24 September 2024

‘Welcome focus on rights and people, but government’s winter plan will meet hard reality’

CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett responds to today’s publication of the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Winter Preparedness Plan 2024-25

Responding to publication today of the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Winter Preparedness Plan 2024-25, CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett said:

“We welcome an emphasis on people and rights at the start of the Scottish Government’s Winter Preparedness Plan, published today. We are also encouraged to see that our members – not for profit social care providers working in communities throughout Scotland – are acknowledged as an integral, vital part of the system.

“It’s true that the Scottish government cannot address the crisis in our sector effectively, and ensure people who need support can have their rights upheld, without finding shared solutions in partnership with us.

“However, we are concerned that the plan does not capture the reality of what is taking place on the ground and the experiences reported by our members on a daily basis, particularly around the absence of progress on delivery of Fair Work. We are also concerned that some solutions listed won’t be ready to deliver improvements for people this winter.

“In the depths of last winter, 82% of CCPS members who responded to a survey described service demand as ‘high’ or ‘extremely high’, with referrals well beyond capacity to respond. By the end of last winter, 83% of responding members stated they were providing a public service despite a deficit budget.

“Since then many of our members report an ever greater squeeze on the budgets they are given to provide a public service for the people of Scotland.

“Despite all this, the word ‘investment’ is completely missing from the publication. For providers already struggling with capacity and a lack of funding to meet people’s needs, this is a stark omission – and makes it hard to see how this plan will address the social care crisis for people before winter starts.”

Read the plan here

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26 October 2023

Joint statement: Scottish Government’s Winter Plan ‘offers no hope for social care’

Our CEO Rachel Cackett and Dr Donald Macaskill, CEO of Scottish Care, respond to this week’s publication of the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Winter Preparedness Plan 2023-24

As the CEOs of Scotland’s two major umbrella bodies representing providers of care and support in the third and independent sectors we are dismayed to see yet another Winter Plan which purports to be a whole system response for Scottish citizens but in fact offers almost no hope for social care.

Both of our organisations have attempted to convince both the Scottish Government and CoSLA that the plan was wholly insufficient to address the deep crisis facing our members and a system that is meant to uphold the rights of individuals who require care and support.

We have tried to be constructive in those discussions to which we have been invited, but have certainly not been engaged in any way as equal partners in finding solutions for a system in which our members deliver key public services for some of our country’s most vulnerable individuals and families. This document reflects that. The marginal changes made to an early draft following our strong criticisms do not allay the fundamental concerns we shared.

In particular, we note a deeply disturbing direction for social care providers and, ultimately, for those who rely on services to maintain independence and connection and prevent crisis:

Where necessary, local systems will prioritise social care and support services for those who need it most and are considered to be at a critical or substantial risk level.

In the current climate, where we already see social care budgets being depressed to the detriment of people and, indeed the wider system, we fear this will be read as carte blanche to remove or reduce funding for many people who need support. This cannot be allowed to happen.

We hope that the Cabinet Secretary and CoSLA leaders will clarify their intentions in including this statement and do significantly more to underline their commitment to a thriving social care system for which they wish to share accountability through a National Care Service.

Rachel Cackett, CEO, CCPS, and Dr Donald Macaskill, CEO, Scottish Care

 

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