9 June 2025
by Rab Armour
MSPs set for final vote on the legislation
Scotland must focus on how much-needed social care reform would now be delivered as the Care Reform Bill faces its final vote tomorrow (10 June).
In January the Scottish Government ditched plans to restructure adult social care in the country into a ‘national care service’.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow's final vote on the bill, Sara Redmond, chief officer at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, said while it recommends that the bill should be passed, with a few amendments, it is also calling for “cross-party work on long-overdue transformational change to start now”.
Redmond said: “While the Bill has some potential to improve human rights and improve health and social care services that people need; overall it is a missed opportunity. Rights to breaks for carers, Anne’s Law, and improving access to independent advocacy are welcome developments.
“However, major elements have been removed from the Bill, meaning it will not bring about the long-overdue and long-term transformational change we had all hoped for.
“When the National Care Service Bill was introduced in June 2022, it represented an opportunity for this transformational change in social care, and an opportunity to implement the recommendations of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care (the Feeley Review).
“The Alliance is dismayed that large parts of the original bill have been dropped, including all the legislative commitments. We have been consistently clear the original Bill did not meet the transformational change people needing social care support have called for, and the removal of all commitments from law to social care system reform leaves an uncertain future.
“It now remains unclear what social care reforms will be delivered and when. As we described in our recent joint paper with partner organisations, ‘The National Care Service – Where Now?’ the last four years demonstrate that significant cross-party support, collective institutional effort and meaningful stakeholder involvement is essential to advance reform over the long term. The work to ensure this happens must start now.”
Redmond added: “Social care has been broken for a long time. It is chronically underfunded, with a lack of accountability and national oversight, and is often treated as an afterthought. In practice, this means that people are not receiving the social care support that they have a right to, restricting their independent living, choice and control and preventing them from realising their human rights. We must act now.”
All not lost but vital social care bill delivers - TFN
The above information is from a Third Force News (TFN) Weekly Health & Social Care roundup Newsletter Wed 11/06/2025