24 September 2025

“It is only by standing together that we can ensure our sector is heard:” CCPS members gather at 2025 AGM

This week our membership community came together to share their experiences from the past year, discuss priorities, and speak with Scotland’s new Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing

On Monday, CCPS hosted its AGM and members’ meeting in Edinburgh, bringing together representatives from our member organisations to reflect on the previous year and feed into our vision and priorities moving forward. 

As our Board Convenor Andrea Wood noted on the day, CCPS’s role in establishing a collective voice of not-for-profit social care providers in Scotland “has never felt more vital”. At an extremely uncertain and challenging point for members, “it is only by standing together that we can ensure our sector is heard.”  

The AGM and members’ meeting presented an important opportunity for members to come together to share their concerns and learning from the past year, while also giving them a chance to speak directly with the new Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing, Tom Arthur MSP. 

Andrea Wood opened the AGM by celebrating the resilience and strength of CCPS members during a challenging year for the sector, and reflecting on the busy year CCPS has experienced. 

Welcoming two new member organisations who have joined CCPS since our last AGM, she thanked members for their high levels of engagement throughout the year, which has enabled CCPS to speak with credibility and authority in our advocacy work.  

CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett echoed these remarks, celebrating the strength of our community, which has supported CCPS to engage in meaningful and impactful advocacy over the past year. 

Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, she opened up a discussion on CCPS’s renewed vision and priorities. She emphasised that investment will be foundational to our vision of a thriving social care system in Scotland, as will ensuring CCPS and its members are seen as strategic partners by policymakers.  

Given the importance of this partnership between members and decision-makers, the new Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing, Tom Arthur MSP, was invited to speak with members. 

The Minister emphasised his commitment to working closely with the sector as he embarks on his new role. He recognised that members are pushing both for increased investment in the sector as well as a seat at the table in decision-making, and said that he takes this very seriously. 

Members raised a number of significant points with the minister, including the need for policymakers to have a firm understanding of the benefits of not-for-profit social care, the importance of sector representatives having a seat at the table in decision-making, and providers being seen as key strategic partners by the government.  

The Minister said he recognised the vital work members are doing within a very challenging landscape, and that he is committed to keeping this dialogue open to ensure government and parliamentary priorities address the needs of the sector.  

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17 August 2025

‘Action needed now to avert health and social care crisis in Scotland’, sector leaders urge First Minister in open letter

More than 200 third sector health and social care leaders have signed an open letter to the First Minister calling for immediate steps to address the crisis threatening the sector

More than 200 third sector health and social care leaders have signed an open letter to the First Minister calling for immediate steps to address the current crisis threatening the sector.

Published today in the Herald on Sunday, the letter makes clear that without action now, the consequences of the crisis will be felt across society, from deepening inequalities to even greater pressure on the NHS and public services – with Scotland’s most vulnerable individuals and families paying the price.

Read the letter and calls in full here.

Led by the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) and the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS), and supported by hundreds of its members, the letter makes four key asks of the Scottish Government:

  •   An immediate, substantial cash injection in the upcoming Spending Review, including full cost recovery for employer National Insurance increases
  •   A medium-term fully-funded recovery plan for the sector, to address decades of underinvestment
  •   Multi-year funding agreements adjusted for inflation, to ensure stability for organisations
  •   A firm commitment to fully include the sector in planning and decision-making

The Scottish Government’s recent announcement on reform sets out a commitment to change in the health and social care sector based on the Christie principles, from the widely-supported 2011 Christie Review.

These principles of empowerment, integration, prevention and efficiency provide a blueprint for what public services should be for and how they should be structured.

While the third sector supports these commitments, the reality is that they cannot be delivered without urgent, targeted investment in the very organisations expected to implement the changes.

Evidence from the ALLIANCE and CCPS lays bare the severity of the pressure currently facing the sector, and why the Scottish Government’s ambitions cannot be achieved without investment and stability:

In a March 2024 survey by the ALLIANCE, nearly half (49%) of the member organisations that responded reported their financial position as “insecure”.

A February 2025 poll by CCPS found that 67% of not-for-profit providers are relying on financial reserves to stay afloat – and of these 91% say they will cease to be viable within four years if that trend continues.

Recent data from SCVO shows that 81% of voluntary organisations are facing financial pressures that threaten essential services – an increase of 10% from 2023.

The ALLIANCE and CCPS are committed to working with the Scottish Government to achieve the key asks outlined in the letter in support of your vision for public service reform.

Read the letter and calls in full here.

Read CCPS CEO Rachel Cackett’s blog about the letter and Herald coverage.

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16 June 2025

“If the First Minister is to implement his vision for prevention, we need emergency social care investment now to stem the loss of services”

John Swinney can take a first positive first step to achieving the transformative vision we all want, says CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett

A photo of five people at an event. From left to right: Sara Redmond (The Alliance), Nick Ward (Change Mental Health), Tejesh Mistry (Voluntary Health Scotland), Rachel Cackett (CCPS) and John Swinney (First Minister)

 

A photo of five people at an event. From left to right: Sara Redmond (The Alliance), Nick Ward (Change Mental Health), Tejesh Mistry (Voluntary Health Scotland), Rachel Cackett (CCPS) and John Swinney (First Minister)

From left to right: Sara Redmond (The Alliance), Nick Ward (Change Mental Health), Tejesh Mistry (Voluntary Health Scotland), Rachel Cackett (CCPS) and John Swinney (First Minister)

This morning I attended the First Minister’s event to launch his vision for the future of health and social care, which is rooted in the recommendations of the widely-supported 2011 Christie Review. This meant a re-commitment from Mr Swinney to the core principle of investment in prevention and early intervention as the basis of transformation. 

In April the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s sustainability report suggested that, in economic terms, this is the right approach to avoid spiralling health costs threatening to undermine the entire Scottish economy.

But the government faces more than the infamous Scottish policy implementation gap as it launches this vision. If it can’t root this announcement for the future in the reality of what people are experiencing now, it will face a serious expectations gap perilously close to the 2026 election.

Whilst I can wholly support the FM’s vision to re-invigorate Christie, the fact is that preventative supports are the very services being decimated locally as Integration Authorities look into a £500m funding gap and as support providers, like the not-for-profits CCPS represents, feel the effect of years of underinvestment and devastating national insurance bills imposed by the Chancellor last October.

As services are forced to shrink we are seeing long waits for care and support which is too often now only available when people reach crisis point. If you are trying to get help for a parent with dementia, your teenager struggling with their mental health, or your brother struggling with addictions and facing homelessness, you know this already. Prevention is a long way from reality.

CCPS, with partners across the sector, has shared the severe risks that Scottish and local governments are facing and the importance of an immediate injection of money into the system to avoid harms to people and families who need support to live – let alone to live a good, fulfilled and independent life.

So, if the FM wants to deliver this change for the Scottish people (as I absolutely know he does) he has to immediately stabilise a social care sector on its knees – to put out the fires so there is a sustainable platform for future change.

And he can. If he chooses.

Next week sees the publication of the Scottish Medium Term Financial Strategy. Last week the UK Government announced a year on year 3% increase in health spending in England in the Spending Review. In the past this government has committed the totality of such additional NHS England spend to health spending in Scotland. But our government has integrated the health and social care sector, and its funding.

So, this is our ask of the First Minister after his speech today: commit a majority of the additional funds arising from English health spending to the desperately underfunded social care and support services you need. Make it the first, visible step to the transformative vision you’ve outlined.

Stabilise us now to allow us to help you deliver this welcomed vision, which we want to do. You need us and so do the Scottish people. You know the risks of not doing this; the 1 in 25 Scots needing social care this year, and their families, live that risk every day.

For our sector, this is the hope the FM opened his speech saying was much needed in Scotland.

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10 June 2025

Social care reform bill’s conclusion “far from its original aspiration”

Ahead of today’s Stage 3 parliamentary debate on the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, we’ve published a briefing outlining our views on final amendments to the legislation

Ahead of today’s Stage 3 debate in parliament on the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, CCPS has published a briefing outlining its position on key, final amendments to the legislation.

Consideration of the legislation at this stage comes more than four years after publication of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, led by Derek Feeley, which set out an ambitious vision for social care reform that had widespread support.

However, following the Scottish Government’s decision in January to scrap the original version of the legislation – after a controversial passage through parliament – the re-named Bill is no longer underpinned by most of Feeley’s recommendations, including formation of a National Care Service.

Our briefing focuses on the amendments introduced by MSPs related to commissioning and Fair Work, both of which remain essential to effecting improvement.

However, CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett said:

“As the briefing makes clear, we are immensely disappointed that what was described as the biggest public sector reform of a generation is now a much more limited Bill.  A small number of important Stage 3 amendments are attempting to address key elements of a National Care Service otherwise completely lost in the renamed Bill, but this legislation falls far short of the aspirations for much needed change we all signed up to in the Feeley review.

“As a member of the new NCS Interim Advisory Board I have to hope that, with our partners, we can drive the fundamental changes to social care needed now outside of a legislative process that has taken three years. Feeley’s recommendations remain central to CCPS priorities for what comes next, as I know it does for many of our partners.”

In April CCPS,  the Coalition of Carers, Glasgow Disability Alliance, the Health and Social Care Alliance, Inclusion Scotland and Scottish Care, jointly published The National Care Service – Where Now?, a new paper arguing for a return to focus on Feeley’s recommendations including increased investment and clarity of purpose.

Click here to read the briefing

Click here to read The NCS – Where Now?

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12 May 2025

Immigration announcement ‘shows profound disregard for social care’

CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett responds to the UK Government pledge to curb recruitment of care workers from overseas

Responding to today’s announcement from the UK Government on immigration, CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett said:

“Building on messaging shared with the media by the Home Secretary over the weekend, this morning the Prime Minister announced a new white paper aimed at cutting levels of immigration into the UK.

Proposals to include the scrapping of visas for new social care workers will inflict further damage on a sector already deeply weakened by decades of underinvestment and now contending with the impact of increased employers’ National Insurance contributions.

The 2023 Social Care Benchmarking in Scotland report found that frontline posts were extremely difficult to fill, with 95% of respondents experiencing difficulties in recruiting operations staff.

Blocking routes for skilled and committed workers from abroad to be employed in social care and support in the UK, when we know so many providers are struggling to recruit and retain staff, is a retrograde step.

We are also deeply concerned by the rhetoric underlying the announcement today. Implying that support staff are ‘lower skilled workers’ is misinformed, disparaging of UK workers and deeply damaging  to the government’s own policy intent.

Over many years CCPS’s members have tirelessly highlighted that social care staff are highly skilled and regulated practitioners required to hold professional qualifications.

In Scotland, the reality is that low pay in the sector is not down to employers but to rates of pay for social care staff set by government; rates that utterly fail to recognise the professionalism of support workers.

If governments in Westminster or Holyrood want to attract more UK citizens into care and support roles they need to convey the worth of these crucial staff by paying a salary commensurate with the skills and responsibilities of the profession.

They must also radically alter their language to demonstrate the respect rightfully due to essential key workers. And they must ensure that people who are vulnerable and need support can receive it, when it is needed, from skilled, regulated staff – including from overseas when the UK labour market simply cannot meet need.

Whatever the political calculation behind today’s UK announcement, it has demonstrated a profound disregard for the contribution of the social care workforce – and ultimately, a depressing devaluing of the people they support.”

 

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6 May 2025

Programme for Government 2025-26: CCPS response

Today’s announcement by the First Minister follows a pattern of disappointment, says CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett

Responding to the 2025-26 Programme for Government, which was announced in the Scottish Parliament today, CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett said:

“Today’s Programme for Government followed a pattern of disappointment for our members and the people they support. The words ‘social care’ were not even mentioned in the FM’s speech to parliament.

“Failing to announce any investment plan for the sector, even though we have been clear to government about the crisis we are in, means supported people, their loved ones and staff on the frontline face an utterly unacceptable level of risk.

“And while the First Minister’s pledge to eradicate child poverty is welcome and sincere, failing to increase the Scottish Child Payment is another missed opportunity.”

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28 April 2025

The National Care Service: Where Now?

Six sector membership organisations have joined together to produce a paper to help drive urgently needed reform of social care now, as the 2026 Scottish election approaches, and in the next Parliament

Following January’s collapse of proposals to set up a National Care Service through legislation – and ongoing uncertainty about effective next steps – a new paper shares key thinking on the priorities for social care reform.

Rooted in the vision set out in Derek Feeley’s highly regarded 2021 recommendations for social care reform, this paper has been developed by six membership organisations representing the interests of people supported by social care, unpaid carers and social care providers.

CCPS, the Coalition of Carers, Glasgow Disability Alliance, the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, Inclusion Scotland and Scottish Care want this contribution to help drive much-needed, long-promised reform with full cross-party support now, as the 2026 Scottish election approaches, and in the next Parliament.

Download the paper

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26 February 2025

“Success at Westminster, dismay at Holyrood. But on eNICs exemption, we are back in the running”

Rachel Cackett responds to yesterday’s vote in the House of Lords on amendments to the National Insurance Bill – and the passing of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget

So, first the good news. Last night the House of Lords voted through amendments to exempt the vast majority of the health and social care sector from catastrophic NI increases, as set out in the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill. The Lords also passed a key amendment which would make the government report on the impact of national insurance changes.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been discussing the National Insurance Bill with MPs and engaging with peers on amendments. Many of our members have shared their own organisation’s perspectives about how the eNICs change would impact them, and the consequences for the people they support and employ. I want to thank all the members of the House of Lords who worked on and laid amendments yesterday, and every single peer who listened and voted for exemption to save social care. We can’t tell you how much your advocacy matters for social care in its time of crisis.

Yesterday’s votes give us hope, but the changes aren’t in the bag yet. Now they go back and forth between the Lords and Commons and we will need a lot of Labour MPs to stand up for what is right here, if these wins are to hold. But yesterday morning we saw no room to manoeuvre; today we are back in the running. We’ll take that for now.

In contrast to events in the Lords, yesterday the Scottish Budget was passed at Holyrood with zero commitment to eNICs cost recovery for providers from the Scottish Ministers and only cursory mentions of the sustainability crisis in our sector. This, despite us sharing compelling evidence of the disastrous consequences the policy will have for not-for-profit providers and the people they support.

Earlier this month we conducted a 24-hour survey of our member organisations. Over 50 members participated, representing a combined expenditure of over £850m, employing around 28,000 staff and supporting over 230,000 people across the whole of Scotland. Amongst the sobering responses, we learned that:

  • 57% of respondents are seriously considering handing contracts back to commissioners next year
  • 67% of respondents are budgeting for 2025-26 on the basis that they only expect to reach financial balance through the use of reserves. And of these providers: 91% would no longer be a going concern within four years, if they continued to reach financial balance through drawing down reserves in this way.

With an election year just over a year away, and with so much at stake for the Scottish people, we are surprised the Scottish Government seems ready to live with the consequences of choosing not to fund our sector and supported people. We are just as surprised that a new UK Labour Government chose to put the entire sector at risk through this deeply ill-judged tax, which disproportionately impacts low- paid women. Looking at headlines from the last couple of weeks from both sides of the border, it seems emergency funds can be found for other things – but not vulnerable people. It was ever thus.

But where both elected governments have failed the sector so far, the Lords have provided. So, our energy now turns back to Westminster and efforts to persuade MPs to see the value of social care – and how destructive the eNICs policy would be. There is – thanks to yesterday’s actions – still track ahead.  Please, UK Labour and Rachel Reeves, don’t waste this opportunity.

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23 January 2025

“The government must get to grips with the level of risk faced by providers and the people they support”

Our CEO Rachel Cackett responds to today’s announcement in parliament that the National Care Service won’t go ahead as previously envisaged

“There is a crisis going on in social care right now and immediate action is needed – otherwise we won’t have a sector to reform.

Nothing else in today’s statement in parliament about the National Care Service reflected the reality of that crisis, and none of what was said changes the status quo.

We urgently need the Scottish Government to recognise and get to grips with the level of risk currently faced by providers and, by extension, the people they support across Scotland.

While we were pleased to see the commitments made on enshrining Anne’s Law and breaks for unpaid carers, we are frustrated that so much well-intentioned work on the NCS over the past three years appears to have been for nothing.

However, we remain committed to working with the Scottish Government on the reform that’s desperately needed. This can include collaborating with them on the shape and remit of the proposed Advisory Board.

But we need to see a change in culture whereby recommendations made by experts in the sector, in good faith, are acted upon and put into practice rather than overlooked.

The reform agenda, including on the vital issue of sectoral bargaining, must keep moving, driven by the innovative thinking and solutions of social care providers.

And on the political front, with the 2026 Scottish election in sight, all parties need to think hard about the solutions they can offer for social care.”

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2 December 2024

It’s time to give the gift of Fair Pay…

As we enter Budget season, we’ve launched a campaign urging Scottish Government to invest in the workforce and cover the costs of the NI rise

Social care staff deliver vital public services in communities across Scotland, and they should be paid more than the minimum it costs to live.

They are working in a context where public sector cuts, lack of Fair Work and impending changes to Employers’ National Insurance are risking the viability of many services.

So we’ve launched a campaign urging the Scottish Government to give them More Than Warm Words this winter.

For the 2025-26 Budget we’re calling on them to:

  • Take a genuine first step towards the promise of Fair Work. Invest in our people by committing to the Real Living Wage + 10% in 2025-26, as the minimum for all frontline support staff. Stop the loss of essential workers
  • Cover the full costs of ongoing eNICs changes for not-for-profit social care providers, even if Westminster won’t. Otherwise, watch services disappear, unemployment rise, unmet need increase and the NHS crisis worsen.

Across the Scottish Budget period, we’ll be sharing messages and videos from our members in support of the campaign.

We’ve sent our members, and parliamentarians, a mug emblazoned with the campaign message.

And we’ll be calling on MSPs to speak up for the social care workforce and help give them the gift of Fair Pay.

Read the Budget briefing we sent MSPs

Read our press release about the letter we sent the Chancellor on NI

Follow the campaign on our social channels with #MoreThanWarmWords

For more information about the campaign and how to take part, email of Communications & Engagement team: comms@ccpscotland.org

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