Health secretary pledges 'fairer' social care charges

Shona Robison was questioned at the public petitions committee at Holyrood

The Scottish health secretary has pledged to create a "fairer" system of charging for personal care.

Shona Robison addressed the public petitions committee in response to issues raised by Amanda Kopel, wife of former Dundee United footballer Frank Kopel, who died last year.

Mrs Kopel said the current system of care represents "age discrimination".

Ms Robison said work was being done on the "fairness and consistency" of the system of charging for care.

Mrs Kopel started the "Frank's Law" campaign in her husband's name. Mr Kopel was diagnosed with a mixture of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease in 2009, but only qualified for free personal care when he turned 65. He died in April 2014.

She led a protest outside Ms Robison's Dundee office last month, and a candidate is to stand against the health secretary in the 2016 Holyrood elections on behalf the "Frank's Law" group.

Campaigners staged a demonstration outside health secretary Shona Robison's office in Dundee

Ms Robison said she had met with Mrs Kopel on a number of occasions, and praised her "tenacity" in campaigning in memory of her husband.

She said creating a fairer system was a priority for the government, but noted that the principle must apply across all conditions.

She said the government had worked with experts to "fully assess" the current charging system.

Ms Robison told the public petitions committee: "We're looking at the budgets for the spending review period and working out precisely what the best options are to make the system of charging for social care fairer.

"We have to ensure that any charging system would be for people with a range of conditions.

"Any changes we make to the charging system have to be fair to all service users, and be sustainable - we can't make changes to the system without making sure they're affordable down the line.

"Our focus is on looking at how we can reform the system and make it fairer to all service users currently having to pay charges."

Mr Kopel was diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's in 2009, leading to wife Amanda's campaign