A National Care Service

The Scottish Government has now published legislation to create a National Care Service. You can read our members briefing on the the Bill. The legislation makes Scottish Ministers accountable for a National Care Service and gives them the power to transfer a wide range of health and social care functions to new care boards. It is the Scottish Government’s intention to launch the national care service by the end of the current parliamentary session in 2026. 

As the intention is to move some community health services into the National Care Service, nursing staff currently working for the NHS will continue to be employed by the NHS, but may deliver services for which the National Care Services is responsible. This creation of the National Care Service will therefore affect nursing staff working in both health and social care. The Bill will not nationalise services, so members working for public, private and third sector providers will continue to have the same employer.

The Bill is a framework bill that lays the foundations for a National Care Service, which means that much of the detail about how it would operate in practice is not set out in the Bill. RCN Scotland has serious concerns around the number of unanswered questions, around things like governance, the link between the NHS and an NCS and how terms and conditions will be improved and has written to the Scottish Government calling for the Bill to be paused. You can read more about it here.

MSPs on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee are currently scrutinising the Bill. RCN Scotland has submitted written evidence and Colin Poolman, RCN Scotland Director, appeared before the Committee towards the end of 2022, to give evidence alongside other stakeholders. You can watch this evidence session here.

When giving evidence to the Committee, RCN Scotland Director Colin Poolman told MSPs that now is the time to focus on improving health and social care services, not embarking on an expensive and disruptive structural shake-up. He raised concerns about the lack of detail within the legislation and called on the Scottish Government to focus on dealing with the crisis that is engulfing Scotland’s health and care services.

Although we have said that now is not the right time to proceed with creating a National Care Service, RCN Scotland will continue to influence the legislation and the government’s plans for shaping a National Care Service.

To keep up to date with our work in this area and make your voice heard, email: policyscotland@rcn.org.uk

The need for significant reform to the way in which adult social care is provided has been a topic of discussion for a number of years. The COVID-19 pandemic brought these issues into sharp focus. In May 2019, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care announced an independent review to look at the long-term future of adult social care in Scotland, including consideration of the creation of a national care service – the Feeley review.

RCN Scotland provided written evidence to the Feeley review and, following this, hosted a series of consultation events last year to inform our response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the creation of a national care service. Members came together from across the RCN Scotland membership - including members working in acute services, social care, community services, scrutiny, and education.