Union withdraws support for National Care Service plan

79% of care workers balloted by the union voted in favour of leaving the project

The GMB union has withdrawn from Scotland's proposed national care service, warning it "won't deliver real change" for health and social care in the country.

A total of 79% of care workers balloted by the union voted in favour of leaving the project, which has been hindered by delays and rising costs.

GMB Scotland's senior organiser Keir Greenaway told the BBC that, after years of talks, the scheme will add more bureaucracy to the sector.

The Scottish government's Minister for Social Care Maree Todd said she was "disappointed" by the news but plans would go ahead by the end of the government's current term.

Ms Todd admitted on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that progress had been "slow" on the scheme, which was first proposed in August 2021.

It was set up with the aim of simplifying community health and social care across the nation, with a streamlined approach going across all of Scotland's 32 council areas.

The Scottish government described it as the "biggest public service reform in Scotland since devolution", helping elderly and disabled people as well as the homeless, addicts, families and unpaid carers.

However, in December 2023 Todd announced the service would not be implemented until 2028-29, while parts of the plan would be scaled back to save costs.

GMB Scotland organiser Keir Greenaway said changes were not forthcoming from the Scottish government

Mr Greenaway said that while members of the union were supportive of the idea, talks with the government "have not delivered".

He said: "It looks like the national care service will just be an added layer of bureaucracy that won't change the terms and conditions our members need.

"Einstein's definition of madness was doing the same thing and expecting different results.

"We have spent a long time trying to get the national care service into a position where we can make the vital changes needed, but that is not forthcoming from the Scottish government."

He added that "real change" was needed for the whole sector, and that "potentially" the scheme could never take off.

The social care minister told the BBC that was not the case, and that the Scottish government was "determined to deliver" on the service.

She said: "I'm disappointed that they are withdrawing, but I'm going to carry on with my work.

"We are in a process of delivering that legislation. I agree that it has been slow, we've had to re-think our approach as we have worked through what people have told us, but I believe that we will deliver a national care service by the end of this parliament and we will begin to see change."

She added that once the legislation - currently in its second stage - is passed it would take "some years" to implement it, but that it would provide better pay and conditions for workers, creating a more "accountable" care system.

Todd stated the delays were partly due to taking feedback and adjusting to that feedback.

Originally the plan would have transferred social care responsibility from councils to a new national service.

Last year, Ms Todd proposed scrapping that transfer and abandoning plans for regional care boards.

She said those moves would ensure the costs for the project would then settle between £631m and £916m, instead of rising to possibly £2bn.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the proposal was "unwanted and reckless".

He added: “The GMB’s withdrawal of support should be the final nail in the coffin for the botched national care service".