“Civic society – and the people it serves – must be respected as an equal partner in public service”

So. The budget.

As the dust settles and we all get our head around the implications of Rachel Reeves’ speech, what’s emerging is a pretty mixed picture – but one issue is causing deep consternation among the not-for-profit providers of social care I represent.

But let’s start with two positives – albeit qualified positives.

Overall, the austerity message has been very slightly tempered by some positive, discrete changes, such as revisions to Universal Credit debt deductions (though the two child cap remains, of course). But there are department cuts to come, pressures on benefits and on other areas which will put significant pressure on family finances.

The news of an increase to the Scottish block grant this year and next is, of course, incredibly welcome. Now we need to see the Scottish Government make some wise choices and focus on the sectors that will actually help it deliver its own priorities before the 2026 election. In a week in which local headlines in the Scottish capital are writing large the perilous position of third sector organisations in our integrated health and care sector, the urgency of this couldn’t be clearer.

We want to see a fair, progressive settlement for social care and support in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget. The government needs this for a healthy civic society and economy.  It needs a healthy social care sector to stop the NHS falling over any further (as I know many NHS leaders recognise). The government needs a well-resourced social care sector to deliver on the rights-based society it has promised citizens. And at the heart of this is a much-needed fair wage settlement for staff, so CCPS providers have a hope of recruiting and retaining the skilled people needed to deliver crucial support to people and families. Talk to us and our partners about directing additional service-focused funds to best effect. We can help make it work.

And this brings me to my final point.

CCPS members are not-for-profit organisations delivering public services, mostly funded by the public purse. Yet it seems – though this is all a bit murky just now – that the relief being proposed for the public sector for the hike in employers’ National Insurance does not extend to the charities I represent. Messages of panic started coming to me almost as soon as the Chancellor sat down. CCPS members are already seeing swathing cuts to funding that was already too little; these are organisations where over 80% have reported delivering public services on deficit budgets. Ultimately, this means that fewer of the most vulnerable people in our society receive the services they need, and human and financial costs rack up.

Adding the double whammy announcement yesterday of increased employer NI contributions and a reduction in the NI threshold will be catastrophic for CCPS members and many other charities, unless some form of exemption is set or contracts are increased to fully fund the policy.

So this is a plea to both the Chancellor and Scottish Ministers. Please, please work together now to ensure that a social care sector that is already at breaking point is not sunk by baking in inequities in the application of NI relief.

Let’s not see the increased block grant – that could do so much – having to be eaten up by reversing the negative impact of this NI policy. Civic society – and the people it serves – must be respected as an equal partner in public service.

Because let’s be honest: you really can’t afford not to, and nor can the people in our communities who need support.