THE Scottish Government has been urged to establish a national care service on an equal footing with the NHS.
The recommendation came in the long-awaited Independent Review of Adult Social Care led by Derek Feeley, a former Scottish Government director-general for health and social care and chief executive of NHS Scotland.
He said: “There is a gap, sometimes a chasm, between the intent of that ground-breaking legislation and the lived experience of people who need support.
“We have inherited a system that gets unwarranted local variation, crisis intervention, a focus on inputs, a reliance on the market, and an undervalued workforce.
“If we want a different set of results, we need a different system.”
Among the report’s recommendations is an end to charging for non-residential services, so social care can be free at the point of need for those receiving care in their own homes or community settings.
It also calls for the Independent Living Fund, which enables disabled people who need support to live in their communities, to be reopened.
Carers should be given “better, more consistent support” and the right to respite, with an amendment to the Carers Act if required, the report adds.
The national care service should be supported by reformed integration joint boards, which will take responsibility for planning, commissioning and procurement and should be funded directly by the Scottish Government.
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon said the Scottish Government will respond to the report in “due course”.
She added: “The pandemic has shown us more starkly than ever before just how much our care services matter, so the review report provides us with a basis for significantly improving these services, as a vital first step towards the creation of a national care service.”
Scottish Socialist Party national spokesman Colin Fox, who has long campaigned for a care service, was critical of Feeley’s report, saying it proposed “the establishment of a ‘national care service’ that doesn’t deserve the description”.
“Comparisons with the National Health Service for example are paltry,” he added.
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