23 October 2026
by Rab Armour
Social care support needs reform
Inclusion Scotland has called on the Scottish Government to put disabled people at the heart of social care reform.
The call was made after the UK Covid-19 Inquiry exposed the devastating consequences of a sector left unprotected during the pandemic.
Chief executive Heather Fisken said Scotland’s National Care Service plans lay “in tatters” while services and support were “cut to the bone”, warning that proposals announced so far did not clearly explain how long-awaited change would be delivered.
Her comments followed the inquiry’s Module 6 report on adult social care, which found that people receiving support and those providing it “bore the appalling cost of being an unrecognised and unprotected part of society”.
Fisken said Scottish Government plans to reform social care support were now part of wider public service reforms and would face a three-month consultation. She questioned whether the proposals would deliver what disabled people and unpaid carers had long sought.
She said: “We are currently unclear how proposals announced so far will bring the change Disabled people and unpaid carers relying on or needing social care support have called on for so long.”
The findings added urgency to demands for disabled people’s organisations and lived experience to shape reforms, she said, alongside greater transparency about the government’s plans.
The inquiry examined publicly and privately funded adult social care across the UK. Its report described a fragmented and fragile sector that had long felt overlooked and undervalued by successive governments. The pandemic response of all four governments did little to change that, it found.
It called for social care to be treated as part of the UK’s critical infrastructure, essential to meeting health and care needs, rather than remaining an afterthought.
Disabled people’s organisations that took part in the inquiry backed that call and urged national and local governments to work with people using services to implement its recommendations.
Unpaid carers were among those facing severe pressure. The report described them as “the backbone of care for many millions of people” but found support arrived too late. Many unpaid carers are themselves disabled.
Cuts to respite services increased those pressures, leaving many feeling abandoned and unsupported. The inquiry said reopening respite services should be prioritised. It also highlighted evidence that visiting restrictions intensified feelings of abandonment among people with learning disabilities in care settings.
The report also condemned inappropriate decisions about do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation notices. Decisions based on age, disability or health conditions, or taken without a personalised assessment of someone’s wishes and feelings, caused considerable distress and confusion for individuals, loved ones and staff.
This was “unacceptable and must not happen again”, the inquiry said. In England, the total number of notices rose by about 10,000 between the start of the pandemic and December 2020.
To address gaps in knowledge and data, the inquiry said the UK and devolved governments must improve their understanding of social care by consulting those who provide, work in and use services.
Georgia Bondy, Covid Inquiry manager at Disability Rights UK, called for an independent living system co-produced with disabled people.
Disability Wales chief executive Rhian Davies said some services cut during the pandemic had never recovered, while Disability Action Northern Ireland urged implementation of the recommendations locally and nationally.
Covid inquiry lays bare treatment of disabled people - TFN
The above information is from a Third Force News (TFN) Newsletter Tue 27/10/2026