Scottish Greens withdraw support for National Care Service

The Scottish Greens have voted overwhelmingly to withdraw support for plans to create a National Care Service.

The proposal, put forward by the Scottish government, is now on the brink of collapse as there is not enough support for the plans at Holyrood.

The flagship scheme would transfer responsibility for social care away from councils to a new national body.

The Scottish government has repeatedly reiterated its committment to delivering the service. However, the plans have already been delayed by three years due to financial pressures.

The legislation aims to centralise adult social care and social work – delivered by local authorities – into a single body ultimately accountable to ministers.

The shake-up was first announced in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic but since then the proposed National Care Service has suffered delays and uncertainty over costs.

Councils and trade unions have previously withdrawn support for the proposals, while health boards and care organisations have also expressed concerns.

At the Scottish Greens’ conference in Greenock, party members voted to withdraw support for the plans.

The emergency motion was supported by the party’s frontbench MSP and health and social care spokeswoman Gillian Mackay. It said the bill in its current form was “contrary to Green values”.

The motion says the bill going through Holyrood is “not fit for purpose”, and that the plans would “take away local accountability of social care and leave that in the hands of Scottish ministers”.

It also calls the plans a “power grab on local authorities”.

Mackay said the current plans had lost “local accountability” but said her party still supported the principle of a national care service.

She called for a radically reduced bill which retained some aspects of the current proposals – including Anne’s Law, giving people in care homes the right to see and spend time with loved ones, as well as greater support for carers to take respite breaks, and better access to advocacy and information.

She added: “I don’t think everything should be lost, and I hope that people can still come around the table and talk about the vision, the positive vision, for a future national care service, even though this bill has probably now come to an end.”

Lorna Slater, the party’s co-leader, said the National Care Service was a “great idea” as Scotland needed an improved service.

However, she said it had become clear that the plans were not heading in the “right direction”.

She told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show: “The challenge that we have had is that as these plans have developed it has become clear that the people who would need to deliver this – local authorities and trade unions – are saying it’s just not good enough, it isn’t going to deliver what we all want.”

She said MSPs had to listen to the feedback that the plans were not deliverable.

Slater added that she would like to see some elements of the plans preserved – for example, respite for carers.

The Scottish government’s Finance Secretary Shona Robison said those who needed care wanted to see a national care service.

She told The Sunday Show: “It’s important that we continue to talk to the other parties but I really hope those who rely on our services are heard a bit more.”

Robison continued: “We will continue to discuss with the other parties and stakeholders about where there is potential room for compromise.”

She added that it was hard to see how anyone could disagree with having national standards so that people recieved the same quality of service across Scotland.

“We want to move forward with the plan. Clearly we will have to get support for that. So clearly there will have to be compromise… I really hope there can be agreement around the principles of the national care service.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesman, Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP, said: “We warned the SNP that their plans for a National Care Service were wrong from the start, but they were determined to double down and instead wasted tens of millions of pounds on these disastrous plans.

“Now that the Greens have bowed to pressure from unions and local government and pulled their support for this botched scheme, it truly is dead in the water.”

He called for the plans to be ditched.

At Holyrood, the SNP are in power as a minority administration.

They must rely on the support of other parties to pass legislation.

Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat MSPs have all opposed the national care service plans. But until now, the Greens have supported the proposed legislation.

With the Greens’ decision to pull support, the government will not have enough votes to get the legislation through parliament.

The SNP have been governing at Holyrood as a minority administration since a power-sharing agreement they had with the Greens collapsed in April.