the plans will only bolster the profit motive that already pollutes much of social care provision, remove vital local accountability, will leave workers short-changed and, most importantly, are vagueon how it will improve anything for people who require support to live their lives to the full.
the Scottish Government’s plans for a National Care Service simply offer no theory of how the lives of those who receive social care support will be improved. The reforms look very much to be about centralisation and the shuffling of deck chairs while the big questions around the pernicious marketisation of care, how we will pay for services in the future and how society can prepare itself for demographic change are conveniently ignored. As outlined by the likes of Ellen Clifford, the radical energy of organised disabled people’s movements made huge gains which have been wiped out by Tory and SNP austerity at UK and Scottish level. The National Care Service as proposed threatens to be another step back. Even in basic terms, the associated £800m additional funding (over 4-5 years) announced is less than a quarter of what the Feeley Review said was necessary for the social care sector, as pointed out by the STUC.
As with all government initiatives, there is a lengthy road ahead for parliamentary scrutiny, further consultation and so on, before the new service is up and running in a promised four years. So far, what is being offered is not a National Care Service worthy of that title. By now, we should well understand that the government cannot be trusted to deliver. We will need to transform care ourselves.