8 June 2026

‘Investing in social care and its staff is an investment in people’: CCPS publishes Workforce Priorities report

Our latest report summarises findings from two discussion sessions held with our members, and identifies the most urgent risks, needs and opportunities facing Scotland’s social care workforce

CCPS has today published its Workforce Priorities 2026 report, highlighting the most urgent risks, needs and opportunities facing Scotland’s social care workforce, and offering recommendations for next steps.   

The report, prepared for the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and the Qualifying the Adult Social Care Workforce National Group (QASC), summarises findings from two discussion sessions held with our members, the first bringing together adult social care providers and the second providers working with children and young people.

Read the report

We found that social care and support professionals draw immense emotional reward from their work, gaining huge satisfaction from being part of important relationships and supporting a person’s fulfilment. Yet structural barriers such as funding, pay, conditions, and public perception are undermining the sustainability of the workforce. As the report notes: “Emotional fulfilment cannot sustain a system without structural support.” 

Our research found that high turnover and retention remain significant problems for the sector. Low pay was a key issue in this regard, with participants lamenting that potential candidates for a career in social care can earn more working in retail with fewer responsibilities. 

“Social care must be understood for its significant and tangible contribution to individual, family, community and economic wellbeing. Investing in social care and its staff is an investment in people.” 

Despite government commitments to fair work, a lack of parity between third sector and public sector-funded roles is increasing, meaning our members are unable to compete on salaries. In 2019, the difference in pay between not-for-profit social care workers and their NHS equivalents stood at £2,400; this disparity increased to £3,770 by April 2025. 

Members stressed the need for parity of esteem, with decision-makers better understanding and expressing the complexity, regulatory demands and ongoing learning required in social care roles. As the report says: “Social care must be understood for its significant and tangible contribution to individual, family, community and economic wellbeing. Investing in social care and its staff is an investment in people.” 

Participants in the research sessions also identified flat organisational hierarchies as a hindrance to recruitment and retention. Decades of underfunding means the additional responsibilities of more senior roles cannot be recognised by pay differentials, making social care a less attractive long-term career choice. 

What’s more, the number of Health and Care Worker visas for those in a Caring Personal Service Occupation being granted has fallen by 88% since changes to UK visa rules were introduced, further compounding the pressures faced by social care providers in recruitment.  

When it comes to learning, members stressed the need to review current qualification frameworks to better align training with real-world practice; address the lack of reciprocal recognition of international qualifications; and ensure education is properly funded. Participants working with children and young people specifically highlighted that the ambitions of The Promise cannot be met without sustained workforce investment and reported growing frustration that progress expectations outpace available resources. 

“Scotland’s social care workforce is built on compassion, expertise, and resilience. Yet the findings show that without reform and investment, these values risk being eroded by structural inequities and resource limitations,” the report concludes.  

“CCPS, with its members, are ready to work with national partners, using the recommendations in this report as a starting point so that we can, collectively, change the narrative and improve outcomes for the social care sector and the people it supports.” 

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12 February 2026

Government decision on social care pay welcome – now more must be done to ‘fund social care like it matters’ 

CCPS welcomes the Scottish Government’s announcements today that it has committed to provide £20m of additional funds to meet Real Living Wage commitments in social care

CCPS welcomes the Scottish Government’s announcement today, following budget negotiations with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, that it has committed to provide £20m of additional funds to meet Real Living Wage commitments in social care.

We are also pleased to hear the clarification from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance that this money will be provided explicitly to underpin commitments to staff pay in adult and childcare services in commissioned providers, such as those not-for-profit providers represented by CCPS. 

Following intensive influencing work by CCPS, our members, and partners – including our call to Fund Social Care Like It Matters – today represents a significant victory, and confirms the effectiveness of our collective voice.

We are pleased that we have been heard clearly by Scottish Ministers and are grateful to opposition MSPs from the Liberal Democrats, Labour, Greens, and Conservatives for engaging with us over the past month and helping us influence the government on this issue. We hope that this can be fully endorsed through the passage of the Budget Bill.

On January 13, the government published its draft budget, revealing it had unilaterally changed the way it funds pay for frontline staff in social care providers contracted to provide public services. We understood this would leave an estimated £19 million funding gap from April this year, which the sector would be expected to fund out of its own pocket.

This came at a time when our members were already being forced to scale back services and rely on reserves to reach financial balance. They simply did not have the resources to cover what would be a major funding shortfall.

CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett, said: “I am glad that the Scottish Government has listened to the evidence from CCPS and its provider members and now understands the devastating impact this decision could have had on the ground for supported people, staff and the entire sustainability of our sector

“This decision to include additional funds in the budget will – assuming it is passed – stave off a terrible position for everyone who needs, and works in, social care. I appreciate the leadership involved in correcting a mis-step in the original budget. And I must also be clear that this now takes us back to the position we thought we were in when the budget was published: a settlement that is still far short of meeting the needs of supported people or the value of skilled, regulated support staff.

“After the last month, there is work needed to rebuild trust with key providers in social care, as core partners in public service. And there is much more to do to design a settlement that will stabilise our sector, then allow it – and supported people – to thrive.

“CCPS remains open to working in genuine collaboration to achieve that. But for today we will take a moment to breathe with our members, who at least have some certainty now that the government has made this move. We now hope that the budget will pass with at least these additional funds included, because we need this government – and the next – to fund social care like it matters.”

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17 December 2024

“I support a deafblind man to go to football. What I see, I draw on his hand … Every kick of the ball.”

Member Case Study: DeafBlind Scotland Guide/Communicator Christine Lawler on her role and the difference improved pay would make

DeafBlind Scotland is Scotland’s national charity and principal authority on meeting the complex needs of individuals living with deafblindness. Here, one of the charity’s Guide/Communicators, Christine Lawler, discusses her role – and the difference that improved pay would make to her and the people she supports

“In my job I never have a typical day. You can arrive at someone’s house and their plans have gone awry. I could be supporting someone to play chess in the morning, then in the afternoon support them to go shopping, study at college, attend a social work meeting or attend medical appointments and co-work with interpreters. I support their communication, their guiding, their mobility, their medical appointments.

Anything you want to do in your daily life, I support and enable deafblind people to do what they want. The individuals I support may not know it’s raining out, what’s in the news, basic information and it is part of my role to give them what I can see and hear at all times.

Although I’m within ‘social care’, I’m a guide communicator and a deafblind manual interpreter. But people don’t necessarily recognise the importance of my role. It’s about supporting and enabling someone live independently in their own home. They don’t know that they’ve run out of milk or that their bread’s mouldy… I support them to write a shopping list and while we are out I give full information on what offers are there as well as information on prices, ingredients and cooking times etc.  Without this they can’t make informed choices. Information giver is one of the main things I have to be. I have to see, hear, tell them what’s there. I do that constantly.

Trust and confidentiality is so crucial for deafblind people. They have to trust that I will do my best to support them in whatever they wish to do

Some of the public recognise what I do and the vital importance of it especially at the football. I support a deafblind man to go to football, but he doesn’t sit in the disabled area. He’s not disabled in any way at football. He’s one of the Bhoys. What I see on that pitch I draw on his hand. Every single kick of the ball. Who’s playing, who scores, who’s taking the corners. Everything happens for him at the exact same time. In that situation, he may be deafblind – but he is himself, supporting his team. He just needs that additional support.

That relational aspect of the role is so important. I tend to support individuals who are profoundly deaf and fully blind who have acquired deafblindness. They are aware that I follow DBS policies and procedures and codes of practice linked to SSSC.  They have trust in our professional relationship that I won’t overstep boundaries.

If the Scottish Government were to increase hourly pay it would certainly make me feel more valued in what I do. On average it takes six years to be a well-trained guide communicator. I have been studying over the course of nine years. I can go to Lidl or Sainsburys and get more an hour but I’ve worked hard to be where I am and I still work hard to keep up standards. I want to better myself because many deafblind people need this level of communication and if I can’t match that, I’m letting everyone down.

But I’d like to be recognised for the studying and effort I’ve put in – achieving the BSL level 6, Deafblind Manual Interpreting qualification and my Diploma in DeafBlind Studies, which is affiliated with Birmingham University, and which alone took two years.

The impact of all this training on deafblind people is about trust and them knowing that I am giving them the right information. And if I can’t give them this, they can’t make informed decisions.

I want deafblind people to be seen as part of society and part of their own community. That’s so important to them – to be seen and heard in their world; to feel they have worth.”

Find out more about DeafBlind Scotland

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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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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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13 February 2024

Rethink To 13 interview: “Our work deserves recognition. £13 an hour would be a step forward”

Continuing our campaign calling on the government to rethink its Budget, Dementia Care Worker Jacqui says that upping pay would ultimately improve the quality of care and support people receive

“I’m Jacqui, a Dementia Care Worker at the Mungo Foundation. Every day I see the impact that our staff have on the lives of the people we support and their families. Our work deserves recognition, appreciation and a fair wage. A wage of £13/hour would be a positive step in the right direction.

I have been working as a Dementia Care worker at Bankhall Court for over a decade. My role involves providing personalised care for individuals with dementia, focusing on enhancing their quality of life. Whether it’s personal care or emotional support and companionship, I approach every interaction with empathy and compassion that is tailored to their individual needs.

I believe that my contributions have been invaluable to the people I care for. My support and companionship make people feel valued and supported, positively impacting their overall wellbeing. Increasing my pay to £13 per hour would make a significant difference in my ability to provide even better care. It would alleviate financial stress, enabling me to focus on the needs of the people I support without distraction.

I hold multiple qualifications essential to providing high-quality care. However, I do not believe that my skills are adequately recognised in my current pay. £13 an hour would make a significant difference in people’s lives. It would allow our organisation to recruit more staff, alleviating the strain on the current workforce. Ultimately improving the quality of care and support that people receive.

It’s important to remember that around 90,000 people in Scotland have dementia, and two thirds of people with dementia live at home. By paying social care staff £13 an hour, the Scottish Government can ensure that people are receiving the high-quality care that they deserve.”

Find out more about the Mungo Foundation

Read about our Rethink To 13 campaign

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24 January 2024

Rethink To 13 interview: “Who looks after my mental health, while I look after others?” 

As part of our campaign calling for the government to rethink pay commitments in the 2024-25 Budget, Partners for Inclusion Support Practitioner Natalie tells us about the impact a wage increase could have

“I have been a support practitioner for 20 years and in that time a lot has changed. My role has become increasingly more complex with many new health and social care skills to learn. However, one thing that hasn’t changed over time is the unfair rate of pay!

Compared to others with similar skill sets and responsibilities like teaching assistants, community support and NHS care assistants, support practitioners work the last 3.5 months of the year for nothing. That is how big the pay gap is!

I work with someone who experiences poor mental health and since the pandemic and Brexit we have struggled to recruit support practitioners. This has an impact on me and the person I support.

People’s mental health deteriorated during Covid and as a result our workload has increased.

This has meant working longer hours and often missing days off and not having as much time as we would like to attend to our own mental health and self-care. This has an effect on the relationships I have with my family and friends because at times there are just not enough hours in the week.

Having a fairer rate of pay would encourage people into the sector and retain the staff we have and as a result there would be less people suffering from burn-out and sickness.

One in 6.8 people experience mental health problems in the workplace and evidence shows that 12.7% of all sickness is attributed to mental ill health.

Having a fairer pay rate would mean I have time and money to look after myself and in turn mean I would be in an even better position to ensure supported people live their lives to the full.”

Partners for Inclusion is an independent charity providing individualised support for people with learning disabilities and/or mental health services. Find out more.

Visit our campaigns page for more information on Rethink To 13.

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24 October 2023

Statement: “With promised £12 per hour base pay no more than the Real Living Wage, social care staff need action now to show they are valued”

Our CEO Rachel Cackett responds to today’s announcement that the Real Living Wage will rise to £12 per hour

Responding to today’s announcement that the Real Living Wage will rise to £12 per hour, CCPS’s Chief Executive Rachel Cackett said:

“Back in September, the Scottish Government announced a £12 per hour base rate of pay for social care staff, starting in April 2024. Today, we know that this offer is no more than the new Real Living Wage amount, which will be introduced at the same time.

This means that many not-for-profit social care staff – who work with disabled people, older people, children, families and many others who need support in communities across Scotland – will now receive just the minimum the Living Wage Foundation calculates is needed to meet every day needs.

This is nothing like enough.

Before the new base rate and RLW kick in next spring, social care staff will have to navigate the winter months as an acute cost of living crisis continues, whilst many earn just the £10.90 per hour currently set by the Scottish Government.

The First Minister’s states his priorities are “Equality, Opportunity and Community”. These priorities are at the heart of social care. Yet a workforce that makes such a vital contribution to society, to supporting people to thrive and live independent lives, continues to face inequality and limited opportunities through poor government pay awards. The knock-on is a lack of available support for the most vulnerable people in our communities.

Investing in the value of social care is a political choice, and there is still time to make the right choice in the 2024-25 Budget. We know public finances are tight. We know we won’t get to parity of pay, terms and conditions for equal work with public sector colleagues overnight. We are very far from that now.

But we need to see a clear step to closing the pay gap in April next year and a plan to get to equality; a move towards showing staff that they are truly valued.

So, we are calling on the First Minister to up his offer to at least £13 per hour for all social care staff from April 2024 as part of a published timetable to achieve Fair Work.

Not as an end point, but to indicate in tough times that our government sees the value of our sector and is committed to ending deep inequities for social care staff in Scotland.”

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12 October 2023

4 Steps Comment: “The door is open. Now we need to push it a bit further”

Our CEO Rachel Cackett reflects on the disappointments and successes of our 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign – and what our emerging movement can do next in its fight for social justice

“You can survive, but you can’t really live.”

Those words from Derek, a frontline social care worker, have echoed around my head during our #4StepsToFairWork campaign. They describe what it feels like to live on the amount the Scottish Government makes available to our members to pay staff who provide support to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.  People we all clapped through COVID. The people who might work to support my family or yours.

It’s the quietest national scandal that, behind doors in streets and villages across Scotland, are people who need support to live, to thrive, to be well, to stay independent, who can’t get it because there simply aren’t the staff.

It’s the quietest national scandal that social care and support staff working in our sector – the vast majority of them women – are paid 20% less to deliver public services, from our taxes, than people doing equivalent work in the NHS.

So, at the start of 2023 we decided it was time to stop being quiet and call for better, loudly.

Our demands weren’t huge.  Simply, we wanted all staff to get at least £12 per hour from April 2023 as the first step of a public plan to pay people fairly. A plan to give staff, and the people they support, hope.

And our #4StepsToFairWork campaign began to snowball.

Frontline staff and CEOs from our member organisations stood up and spoke up. And then others joined.  Carer Organisations, Scotland’s Faith Leaders, partner organisations, people with experience of care and support all spoke up through blogs, emails to MSPs, social media posts. I would like to personally thank every one of you who did so.  In a sector, based on the rights of people to exercise choice and control about their own care and support, our diversity and our voice are our strengths.

Then, early in our campaign, our new First Minister stood up to give his first speech to the Scottish Parliament.

We waited.

“Equality, Opportunity, Community” he said. Those are the government’s new priorities.  “That’s social care!”, we thought.

We waited…

A commitment to £12 an hour, he said.  “At last!”, we thought. The voices had been loud enough for him to hear.

But then he gave no date.

A crisis heard, but half a promise made. And a crashing disappointment for the thousands of committed staff in our sector, and to the leaders trying to keep their organisations open.

140 days later the date came in the Programme for Government – £12ph from April 2024. We hoped for a mistake in the speech, but no. A year late and by then, again too little.

And no plan.

Of course I am disappointed that the voices of so many have not resulted in our asks being met in full. That the national scandal of the Scottish Government baking in inequity to social care, and leaving people without the support they need, remains. But is it over? Absolutely not.

The door is open. We just need to push it a bit further.

Your voices were so loud, your arguments so clear, that our new FM knew he had to make a commitment to our sector in his first speech. We shouldn’t ignore this; we should build on it.

For the first time, the pay award has been extended to those working in children’s services: A first inequity addressed through our campaign.

The collective, public, voice of our sector and our allies is building to bring social justice to social care and support. Nurturing that emerging movement in the run-up to elections, as parties set their new priorities, is crucial.

And finally – and importantly – let’s remember that the £12 announcement might be made, but the Scottish Budget is not yet passed.  Every MSP has an opportunity to speak up to call for more, for better.  All of us can still call on politicians, whose core job is to allocate tax payers’ money to fund priorities for our nation, to make a better decision.

So, our #4StepsToFairWork campaign concludes today; but our campaign for better for our sector does not.

Watch this space….

Blogs, video contributions and resources from our 4 Steps campaign (June – October 2023) are available to read here

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5 October 2023

4 Steps Guest Blog: “In all good conscience, we cannot allow the support of vulnerable children to be devalued”

We refuse to accept that our children’s services staff are any less important than their adult counterparts, writes Cosgrove Care’s Depute Chief Executive Pauline Boyce

Cosgrove Care is proud to work with children and adults with learning disabilities, mental health issues, autism and other support needs. We want to see them thrive and grow, realise their human rights and live life to the full. We simply cannot do that without our dedicated, committed and skilled team. That means the direct support workers and their managers, in both our children’s and adult services.

In recent years the uplift in pay for adult social care staff has been welcome.  However, the consistent failure to equally value the children’s social care workforce has placed a significant financial burden on organisations such as ours, who refuse to accept that our children’s services staff are any less valuable than their adult counterparts.

How do you explain to a skilled support worker that, in the eyes of the powers that be, the work they do on a Monday morning, caring for a vulnerable adult at our wellbeing group, is of more value than the care and they provide at 3pm the same day, to a vulnerable child after school?

The answer is you do not. You simply cannot in good conscience allow the support of vulnerable children to be devalued. As an organisation you absorb the cost of increasing wages for children’s service staff, carrying an unsustainable financial burden.

The First Minister’s recent statement announcing an uplift to £12 an hour – which does appear to include both adult and children’s services staff – is again welcome. But it does not recognise the burden organisations such as ours have carried in the last few years supporting children’s services staff.

Equally, the provision of funding to increase the rate of pay for social care workers in direct care roles does not recognise the burden that we carry in maintaining a differential for our first and second level managers. It fails to value our team leaders and managers.

Are they less deserving of a pay increase? Are their families less deserving of their support? How do you explain to your managers that the work they do supporting staff, managing and deploying ever more stretched resources, all whilst ensuring quality services, are delivered and improving outcomes is of less value than direct support work?

The answer is you do not. You simply cannot in good conscience allow the support of your staff to be devalued. As an organisation you absorb the cost of increasing wages for front line managers, carrying an unsustainable financial burden.

If we are genuine about valuing social care, in recognising it as a worthwhile service and career we need to ensure funding increases value all aspects of the social care work force, without placing further burdens directly onto organisations.

Find out more about Cosgrove Care

Find out more about our 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign and take part

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