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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11 February 2026

CCPS launches new budget campaign: Fund social care like it matters

We’re calling on the Scottish Government to reverse its budget decision which could create an estimated £19 million funding shortfall in the social care sector

VIDEO: ‘Fund social care like it matters’ 

The Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) is calling on the Scottish Government to reverse a decision made in this year’s budget which is estimated to create a funding shortfall of around £19 million across the social care sector. 

When the Scottish Budget was published on January 13, it was revealed that the government had unilaterally changed the way it funds pay for frontline staff in public sector-commissioned social care services. 

This means the sector is now expected to plug a funding gap of around £19 million out of its own pocket – and the money just isn’t there. 

Watch our short explainer on the budget’s funding shortfall. 

The government’s policy is for staff in commissioned services to receive at least the Real Living Wage (RLW), and it has – until now – ringfenced an annual pay fund in the budget which enables providers to meet costs as the RLW rises. 

Yet without any prior consultation with providers in CCPS’s membership, the Scottish Government changed the way it calculates the pay fund in this year’s budget.  

If this decision goes ahead, it will result in a funding gap which CCPS members have begun to estimate as increasing costs of between £30,000 and £740,000 for their different sized organisations over a single year. 

Social care providers are not supermarkets – they can’t simply raise prices to cover additional costs. And with rising financial pressures, providers are already being forced to scale back services and rely on reserves to reach financial balance. 

When people can’t access social care support, it impacts their health and wellbeing and adds strain to other public services, including the NHS. Yet with social care providers in an already perilous situation, the Scottish Government has decided to add further pressure.  

But it’s not too late for the government to change this.  

Before the final budget vote on February 25, it can reverse this decision and give social care the investment it needs to thrive.  

We’re asking the Scottish Government to: 

  • Fund social care like it matters 
  • Return the £19 million 
  • Recommit to Fair Work in social care 

All of this would help rebuild trust with care providers, and mean the government could take an important step towards delivering its commitment to prevention, taking pressure off the NHS, and supporting people all over Scotland to live life on their own terms

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