10 October 2024

“In the midst of struggle, let’s take time to see the rainbows”

Launching our new Member Spotlight series celebrating the work of provider organisations in our membership, Cornerstone’s Chief Executive Hazel Brown reflects on success in the face of sector-wide challenges

Launching our new Member Spotlight series of blogs and videos celebrating the work of provider organisations in our membership, Cornerstone’s Chief Executive Hazel Brown reflects on success in the face of sector-wide challenges

I am delighted to be invited to provide the inaugural blog for CCPS’ new Members’ Spotlight series, and to have the opportunity to share some updates from Cornerstone, including some of our recent celebrations and achievements.

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting our annual Star Awards in Dundee; a national event designed to recognise the exceptional work of colleagues and supporters, as well as celebrate the amazing achievements of the people we support. Eighty-five colleagues from across the country were recognised for various long service awards, representing a cumulative 1,235 years of dedication and commitment to Cornerstone and the social care sector!

Presentations were also made for Colleague of the Year, Team of the Year, Learner of the Year and Fundraiser of the Year, and a number of very special Mary Williamson Awards were also presented to people we support across our 11 Branches, by the Lord Provost of the City of Dundee, Bill Campbell.

It was truly uplifting event with some very special stories shared. It also served as a great reminder of the impact of the care we provide and the difference it makes to the lives of the people we support and their families.

The theme of the event was ‘Cornerstone at the Movies’, with many guests choosing to dress up as their favourite film character. We also took the opportunity to première our very own Cornerstone movie, which you can view here.

I was delighted that Rachel Cackett, CEO of CCPS, was able to join us on the day and got to hear first-hand just some of the amazing work that is happening across the country.

Watch a short video message from Rachel, recorded at Cornerstone’s Star Awards

During the course of the afternoon I also shared news of a significant Cornerstone milestone, with the recent opening of our new Cornerstone Connects Hub in Galashiels. What an amazing facility it is! The hub is fully adapted to meet the needs of adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, complex care needs and autism and offers access to a wide range of outcome-based activities and learning opportunities.

Activities and opportunities include everything from early morning, evening, and weekend clubs, trips out and ‘Cuppa & Catch Up’ events to doors open days and hosted visits from a range of NHS Borders healthcare professionals. There is also a fully accessible sensory room, Changing Space, activity kitchen, physio and therapy room, tech and multi-media room, bookable meeting space, a common room and sensory garden.

It has been a long and hard road to get the hub open but it just shows you what sheer determination, an ambitious team and a truly collaborative working approach can achieve. I know the facility is already making a huge difference to the people we support, their families and our colleagues in our Support Service, Care at Home and Housing Support and Shared Lives.

Last month we also celebrated being awarded a Highly Commended at the UK final of the 2024 Menopause Friendly Employer Awards in London. A pretty big deal for us, especially given the stiff competition from the likes of BAE Systems, Leicestershire County Council, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Specsavers and Thames Valley Police! It is a significant achievement and true testament to the hard work and dedication of our colleagues and their efforts to bring about long-term, sustainable change and fostering a supportive and inclusive menopause friendly culture. The project was made possible through a generous grant from The Workplace Equality Fund and our skilled project partners The People Portfolio. If you would be interested in finding out more please contact menopauseawarenessproject@cornerstone.org.uk

And hot off the press… we’ve just heard that we are finalists in the Herald’s Top Employer Awards in the ‘Best Training and Skills Development Initiative’ category.  This recognises our investment and roll out of a new Professional Practitioner Programme, driven by our Training Academy.

So lots of great stuff happening at Cornerstone. But of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. We still face the same sector-wide funding, pay and recruitment challenges. We still struggle to keep social care in the spotlight and to influence meaningful policy change. But for our part, we remain committed to joining forces with other care providers and CCPS to influence change at both local and national government level. We look forward to working together and increasing our participation in profile-raising and influencing over the next year.

But for now, I urge all members to take some time and look for the sunshine and rainbows. It is undoubtedly a difficult time for social care, but it’s so important that we spotlight success and remind ourselves of the meaningful difference the great care and support we all deliver makes to people and communities across Scotland.

Read more about Cornerstone

 

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26 September 2024

Not-for-profit social care sector united at CCPS AGM

The event brought together social care and support organisations to talk about challenges facing the sector

A photograph taken outside at the 2024 CCPS AGM, showing CCPS CEO Rachel Cackett meeting with Neil Gray MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care.

Last week we hosted our AGM, bringing representatives from more than 30 of our member organisations together in the same room.

For many, this was a rare and welcome opportunity to connect with other social care and support providers in person, and reflect on recent experiences and challenges.

Neil Gray, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care joined us and presented on the Scottish Government’s commitments to social care. He then fielded questions from members on various challenges the sector is currently facing.

During the session, members raised a number of points, including:

  • Staff wellbeing
  • Capacity and sustainability
  • Tensions in the current culture around commissioning
  • Managing risk
  • The NCS and sector reform

Board Convener Andrea Wood took the opportunity to recognise the honest conversations facilitated by CCPS with membership organisations. Andrea thanked members, the CCPS Board and staff for their work across this last year.

Looking to the future for our sector, CEO Rachel Cackett focused on the CCPS priorities launched in May, and how we will need to think differently about our tactics to implement our strategic goals in the current climate.

Reflecting on the day, Rachel said:

“It was great to see so many familiar faces in person at our AGM, and to hear members’ thoughtful contributions, ideas and challenges when things are so tough.

“We represent such a fantastic community of not-for-profit providers, and the team at CCPS left feeling energised to continue our collective work with our members across Scotland. We know there is much to do.”

CCPS CEO Rachel Cackett addresses members gathered in Edinburgh for the AGM:

A photograph taken at the 2024 CCPS AGM, showing CCPS CEO Rachel Cackett addressing members. A slide projected on a screen reads: "It is not difference which immobilises us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken." This quote is attributed to Audre Lorde.

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6 September 2024

“A chance to do things differently”

Bryan Davies, Chief Officer – Strategic Commissioning and Performance at Scottish Borders Council, reflects on his experience running a model contract test-of-change as part of our work focused on transforming culture in commissioning and procurement

CCPS has a longstanding commitment to leading culture change in commissioning and procurement, with a focus on embedding rights-based approaches and increasing collaboration, writes Policy Manager Alison Christie. In 2023-24, our work in this area included running a test-of-change of model outcomes-based contract template documents and related terms and conditions. We were pleased to collaborate with Scottish Borders Council and law firm Morton Fraser Macroberts as part of the project.

Background

The aim was to provide local authorities with a set of template documents to use and adapt when contracting for social care support services and to ensure that the contractual process focuses on the person’s outcomes. The Model Contract is three-way agreement between the supported person, the provider and the local authority. It is an Option 3 Self-directed Support (SDS) contract, meaning it can be used for all types of social care services.

The test-of-change was a small-scale project to assess how the Model Contract and Ts & Cs could work in practice and be adapted for use locally. By the end of the project, it was in readiness for use with one individual and support provider contracted through Scottish Borders Council (SBC), with an outcomes-based social work assessment, individual outcomes-based support plan and signed legal agreements all in progress.

In his blog below, Bryan Davies, Chief Officer – Strategic Commissioning and Performance at SBC, reflects on his experience of sharing the work and the learning gained.

“Part of my role at SBC focuses on developing our approach to commissioning, including looking at how we establish new governance arrangements for commissioning decision-making.

Currently in development are an early draft commissioning strategy within which there are 11 commissioning principles we will be committing to upon completion of the engagement process.

The developing approach also includes exercises such as the mapping of all our longstanding commissioning arrangements and the modelling of a capacity versus demand whole system profile across all health and social care settings. This Commissioning Framework will set out a new approach to existing commissioning in the Scottish Borders with a focus on ethical commissioning and collaboration.

One of the first areas of review in the Borders is Care at Home provision. CCPS’s test of change was of particular interest because it allowed us to look at the potential for doing things differently in terms of three-way contracts between the commissioner, the provider and the individual with that focus on the individual’s outcomes.

Trialling ideas

As a small test of change, we felt it was a useful exercise to begin to think through how the model contract might be implemented. However, one of the things that came through clearly was the need for more time. This proved to be a frustration throughout the project in terms of working towards a very imminent deadline.

Very quickly we pulled together legal experts, social work practitioners, partner agencies and other disciplines to look at the detail. But despite an excellent collaborative approach, unfortunately we didn’t have the time to go ‘live’ with a contract and involvement of a service user within the timeframe given.

In scoping a new way of working, lots of questions were raised for us about, for example, distinguishing between self-directed support option two and this specific option three piece of work. This test of change was within the context of option 3 (social work provided care through the means of a framework), and as a result the issue of scale became important.

The real value of any further test of change would be linked to scaling up. However, it was an interesting exercise in terms of the process that stakeholders might go through to get to this new three-way contractual arrangement.

Question time

SBC currently does assess individuals for outcomes but has historically set budgets around time and task provision of care at home rather than outcomes. So there is continued development in this aspect.

The capacity of the provider to deliver on the individuals’ outcomes while also delivering on a large-scale traditional volume of Care at Home provision on a time and task basis also provided a challenge. Questions were raised from the provider’s perspective about how they would manage the capacity to achieve this.

We highlighted other questions around evidencing progress against the achievement of the person’s outcomes.

There was an acknowledgement that there are tools that already exist and are in use by SBC and providers, but questions as to how SBC and stakeholders would agree suitable tools for the evidencing of those outcomes.

SBC also weren’t clear about managing a person’s expectations in terms of how open to be about this being a test of change when getting to testing stage with a service user.

Steps in the right direction

There was also a suggestion to better sequence the steps that needed to be taken. For example, the contract’s function could have been brought in earlier.

There was a significant focus on the legal input, and it was felt that in addition, there was a need for input from the contracts and procurement team to help the group understand where progress needed to be made in practically applying the new contract.

The experience has informed wider working for SBC in developing commissioning approaches, and we feel that it will be important to revisit much of what was experimented with during the project.

Overall, I felt that, despite it being a very small-scale test of change, a great deal of value had been learnt by the project group in a short period of time.”

 

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21 June 2024

Community of support and advocate for change: celebrating CCPS on its anniversary

What’s been the organisation’s contribution since 1999? Marking our quarter century, five Board members give their views

This year CCPS celebrates its 25th anniversary as a registered charity. To mark the milestone, members of our Board have given us their perspectives on our contribution since 1999 – and why the organisation matters.

C-Change CEO Sam Smith reflected on our unique role and what she’s gained from being a Board member, commenting:

“CCPS is a membership organisation that helps not for profit social care providers do their best to support our citizens and communities to thrive. It provides a community of support and learning that ensures civil society organisations can evolve and develop to meet the changing needs of Scotland’s population.

“Through CCPS my colleagues have a network of similarly committed professionals to learn and grow with. And for me as a leader, it is a place where I am supported and challenged to do and be better.”

Richmond Fellowship Scotland Chief Executive Austen Smyth, the longest serving member of our Board, said:

“I have been an active CCPS board member for over 18 years. During that time I’ve seen CCPS grow, develop and extend its reach and influence.

“The organisation plays a pivotal role in amplifying the issues and voices of the third sector social care and support sector. It advocates for providers as an important agent for change.”

Viv Dickenson, CEO of CrossReach, told us about the value of CCPS as a collective voice:

“The voluntary sector plays a critical role in delivering social care to thousands of people across Scotland. Providers can see ways to improve the system we operate within, both for supported people and for the workforce, but individually our voices are often not heard.

“Being a CCPS member gives us the opportunity to get together, explore the big issues in social care, and collectively advocate for positive change. It has been a force for good for 25 years, and Scotland would be the poorer without it.”

VSA’s Chief Executive Sue Freeth highlighted our role in influencing and collaborating with government, stating:

“VSA is proud to be a member of CCPS. Scotland’s third sector needs a strong voice to improve the lives of people VSA and other members exist to support.

“CCPS enables us to escalate concerns, become a better networked sector, to share new approaches and provides the platform to collaborate with government on practice based policy.

Finally, Doug Moyes, Director of Customer Service at Blackwood, highlighted CCPS’s pivotal role during the pandemic:

“CCPS has been a consistent voice and support for Scotland’s care sector over the last 25 years. While care providers face incredible challenges year on year there has never been such a significant contribution than CCPS support and guidance during the Covid pandemic.

“CCPS united providers across the country, supporting us to navigate new legislation and infection control measures and raised our collective issues and concerns on behalf of our customers and staff with government.”

Thanks to all Board members who contributed their views.

 

 

 

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20 June 2024

“A collective voice of people and organisations who all share a common vision”

As CCPS marks its 25th anniversary, Andrea Wood, Chief Executive of Key and Convener of our Board, reflects on the organisation’s contribution since 1999

This summer CCPS celebrates its 25th anniversary as a registered charity, and 27 years since it was founded.

To mark the milestone and share CCPS’s new Priorities, the organisation recently held a special event in the Scottish Parliament. Staff and members were joined by MSPs including Clare Haughey, Convener of the parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, Neil Gray,  Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and Maree Todd, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport.

It was a chance to acknowledge three decades of CCPS’ contribution, ranging from its origins as an early, urgent voice for community care providers, with 23 members, to its profile now, representing 89 not-for-profit social care providers across Scotland. A rich diversity of organisations who do vital work, supporting
good lives for Scotland’s people and communities in a way that respects and
values individual choice and control.

Below, members gather at our parliamentary reception at Holyrood on 28 May. Above, CCPS Convener, Chief Executive of Key and blog author Andrea Wood.

 

Guests at the reception reflected on what it means to be part of a collective voice of people and organisations who all share a common vision of a rights and relationship-based approach to social care and support. It’s a vision that, in essence, has not changed over CCPS’s quarter century as a charity, and has at its heart our members’ commitment to ensuring that not-for-profit providers and their staff are recognised and valued as they should be. That’s meant championing the right for people to do a job that they love, but also to be respected, valued and rewarded for the vital work that they do.

Guests filled out cards at the event telling us why they valued social care and support:

After 25 years, CCPS continues to be a respected, influential and authentic organisation, with a reputation based on its values: Creative, Collaborative, Credible, Courageous and Kind. It couldn’t have sustained that reputation without such a talented staff team, now led by Rachel Cackett, and previously by Annie Gunner Logan, who was CEO until 2022.

Through its work CCPS has played a role in the implementation of some of the most ground-breaking developments in social care throughout the years. Changing Lives, Self-Directed Support, the Promise and the Review of Adult Social Care are just a few examples.

All of those achievements have been shaped by the views, experiences and wisdom of CCPS’s members. They wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, and I know that at this important point in its history, its right  that  we celebrate the strength of CCPS’s relationship and dialogue with its membership.

Thinking about the future and how CCPS will play its part, that collective voice of CCPS’s members will continue to be vital in communicating to everyone across Scotland the true value of social care and support.

Members of  the CCPS staff team pictured at the event. From left, Chris Small, Anna Tully, Alison Christie, Rachel Cackett, Nadine Cassidy, Eilidh Shearer, Emma Mathews, Kyle Hylan-Corcoran, Megan Williams and Simon Webster:

Photographs by Andrzej Majdanik. www.haicoo.co.uk LinkedIn: @haicoo_media

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29 May 2024

“Our new priorities will define how we tune our collective voice for the next 18 months”

Rachel Cackett marks 25 years since CCPS became a registered charity – and says that continuing to be a successful membership body means being creative, focused and holding on to hope

We are the organisation we are today because for over a quarter of a century we have built on the strength and passion of our membership and our staff. I’d like to thank all those who have made CCPS – past and present – and a particular shout-out to the legendary CCPS powerhouse and rockstar, our former CEO Annie-Gunner Logan.

But in the here and now, times are tough for our members, for the people they support, for CCPS. Already in the last 18 months we have had to pivot this organisation from Covid crisis response to a sustainability crisis response to address the reality our members face. It’s not always been a comfortable ride.

Lurching from crisis to crisis without seeing the hope is not a place for any of us to effect good change. It’s been time to take stock.

For the last year we have been working with our members, our stakeholders, and our staff to hear how CCPS can best support our membership and change social care and support for the better. What you want of us, where we can have biggest impact, how we can rekindle hope.

Given that we are small team and we are not rich I need us to be incredibly focused and creative. That’s how we will continue to be a successful membership body.

CCPS priorities reflect what we have heard and define how we will tune our collective voice for the next 18 months – a deliberately short time for a song in a tumultuous world.

We will take stock again and refresh our priorities with you before the Holyrood elections where we hope that all parties will present manifestos that demonstrate their commitment to the true value of social care.

Read our Priorities for 2024-25

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28 March 2024

“SDS can help put people in the driving seat of their own lives”

Linda Tuthill, Chief Executive of the Action Group and contributor to our Insights Podcasts series, on the blocks that must be removed to ensure Self-Directed Support can be truly empowering

I am passionate about people who use any services having the power and control in their own hands. There are many ways this can happen, through person-centred support services, involvement, and self-advocacy support.

A main way is for the person to have the money in their own hands or in their own name, managed in a way that gives them as much control and flexibility as possible. It also means giving people the choice to not have this if that is not where they are at in their life. It should never be forced on anyone. But instead, if the right support is in place, it is hoped that more and more supported people and carers will opt for Self-Directed Support (SDS).

When done right, SDS is empowering and helps really put the person in the driving seat of their own lives and support. When done badly (i.e. the person isn’t given the support to know what they can buy with their money or there are not the options to buy etc) then nothing really changes.

Sadly, there are also a lot of blocks in the system preventing full implementation of SDS in Scotland, in the spirit of the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013. These include:

• Social workers not knowing about SDS

• SDS not being offered at assessment stage

• Bureaucracy being put in place with complicated systems to access SDS, putting off those who want support and organisations who feel unable to engage fully with SDS due to this complexity.

There are also simply the time and capacity barriers that people desperate for support face, that carers face and that staff in Councils and social care organisations face. This has potentially never been more of an issue as it is now due to post-pandemic pressures.

To really get SDS pushed forward we need investment in all parts of the system, including social care organisations that are often best placed to “sell” SDS and to provide innovative solutions to those who then have their own budgets. Without proper investment I am not optimistic that the postcode lottery of SDS take-up will improve beyond what Audit Scotland concluded in 2017.

However, as an optimist I hold on to the hope that the implementation gap will close further through the efforts of the many self-advocates and SDS organisations that exist to promote this important right for everyone who accesses social care now and in the future. My organisation will continue to play its part by continuing to work together with our many SDS funders, with options 1 and 2, and to empower others to move to SDS if this is what they want and help them to work with social work for this to happen.

CCPS’s ethical commissioning workstream, of which its Insights Podcasts series on SDS are a part, helps focus debate and energy around SDS. We need that energy so it doesn’t end up being just great legislation with continued poor or patchy implementation, but instead great legislation with great impact in the lives of everyone in Scotland – given that most of us need support at some point in our lives.

SDS matters to us all!

Listen to our Insights Podcast series. Linda appears on episode 2, which focuses on person-centred care and SDS.

Find out more about the Action Group. 

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20 February 2024

“Some days, it feels like we literally hold people’s lives in our hands”

As part of our Rethink To 13 series, a support practitioner in Sense Scotland’s short breaks service tells us about the impact a pay increase to £13 would have on her, the workforce – and the people they support

“As a support practitioner in a respite unit for young people and adults with complex needs, I wear many hats, and perform so many roles in a day. I am carer, friend, cook, nurse, driver, emotional/physical outlet, entertainer, advocate, teacher, family, to name a few.

Some days, it feels like we literally hold people’s lives in our hands. I am paid the Living Wage for only one of these roles. Raising the wage to at least £13 an hour would not only allow us to feel more appreciated and valued within these roles, it would encourage experienced staff to stay within the care sector.

We do this job to the best of our ability and because we care. But in turn, we also need to feel that we are cared for. My role requires me to be registered with the SSSC, a professional body. However, we still are classed as unskilled workers. The roles we perform are anything but unskilled.

I have stayed with people in their hour of need, providing end of life care, ensuring they are not alone and feel safe and loved. Not because my role required this, but because this is what everyone deserves.

Raising the hourly rate of pay would lead to a happier, less stressed workforce, allowing us to focus on the care that the people receiving support deserve. This would enable them to have more confidence in the people caring for them and offer a happier, more positive experience of care.

It would also encourage others to look into a career in care, offering more diversity, skills and experience, which would enhance the level of service we can provide for the people we support.”

Find out more about Sense Scotland

Read more about our Rethink To 13 campaign

 

 

 

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21 December 2023

When will we see the government’s values of ‘community, equality and opportunity’ reflected in investment in social care?

Our CEO Rachel Cackett responds to publication of the 2024-25 Budget

Responding to Tuesday’s announcement of the 2024-25 Budget, Rachel Cackett, CEO of CCPS, said:

“It’s very disappointing to see the social care sector overlooked, under-discussed and lacking in committed investment.

The government says public services need reform to be sustainable, particularly the NHS.

Government needs not-for-profit social care providers to deliver more prevention and early intervention for that to happen.

But to do that, providers need to still be here and to be sustainable.

Announcements yesterday reiterated that the base rate of pay would increase to £12 per hour for care and support staff starting in April 2024.

That means pay for our regulated, trained and largely female workforce will continue to remain unacceptably low in the context of rising living costs, a sector recruitment and retention crisis, and ever-growing demand for social care services.

This budget doesn’t address the current crisis in social care and doesn’t invest for the future.

Tougher budgets mean tougher decisions, but choice is what governs decision-making. And choices reflect the true values of the Scottish Government.

If the Scottish Government wants to be true to its words on ‘community, equality and opportunity’, we must see those values reflected in investment in our sector.

But this isn’t over: there is still time invest in the future of Scotland.

We are calling on the Scottish Government to Rethink To £13 per hour, at least, for social care and support staff as a first step in a timetable to equity.”

CCPS is currently analysing the full budget to assess the real terms impact of the announcement on social care spending across government portfolios.

Resources:

Link to our Rethink To 13 campaign

Link to Scottish Budget

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19 October 2023

Policy blog: Human Rights Bill’s dignity focus welcome, but more clarity needed on ‘duty bearers’ impact

A comprehensive consultation will be required to ensure not-for-profit social care providers fully understand the implications of the new legislation for their sustainability and resource allocation, writes Jen Goff

Scotland is on the brink of a profound socio-political, cultural and economic shift: the incorporation of human rights into Scots Law. This is not merely about acknowledging that rights exist. Instead, it’s about realising human rights as accessible, applicable and enforceable, for every person in Scotland all of the time.

Context and significance

Some international human rights have already been brought into UK law. These rights have been incorporated in the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Scotland Act 1998. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child will also be incorporated in Scots law soon. However, the present Human Rights for Scotland Bill answers long-standing calls from Scottish campaigners to include economic, social and cultural rights (ICESCR). It also incorporates the rights of women (CEDAW), disabled people (CRPD) and people from ethnic minority backgrounds (CERD).

The Bill carries profound implications for Scotland’s future. It pledges more than just symbolic support of human rights; its adoption ensures that all legislative and policy decisions undergo human rights scrutiny. Consequently, public bodies will be obliged to prioritise rights in all operations. This will affect everything from how budgets and resources are allocated, to how services are delivered. Crucially, people will be empowered to actively claim their rights, ultimately shaping a society where rights violations are made unacceptable. In this way, the Bill has the potential to transition from acknowledgement that human rights exist, to realising the inherent dignity, respect and fairness every person should be afforded in practice.

In other words, transitioning from acknowledgement to realisation in human rights is like moving from seeing a seed to witnessing a tree in full bloom. Initially, the potential and promise are recognised (acknowledgment). However, only through a process of care and nourishment can a seed grow into a tree that provides tangible shelter and sustenance (realisation).

At CCPS, we understand the profound implications of incorporating human rights and why the third sector needs a voice in the process. Consequently, we took several steps to develop our consultation response,. which you can read here.

We explored potential sectoral impacts by participating in events with experts like the Human Rights Consortium Scotland, Third Sector Human Rights and Equalities and the ALLIANCE Scotland. We grew our internal team and membership’s understanding through an information session led by the Human Rights Consortium Scotland. Additionally, our virtual drop-in and survey offered CCPS members a way of sharing views. Together, these efforts shaped our response, reflecting the perspectives, concerns and hopes of third sector providers.

What we welcome

Our response welcomes the inclusion of the ‘dignity’ principle in the interpretation of rights within the Bill. Recognising the intrinsic worth of every person, especially marginalised groups at heightened risk of rights violations, is a principle that reflects the existential purpose of social care. This proposal therefore not only aligns with the existing commitments and practises of CCPS members, but also paves the way for a culture characterised by empathy, respect and the systemic challenge of inequities.

What needs work

Our response supports a whole systems approach to human rights incorporation. We are nonetheless calling for the Scottish Government to clarify what this means for third sector providers who may become duty bearers. Given the potential implications on sustainability, legalities, procurement, and resource allocation, we’re calling for a comprehensive consultation involving the third sector.

What needs to change

Our response recommends that ‘equalities treaties’ should be termed ‘special protection treaties’, and these should be incorporated in full. In other words, the rights of women, disabled people and people from minority ethnic backgrounds should be acknowledged for the heightened risk of rights violations they face, while their rights must be given due regard and a duty to comply. We also note that Article 19 of CRPD (the right to live independently and be included in the community) is particularly relevant to the realisation of rights via social care.

What’s next

We have reached out to the Scottish Government to extend our support in clarifying what third sector provider’s roles will be within human rights incorporation. Ensuring our membership’s voices are meaningfully included is our priority. That means actively engaging forthcoming incorporation process with third sector resilience at the heart of our work.

Jen Goff is CCPS’s Policy and Projects Officer (National Social Care Resilience and Reform)

Read our consultation response 

Further reading

If you would like to learn more about human rights incorporation, check out the following resources.

1. Read

A quick read: Third Force News blog summarising some issues with the Human Rights Bill from a third sector perspective

A plain English read: Together Scotland has produced child-friendly consultation guides, both of which are excellent plain English introductions useful for anyone to read

The Scottish Government’s guide to the human rights bill

The Human Rights Consortium Scotland’s consultation guide

The ALLIANCE Scotland’s consultation response

The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland consultation guide

The Equality Network’s consultation response

2. Listen

An audio version of the short guide to the Human Rights Bill consultation

A podcast introduction to the human rights bill by the Scottish Human Rights Consortium

3. Watch

A webinar by the Care Inspectorate on human rights and the health and social care standards

 

 

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