How the SNP is betraying more than 9,300 vulnerable Scots right now
October 12, 2024
How the SNP is betraying more than 9,300 vulnerable Scots right now
by 1-randomonium
3 comments
(Article)
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**The money already being spent on the National Care Service, an SNP vanity project, is a slap in the face for social care workers and existing services that are stretched to breaking point**
More than 9,300 Scots are waiting for a social care assessment or a care package to allow them to live independently or in the community. Care homes are disappearing across the country, with the total in Scotland down by a fifth in the last decade. The number of people stuck in hospital purely because they are waiting for a care package is at a record high, piling pressure on our overstretched NHS and wasting millions of pounds every single year. People who rely on care services are sounding the alarm, with a recent survey showing that the number of people rating their care as “good” or “excellent” has plummeted by 19 percentage points over the last eight years.
**Heartbreaking stories**
Fantastic social care workers are doing all they can to deliver the standard of care Scots deserve, but they are underpaid and overworked. When you talk to people who rely on social care services or work in the sector, you will hear countless heartbreaking stories and alarming warnings.
Services are dangerously understaffed, people are facing painfully long waits for care, and workers are dealing with inadequate pay and poor conditions.
What I can’t say I’ve heard is an overwhelming demand for a new quango – more bureaucracy and greater centralisation – and yet that’s exactly what the SNP is offering.
The National Care Service Bill has been a shambles from the offset. The SNP has once again taken a good idea and torn it to shreds with their incompetence and stubbornness.
What should have been about service users and workers instead became a guise for the SNP to claw more powers away from local services. Opposition to these plans has been mounting, but ministers are determined to bury their heads in the sand and forge ahead regardless.
**£28 million wasted – so far**
It has lost the backing of key stakeholders, from local government to trade unions to care providers. NHS chiefs have raised concerns about the plans and sought answers about how exactly the legislation will improve things for people who use or work in these services. The SNP has ignored warning after warning and refused to correct course.
This SNP vanity project could now cost as much as £2.2 billion, with £28 million wasted so far just on the development of the Bill alone. This is a slap in the face while services are stretched to breaking point and social care workers are being given pitiful pay rises.
But while services struggle to cope, the government continues to throw more good money after bad, pouring endless government time and energy into saving their plans.
**Back to the drawing board**
Worst of all, these unworkable and unpopular proposals will not deal with the real challenges social care faces. They will not provide a single additional care worker; they will not provide a single penny more in pay; they will not tackle delayed discharge, support care homes or deliver more care packages.
Our social care system needs reform, yes – but this is not the answer. The SNP’s single-minded obsession with defending their doomed Bill is a betrayal of all those who need a functioning social care system.
It’s time for the government to admit defeat, return to the drawing board and come back with an alternative that is truly fit for purpose.
*Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and health spokesperson*
The Scottish Parliament is there so yoons can blame austerity on local governments
3 comments
(Article)
—
**The money already being spent on the National Care Service, an SNP vanity project, is a slap in the face for social care workers and existing services that are stretched to breaking point**
More than 9,300 Scots are waiting for a social care assessment or a care package to allow them to live independently or in the community. Care homes are disappearing across the country, with the total in Scotland down by a fifth in the last decade.
The number of people stuck in hospital purely because they are waiting for a care package is at a record high, piling pressure on our overstretched NHS and wasting millions of pounds every single year.
People who rely on care services are sounding the alarm, with a recent survey showing that the number of people rating their care as “good” or “excellent” has plummeted by 19 percentage points over the last eight years.
**Heartbreaking stories**
Fantastic social care workers are doing all they can to deliver the standard of care Scots deserve, but they are underpaid and overworked. When you talk to people who rely on social care services or work in the sector, you will hear countless heartbreaking stories and alarming warnings.
Services are dangerously understaffed, people are facing painfully long waits for care, and workers are dealing with inadequate pay and poor conditions.
What I can’t say I’ve heard is an overwhelming demand for a new quango – more bureaucracy and greater centralisation – and yet that’s exactly what the SNP is offering.
The National Care Service Bill has been a shambles from the offset. The SNP has once again taken a good idea and torn it to shreds with their incompetence and stubbornness.
What should have been about service users and workers instead became a guise for the SNP to claw more powers away from local services. Opposition to these plans has been mounting, but ministers are determined to bury their heads in the sand and forge ahead regardless.
**£28 million wasted – so far**
It has lost the backing of key stakeholders, from local government to trade unions to care providers. NHS chiefs have raised concerns about the plans and sought answers about how exactly the legislation will improve things for people who use or work in these services. The SNP has ignored warning after warning and refused to correct course.
This SNP vanity project could now cost as much as £2.2 billion, with £28 million wasted so far just on the development of the Bill alone. This is a slap in the face while services are stretched to breaking point and social care workers are being given pitiful pay rises.
But while services struggle to cope, the government continues to throw more good money after bad, pouring endless government time and energy into saving their plans.
**Back to the drawing board**
Worst of all, these unworkable and unpopular proposals will not deal with the real challenges social care faces. They will not provide a single additional care worker; they will not provide a single penny more in pay; they will not tackle delayed discharge, support care homes or deliver more care packages.
Our social care system needs reform, yes – but this is not the answer. The SNP’s single-minded obsession with defending their doomed Bill is a betrayal of all those who need a functioning social care system.
It’s time for the government to admit defeat, return to the drawing board and come back with an alternative that is truly fit for purpose.
*Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and health spokesperson*
The Scottish Parliament is there so yoons can blame austerity on local governments
Is that right AYE