
• Inclusion of children’s services
• Inclusion of Justice Social Work
• Anne’s Law

We are planning to respond and again stress the point that there remains  work to be done to ensure there is a clear vision about how housing sits in partnership with the National Care Service. Aligning housing with health and social care will provide opportunities to focus on shared objectives around prevention, supporting independence and homelessness. If you would like to feed in to our response please contact Eileen McMullan, emcmullan@sfha.co.uk

To provide feedback, you can also find the documents the Scottish Parliament website.