9 June 2026

Social care cannot run on goodwill alone

Our 2026 Workforce Priorities report sets out why action on pay, progression and investment can’t wait, writes CCPS’s Policy Manager Alison Christie

Scotland’s social care workforce makes an extraordinary contribution, but it cannot keep being asked to do more with less.

Published this week, CCPS’s Workforce Priorities 2026 report draws on the experiences of our members across adult and children’s services and sends a clear message: if ministers want a resilient, sustainable social care system, they need to invest in the people who deliver it.

This is a workforce that builds relationships, supports people to live full lives, and strengthens families, communities and the economy. Yet too often, that contribution is praised in principle while undervalued in practice.

The warning from members is stark. As one put it: “We can’t expect goodwill to carry people forever.”

A workforce under pressure

The pressure on the workforce is no longer a warning sign. It is a daily reality. Recruitment and retention remain major challenges, with low pay continuing to drive turnover and deepen instability across services.

The pay gap tells its own story. In 2019, the difference between not-for-profit social care workers and their NHS counterparts stood at £2,400. By April 2025, it had widened to £3,770. That is not sustainable for a sector expected to recruit, retain and reward skilled staff.

At the same time, changes to UK visa rules have led to an 88% drop in Health and Care Worker visas for caring roles, squeezing an already stretched labour market even further.

The case for investment

The answer is not complicated. If Scotland is serious about reform, it has to be serious about investment. Underfunding remains the single biggest barrier to building the workforce social care needs.

That means matching warm words about the value of social care with real action on pay and conditions. These are skilled, regulated roles that demand judgement, responsibility and continual learning. Funding decisions need to reflect that reality.

It also means creating careers people can stay in. Flat structures and weak pay progression in senior roles are hindering retention and making it harder to build a stable, experienced workforce for the future.

As the report puts it: “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.”

“CCPS and its members stand ready to work collaboratively with partners across the system to develop workforce policies that deliver parity of esteem, pay, and conditions between third sector providers and public sector employers.”

Learning, leadership and the long term

The same applies to learning and development. Training, qualifications and continuous professional learning should help people grow and stay in the sector. Too often, they are still shaped by fragmented systems, outdated thresholds and unnecessary bureaucracy.

CCPS members called for qualification frameworks that better reflect real-world practice and properly funded education pathways.

For those working with children and young people, the message is just as urgent. The ambitions of The Promise will not be met without long-term investment in the workforce expected to deliver it.

Members also called for improvements to leadership development, saying that there is currently too much emphasis on management compliance. Instead, we need leadership that is relational, values-driven and capable of building strong workplace cultures.

And while digital change matters, social care will always depend on human connection. Change and improvement cannot be built around systems alone. It has to be built around people.

A shared starting point

The challenge now is clear. Scotland cannot keep relying on the dedication of a workforce that is too often underpaid, undervalued and stretched beyond what is sustainable.

CCPS and its members stand ready to work collaboratively with partners across the system to develop workforce policies that deliver parity of esteem, pay, and conditions between third sector providers and public sector employers.

A central part of this approach is introducing sectoral bargaining in the voluntary social care sector. This must be done with the Scottish Government, third sector employers, and trade unions having an equal voice at the negotiating table.

If social care is truly valued, that value must be reflected in funding, pay, career progression, and long-term workforce planning.

Read our Workforce Priorities 2026 report

Back

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.” 

Back

22 May 2026

‘While the challenges are substantial, solutions do exist’: CCPS response to the new Scottish Government

We have responded to the formation of the new Scottish Government after the First Minister appointed his Cabinet and Junior Ministers this week

The Scottish Parliament debating chamber

CCPS has said it is ready to work alongside the new Scottish Government and parliament to build a sustainable social care sector which allows people and communities to thrive. 

Following a vote on Tuesday in Holyrood, John Swinney was appointed as First Minister and was sworn in at a ceremony on Wednesday. He has since appointed his Cabinet and Junior Ministers, including Angela Constance as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care and Alison Thewliss as Minister for Community Care. 

In response to the announcement of the new government, CCPS CEO Rachel Cackett said: “I congratulate John Swinney on his election as First Minister and all Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers on their new roles.  

“The task ahead of all of us is clearly urgent. Many providers in our membership are facing acute financial and workforce strains, placing their staff and, ultimately, the people they support at risk.  

“While the challenges are substantial, solutions do exist and I believe we already have many of the answers. CCPS, with its members, can help deliver far better outcomes for people – and for this government – if we are alongside as equal partners in much-needed change and public investment can be redirected to fund social care like it matters. 

“In his speech at Holyrood on Wednesday, the First Minister emphasised that he wanted to find common ground and ‘work across party lines’, with a commitment to bring people together ‘to build a country where everyone feels accepted and is able to contribute’.   

“We support this vision absolutely. And for Scottish citizens in need of support to flourish, a vibrant, sustainable and accessible social care and support sector is critical to its delivery. We look forward to working with the government to see meaningful change enacted.” 

Back

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.”

Back

21 January 2026

“We want to work constructively with government to help meet promises made to Scotland’s citizens. Stripping resources from social care providers isn’t how we do that” 

The decision to change how the amount of money invested in social care pay next year is calculated will mean even less funds for the frontline, writes Rachel Cackett 

Each time I think the social care sector cannot be more overlooked and undervalued by Scottish Government finance decisions, I am surprised.   

These are not the sort of surprises I welcome. 

What has been emerging from the shadows of the Scottish Budget over recent days, and is now in the public domain, is that the Scottish Government has made a decision, without reference to anyone, to change how it has calculated the amount of money it is investing in social care pay next year for organisations like those I represent – not for profits delivering public care and support services. And the result of this change would be less money to the frontline of social care and support.  

This seems to be a deeply cynical accounting move, hidden in all the budget papers, to strip resources from core providers outside of the public sector whilst claiming to meet a policy objective.

The organisations affected are already delivering essential taxpayer-funded public services to their communities with too little investment.   

I am dumbfounded.  

And, at first, I could not make sense of this move. 

First, the government, in not being upfront in this, has massively damaged trust with a sector it needs to rely on to keep the wheels on the bus now and support reform. My members are at their wits’ end, having heard this news after everything else they have been asked to endure. 

Second, we have privately spent the last year sharing information with the Scottish Government about how fragile our sector is. In real detail. Ministers cannot say they don’t know. So why insert this amount of additional risk into a sector that is already under unprecedented pressure for what we think is around £19m in 2026-27 – a tiny percentage of the overall Scottish Budget? 

Third, Shona Robison said in the chamber today (and I paraphrase) that the government has decided it will not fund commissioned social care providers to meet statutory obligations to pay the new national living wage. This is either a fundamental misunderstanding of how social care services delivering public services are funded or a terrible justification of a retrograde move. Of course employers have to cover their obligations but in commissioned services (and this under-the-radar policy change only applies to these) the costs of employment are part of a contract. What other money does the Cabinet Secretary think is available to CCPS members to cover the gap? They aren’t supermarkets able to pass on cost increases to consumers. The government has had a policy to fund at least the RLW in commissioned services and it seems to have just ripped that up.  

Fourth, public service reform and the management of current crises – such as the appalling situation for people whose hospital discharge is delayed – depends on social care to turn things around.  This re-profiling in the budget will further destabilise our sector, impacting jobs and pay yet more negatively – and putting even more pressure on the wider public sector and families who need to step into care. Why make worse those areas where the government is already under pressure for not delivering? 

Fifth, the Scottish Government has put child poverty and the economy at the heart of its priorities. This change – small for government in the context of the full Scottish Budget – will have massive repercussions for staff who are already underfunded by the government’s own pay policy. Over 80% of our workforce are women. Many will have families relying on them. These are not women paid high salaries to deliver care and support to families and individuals across Scotland. These are women who the government has insisted deserve no more than the Real Living Wage, as regulated and trained professionals, to deliver key support to vulnerable people. So where is the equality or economic impact assessment from the Scottish Government from this sleight of hand move behind the budget?

And then, I am left wondering: why would the government expect our sector to accept the rhetoric of “there is no money” when hundreds of millions of new funds have been announced for other parts of our public service system in recent months? 

We all know that social care is massively underfunded. Supported people and their families know; staff know; government knows. Even before we realised what had been done to the pay uplift, the Scottish Budget and spending review were woeful for our sector and came nowhere close to what is needed to address immediate risks and drive an efficient and effective reformed system that supports people to flourish. 

With a level of cynicism I do not like to hold, I have been left wondering whether, by focusing only on this change, we are at risk of deflecting a wider discussion about much-needed investment in social care that goes far beyond the re-profiling of the Real Living Wage uplift. So, I feel I should, on behalf of my members, be really clear. 

The calculations to underpin the Scottish Government’s own pay policy for commissioned care and support must revert to previous baselines to avoid compounding untenable risks for people. We understand that is around £19m for adult and children’s services. That has to be put back in the Scottish Budget as a fundamental. 

But reverting to the previous RLW calculation is not the saving grace for the sector. That puts us back to where we all thought we were starting from last week. 

Our calls for proper recovery of workforce costs in delivering public services – including reviewing the weightings in the government’s pay policy and addressing wider on-cost pressures – remain. As do our calls to move forwards, and fully fund, sectoral bargaining. And we need to see a spending review that will address long-term stability for our sector in the face of increasing unmet need. 

We want to work transparently and constructively with the Scottish Government – as we always have and strive to do. We need each other to turn around many of the pressures faced by individuals and families across Scotland; to meet promises made to Scotland’s citizens. 

But this isn’t how we do that. 

Back

5 September 2024

Tracking Real Living Wage on pay ‘disrespects professional workforce and will not advance government’s other commitments’

Our CEO Rachel Cackett responds to yesterday’s publication of the 2024-25 Programme for Government

Responding to yesterday’s publication of the 2024-25 Programme for Government, our CEO Rachel Cackett said:

“We welcome and acknowledge the First Minister’s pledge in the Programme for Government to eradicate child poverty and the priority given to this. We urge him to ensure that the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund is aligned to delivery of The Promise, previous commitments to funding are kept, and for the government to work with the sector to ensure this is achieved.”

“What about progress on pay and Fair Work for the sector though? We were incredibly surprised to not hear the First Minister mention social care at all in his speech to parliament. Deep in the full text of the Programme for Government the document mentions prioritising funding in 2024-25 in order to:

‘increase the pay of workers in adult social care who are delivering direct care in commissioned services, early learning and childcare workers delivering funded hours, and children’s social care workers, so that they are paid at least the Real Living Wage from April 2025’.

“We are extremely disappointed that, despite having signed up to the recommendations of 2019’s Fair Work in Social Care Report, the Scottish Government still appears to believe that, on sector pay for those in not-for-profit organisations, tracking the Real Living Wage and no more is sufficient. It is not.

“The reality is that this approach disrespects a professional, regulated workforce and will do nothing to advance the government’s other stated commitments on growing the economy, ensuring high quality and sustainable public services, and reducing poverty.

“On 10 July, we wrote to the First Minister challenging the Scottish Government to fund a fair 2025-26 pay deal for staff in our sector who deliver public services to the people of Scotland.

“We presented compelling evidence from our members about current intolerable pressures on not-for-profit social care, and explained why investing in the sector would mean investment in a whole-system solution. And we made the case for investment in staff – mostly women – to take forward the Fair Work agenda and value their contribution to communities across Scotland.

“We have yet to receive a reply, but yesterday’s announcement tells us that provider organisations, care and support workers in our not-for-profit social care sector – and most of all – people who need care and support continue to be overlooked in the government’s plans.”

Back

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

Back

12 November 2023

More than 100 organisations urge First Minister to value social care staff in 2024-25 Budget

110 organisations from across civil society, including providers, anti-poverty groups, faith leaders, carers’ representatives and equality organisations, sign joint letter sent to the First Minister calling on him to increase pay

110 organisations have signed a joint letter sent to the First Minister calling on him to increase pay for social care staff and demonstrate that they are valued.

The letter, led by the Coalition of Care & Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS), is supported by organisations from across civil society, with social care providers joined by anti-poverty groups, faith leaders, carers’ representatives and equality organisations, among many others.

Read the letter and full list of signatories

In September’s Programme for Government, the First Minister announced a new base rate of pay for social care and support staff of £12 from April 2024, increasing from the current rate of £10.90.

As our letter explains, the pledged rate of £12 matches the updated Real Living Wage – sending a clear message to social care staff that they are only worth the bare minimum.

CCPS and signatories to the letter believe that £12 per hour is simply not enough, and that the proposed rate fails to reflect the invaluable societal contribution made by social care staff in supporting people to thrive and live independent lives.

Rachel Cackett, Chief Executive Officer of CCPS, said:

“Social care is at the heart of the First Minister’s vision for ‘Equality, Opportunity and Community’ in Scotland. Yet it is systematically overlooked and undervalued.

“Organisations that provide social care are rapidly losing staff because the current pay of £10.90 is simply too low to retain them and they migrate to better-paid jobs elsewhere.

“It is a scandal that, in communities across Scotland, people who need support to live, thrive and stay independent, can’t get it because there aren’t the staff available.

“As the First Minister will see from the range of signatories to this letter – the first time so many organisations have come together to make a joint call on this issue – we represent an emerging movement who are determined to bring social justice to social care and support.

“We are all clear that a better decision on pay for social care staff is needed in the 2024-25 Budget due to be published next month.”

(ends)

Media contact: Chris Small – chris.small@ccpscotland.org

Notes for editors:

▪ Staff vacancy rate in social care sector

Earlier this year, with the HR Voluntary Sector Forum (HRVSF), CCPS commissioned the University of Strathclyde to conduct a workforce benchmarking survey. In July we published an executive summary from the report finding that social care and support providers in Scotland are struggling with a loss of staff, with an average of 52% of those moving jobs last year leaving the social care sector altogether. Read the report. Read our media release.

▪ Proposed increase to £12 per hour, and Real Living Wage

The proposed rise from £10.90 per hour to £12 per hour for not-for-profit social care staff was announced on 5 September in the Programme for Government. The new rate of £12 for the Real Living Wage was announced on 24 October.

▪ 4 Steps to Fair Work

CCPS’s 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign (June – October 2024) called on the Scottish Government to properly recognise and reward social care staff for the work they do. It shared blogs and video contributions, including from a support worker who said that earning £10.90 per hour means “You can survive, but you can’t really live.”

▪ CCPS

The Coalition of Care & Support Providers in Scotland is the voice of not-for-profit social care providers, with 91 provider organisations in membership.

Back

19 September 2023

4 Steps Guest Blog: “Our staff deserve recognition for their drive, passion and commitment”

Immediate action and appropriate funding is needed to ensure children’s social care services can deliver for their workforce as they deliver for Scotland’s children, argues Capability Scotland’s Ben Bradbury

Capability Scotland work with disabled children and their families across Edinburgh, Dundee, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire in a range of settings including holiday support, community services and residential care. We are committed to delivering outstanding care, support, and opportunities for the young people we work with and key to that is our workforce.

By their nature services for school age children and young people tend to have unusual working patterns. With children attending school during the week the support we offer is, with the exception of school holiday provision, in the evening or at weekends. This presents challenges to recruitment and retention of staff as the hours required of staff to deliver this support do not always sit comfortably alongside raising their own families or maintaining a healthy work life balance. In addition, the qualification and experience levels expected of staff in these services is often higher than in their adult equivalents, for example our day care of children registered managers must be qualified to degree level. There are good reasons for this, indeed we often work with some of the most vulnerable individuals in society, but it adds to the challenge of maintaining appropriate staffing levels of the required skill and competency.

In spite of these challenges our children’s services staff are enthusiastic, creative, playful and without exception go above and beyond to deliver exceptional services for the young people in their care. Whether it be attending training sessions at weekends to fit in with delivery of holiday support or working late on an evening to enable a trip to the cinema to take place we ask a lot of our teams, and they rise to the challenge.

However, since the pandemic an additional challenge has presented itself for organisations such as ours. The pandemic rightfully shone a light on the pay levels for social care staff, the response from the Scottish Government and local authorities has focused entirely on adult social care staff. The government, through the various Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs), has provided additional funds to raise the minimum rate of pay for staff in adult social care roles. These uplifts had the effect of keeping the minimum rate of pay for staff in adult services above the Scottish Living Wage throughout the pandemic and in line with the living wage in 2023.

Unfortunately, no such uplifts have been forthcoming for our children’s services. Unlike with adults, services for children and families tend to be commissioned by the local council rather than the HSCP. There has been no reciprocal offer from the Scottish Government for children’s services, the knock-on effect has been that many of our children’s services have had no universal uplift to the rates paid by local authorities during a period of high wage and price inflation. During this period Capability Scotland has met the cost of increasing wages for children’s service staff in line with their adult service counterparts. However, this state of affairs is not sustainable indefinitely.

If appropriate funding arrangements aren’t arrived at there will be negative consequences on our ability, and the ability of organisations like ours, to continue delivering high quality care and support for disabled children across Scotland. Much has been made of the need to support Fair Work practices across the public sector, as an employer we fully embrace this approach, and we believe our staff deserve recognition for their drive, passion and commitment. As an organisation we welcome the First Minister’s recent statement regarding an uplift to £12 an hour which appears to be inclusive of staff across both adult and children’s services. However, there remains much uncertainty about the timescales and mechanisms by which this will be delivered.

What is needed now is immediate action and appropriate funding to enable us to deliver for our staff as they deliver for Scotland’s children.

Back

5 September 2023

4 Steps Comment: Today, the First Minister has the chance to introduce a step change in social care. Will he take it?

The Programme for Government could answer our campaign calls and make a real difference in people’s daily lives, writes Rachel Cackett

It’s been a long year already.

It’s only just turned to autumn, but today is the announcement of the Programme for Government. And for many people in Scotland, the things that really matter in life will turn on announcements made by the First Minister this afternoon – announcements that will show whether the FM’s priorities of “community, equality and opportunity” mean something tangible for the one in 25 people who will access social care this year and all who are employed to provide that support in not-for-profit providers.

For many it’s been a very long year.

If you are someone in need of care and support to stay in your own home or community, to live your life on your own terms, to thrive in your neighbourhood, work or school, you’ve long felt the crisis in social care. You may well have found it difficult to get your needs assessed, or keep the amount of support you need, or to hold on to the valued and trusted relationships as staff are forced to leave our sector.

If you are the loved one of someone who needs care and support, you may well have wondered how on earth you get your mum, dad, child, partner or friend the support they need – and how you get the help to make possible your crucial role as a carer. You’ve watched life become harder for those who need support most. You may be tired, and we know it can begin to feel hopeless.  

If you are a third sector social care and support worker, you’ve seen your real terms income decrease and the gulf between the value given to the work you do and that given to those in the public sector stretched to the limit. Your role in being a part of the very community you serve is lost in the national conversation. In fact, you may have left the social care workforce already, like over 50% of those who moved jobs in our sector at the last count – making the tough choice between a job you love and the need to pay bills for your own family.

If you are a third sector employer, you have probably spent sleepless nights wondering how you are going to keep the show on the road with far less money coming in. You know you need more to keep your staff and pay going, all while trying to meet the increasing needs of your communities through a cost-of-living crisis.

Today, the First Minister could make the beginnings of a step change to all of that.

We know that the historic underinvestment in social care isn’t going to be solved overnight. But it’s 136 days since our new FM promised a starting salary of £12 per hour.  None of those who need a functioning, thriving social care system to live can wait a minute longer for action.

That is why CCPS has been building support for its #4StepsToFairWork campaign over the summer.  We’ve had support from providers, social care staff, carer organisations and, at the end of August, the support of Scotland’s faith leaders. I would like to thank each and every person who has made their voice heard in this.

And let’s be clear. We have heard many imperatives – economic, equality, social justice, human rights, moral imperatives – to delivering Fair Work for those who provide care and support.

Our calls our simple.  And they will be our measure of any announcement today on the move towards parity for those who provide care and support in our sector, and recognition of the importance of upholding the rights of people who need that support.

The calls are:

  • Deal with pay inequality: As a first step, implement the promise of a minimum of £12 per hour for social care staff, starting from 1 April 2023.
  • Ensure equal pay for equal work: Apply pay uplifts to staff in all services, not just those in registered adult social care.
  • Value all staff who play their part: Deliver funding packages that value the crucial role of support staff and managers, alongside frontline workers.
  • Give us hope of equality: Publish a timetable by this September to deliver fully on Fair Work in Social Care by 2025.

So as a final message this morning to our First Minister: please don’t tell us there is no money. We know how tight things are. Instead, tell us how you are choosing to allocate a fair proportion of the money you do have to our sector. Show us how you will ensure your priorities mean something real in people’s daily lives. Tell us that you recognise the true value of social care.

Read more about our 4 Steps to Fair Work campaign

Back