New national care service law to be delayed

The law to pave the way for a new national care service in Scotland is to be delayed until after the SNP leadership contest.

The legislation was expected to be debated and voted on at Holyrood for this first time this month.

But BBC understands the Scottish government has decided to put it off until June.

The three candidates in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon have all said they want to revisit the current plans.

A Scottish government source said ministers wanted to take the time needed to get the legislation right and that they were still awaiting feedback from some of Holyrood's committees.

The delay would allow time for whoever wins the contest, which is due to be announced on 27 March, to decide on a new approach and whether or not to proceed with the proposed legislation.

The new service is intended to end the postcode lottery around access to care and would see a series of regional care boards set up that would operate in the same way as health boards.

It would mean that government ministers would be directly responsible for social care services instead of local councils, with 75,000 social work and social care staff across Scotland transferring to the new bodies.

The government says the service will be the most significant change to care in Scotland since the creation of the NHS.

But it has faced calls to pause the plan amid uncertainty about the costs involved in setting up and running the new service and the implications for local decision-making.

The Scottish government initially said it could cost up to £500m to deliver the new service, but Scottish Parliament researchers have estimated that the total bill over five years could be between £664m and £1.26bn.

Scottish Conservative Craig Hoy believed the "costly and reckless plans" should be scrapped completely.

He said: "Rather than merely delaying it, this should be the moment when the penny finally drops for the SNP to abandon these plans. Ministers have continued to act like they know best despite there being a crisis in social care on their watch."

Scottish Labour's Paul O'Kane said the government had wasted months defending the "unworkable plans".

He added: "Social care in Scotland is crying out for support, but no-one thinks these botched plans are the solution. The government must commit to supporting struggling social care services right now by delivering fair funding for services and fair pay for care workers."

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said a halt to the plan was essential, adding that it "needed to be scrapped not salvaged".

Some SNP MSPs have been publicly critical of the proposals, with Kenneth Gibson saying the policy "seemed like a sledgehammer to crack a nut" if it does not provide the funding to address issues in the healthcare sector.

His party colleague Michelle Thomson also said she had "no confidence whatsoever" that the service's financial memorandum represented any level of accuracy or value for money.

Holyrood's finance committee has also said it was difficult to assess whether the service would be affordable or sustainable.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf - who is one of the three candidate to replace Ms Sturgeon as SNP leader and first minister - had been facing calls to pause the scheme.

Social Care Minister Kevin Stewart said in November that the government had no reason to do so, but did acknowledge there were "various unknowns" that could have an impact on the financial cost of setting up the new service.

Mr Yousaf introduced the legislation to Holyrood, but in a recent interview with Holyrood magazine he said he would be "willing to work with those who oppose the current plan to see if the there are some areas where we could compromise".

His rivals - Kate Forbes and Ash Regan - have also indicated they would be willing to look again at the proposals if they win the leadership contest.

During an online event with the Reform Scotland think-tank on Tuesday, Ms Forbes said she did not believe the scheme could be delivered "unless it has the confidence of the people that are either going to be implementing it, managing it, or forming how it's run."

She added that fixing the problems "may not require a National Care Service, it may require us to be a little bit more nimble and able to plug gaps in care, and I think anything that disempowers and centralises power is not going to fix the problem."

Meanwhile, Ms Regan has said she would "immediately pause" the proposals in order to listen to and address the concerns that have been raised.

She added: "I am 100% committed to this ground breaking policy but it must create a care service worthy of the name.

"That means it must be led by care experts, respect local government, be delivered locally and provide a universal service for all Scots who need it."