Disabled people disappointed in U-turn on National Care Service

GDA’s disabled members are overwhelmingly disappointed to see what appears to be a complete U-turn on accountability in the National Care Service.

In an announcement from COSLA yesterday (12^th July) it was stated that “Overall legal accountability will be shared with between Scottish Government, the NHS and local government. Staff will continue to be employed by local authorities, and councils will still be responsible for assets like buildings and the delivery of services.”

GDA have consistently called for a National Care Service to be delivered locally with National Standards to improve the consistency and quality of care. Our members have also demanded reformed governance from care boards, including meaningful involvement and representation of disabled people-led organisations. Ministerial oversight is also needed alongside this to ensure the same broken social care system doesn’t continue to fail to deliver for disabled people.

Disabled people are the single biggest users of adult social care and make up from 25-30% of the population in Glasgow and somewhere between 20-25% of Scotland. The social care system in Scotland, in its current form, overseen by local authorities, has failed catastrophically and consistently to meet our needs and uphold our human rights including our right to live independently with the support we need.

Radical action is much needed now to ensure disabled people are listened to in this process and that the necessary change to the broken, fragile and ineffective social care system takes place.

GDA Members are urgently calling on the Scottish Government and Local Authorities to overhaul the current social care system to meet need and uphold disabled people’s human rights by taking the following actions:

• Improve resources for social care – including better wages, training and opportunities for care staff
• Involve disabled people at all levels- including on all structures which direct and determine resources and decisions which affect us
• Scrap all care charges
• Re-open the ILF
• Overhaul eligibility criteria to focus on rights, not available budgets
• Produce and deliver national standards and accountability to improve the quality and consistency of care delivered locally: empower leaders and social work professionals to develop a new culture based on upholding human rights
• Provide flexible care that meets our needs and supports us to live the life we want to live with the support we need

Tressa Burke, Chief Executive of GDA: “GDA members are disappointed but not surprised to see what appears to be a U-turn from the Scottish Government, driven by the demands of COSLA and the trade unions.

“This must not be a U-turn on rights and accountability for the National Care Service. From this moment on, this new partnership arrangement between Scottish Government, Local Government and NHS has an opportunity to set a bold direction which places people who use and need social care services at the centre, to improve lives.

“Immediate steps should be taken to seize this opportunity to involve disabled people and our organisations in the co-design of the new NCS. We must transform the current broken, fragile and ineffective system to one which delivers human rights and enables disabled people to live a full and meaningful life.

“Increased investment for social care is urgently needed along with accountability and interventions when things go wrong: austerity, Covid-19 and now the cost of living crisis have shown that disabled people need protection: we need investment in social care that upholds our human rights.”