“We want to work constructively with government to help meet promises made to Scotland’s citizens. Stripping resources from social care providers isn’t how we do that” 

Each time I think the social care sector cannot be more overlooked and undervalued by Scottish Government finance decisions, I am surprised.   

These are not the sort of surprises I welcome. 

What has been emerging from the shadows of the Scottish Budget over recent days, and is now in the public domain, is that the Scottish Government has made a decision, without reference to anyone, to change how it has calculated the amount of money it is investing in social care pay next year for organisations like those I represent – not for profits delivering public care and support services. And the result of this change would be less money to the frontline of social care and support.  

This seems to be a deeply cynical accounting move, hidden in all the budget papers, to strip resources from core providers outside of the public sector whilst claiming to meet a policy objective.

The organisations affected are already delivering essential taxpayer-funded public services to their communities with too little investment.   

I am dumbfounded.  

And, at first, I could not make sense of this move. 

First, the government, in not being upfront in this, has massively damaged trust with a sector it needs to rely on to keep the wheels on the bus now and support reform. My members are at their wits’ end, having heard this news after everything else they have been asked to endure. 

Second, we have privately spent the last year sharing information with the Scottish Government about how fragile our sector is. In real detail. Ministers cannot say they don’t know. So why insert this amount of additional risk into a sector that is already under unprecedented pressure for what we think is around £19m in 2026-27 – a tiny percentage of the overall Scottish Budget? 

Third, Shona Robison said in the chamber today (and I paraphrase) that the government has decided it will not fund commissioned social care providers to meet statutory obligations to pay the new national living wage. This is either a fundamental misunderstanding of how social care services delivering public services are funded or a terrible justification of a retrograde move. Of course employers have to cover their obligations but in commissioned services (and this under-the-radar policy change only applies to these) the costs of employment are part of a contract. What other money does the Cabinet Secretary think is available to CCPS members to cover the gap? They aren’t supermarkets able to pass on cost increases to consumers. The government has had a policy to fund at least the RLW in commissioned services and it seems to have just ripped that up.  

Fourth, public service reform and the management of current crises – such as the appalling situation for people whose hospital discharge is delayed – depends on social care to turn things around.  This re-profiling in the budget will further destabilise our sector, impacting jobs and pay yet more negatively – and putting even more pressure on the wider public sector and families who need to step into care. Why make worse those areas where the government is already under pressure for not delivering? 

Fifth, the Scottish Government has put child poverty and the economy at the heart of its priorities. This change – small for government in the context of the full Scottish Budget – will have massive repercussions for staff who are already underfunded by the government’s own pay policy. Over 80% of our workforce are women. Many will have families relying on them. These are not women paid high salaries to deliver care and support to families and individuals across Scotland. These are women who the government has insisted deserve no more than the Real Living Wage, as regulated and trained professionals, to deliver key support to vulnerable people. So where is the equality or economic impact assessment from the Scottish Government from this sleight of hand move behind the budget?

And then, I am left wondering: why would the government expect our sector to accept the rhetoric of “there is no money” when hundreds of millions of new funds have been announced for other parts of our public service system in recent months? 

We all know that social care is massively underfunded. Supported people and their families know; staff know; government knows. Even before we realised what had been done to the pay uplift, the Scottish Budget and spending review were woeful for our sector and came nowhere close to what is needed to address immediate risks and drive an efficient and effective reformed system that supports people to flourish. 

With a level of cynicism I do not like to hold, I have been left wondering whether, by focusing only on this change, we are at risk of deflecting a wider discussion about much-needed investment in social care that goes far beyond the re-profiling of the Real Living Wage uplift. So, I feel I should, on behalf of my members, be really clear. 

The calculations to underpin the Scottish Government’s own pay policy for commissioned care and support must revert to previous baselines to avoid compounding untenable risks for people. We understand that is around £19m for adult and children’s services. That has to be put back in the Scottish Budget as a fundamental. 

But reverting to the previous RLW calculation is not the saving grace for the sector. That puts us back to where we all thought we were starting from last week. 

Our calls for proper recovery of workforce costs in delivering public services – including reviewing the weightings in the government’s pay policy and addressing wider on-cost pressures – remain. As do our calls to move forwards, and fully fund, sectoral bargaining. And we need to see a spending review that will address long-term stability for our sector in the face of increasing unmet need. 

We want to work transparently and constructively with the Scottish Government – as we always have and strive to do. We need each other to turn around many of the pressures faced by individuals and families across Scotland; to meet promises made to Scotland’s citizens. 

But this isn’t how we do that.