Hidden sector caring for Scotland’s vulnerable people is on brink of disaster - Rachel Cackett
Scotland’s not-for-profit social care sector employs one-third of social care staff in Scotland. This workforce supports many of the one in 25 people in Scotland who will rely on social care each year. But it has now reached a point of real crisis – one that will impact supported people, their carers and vital staff. So why isn’t it headline news? Or the focus of a cross-party emergency response from politicians?
As the CEO of the Coalition of Care and Support Providers, which represents around 90 providers across Scotland, I hear daily from our members about the insecurity they face.
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Hide AdFor years, not-for-profit social care providers have struggled to fill posts or retain staff due to the Scottish Government setting pay levels too low, despite saying it is committed to Fair Work. Today you will be paid 15 per cent less to provide a contracted public service in our sector than you would if you were paid by the NHS in an equivalent role.


The government thinks social care staff should be grateful for being paid the Real Living Wage – a fantastic lever to get people out of in-work poverty but not the appropriate baseline for regulated, qualified, skilled staff providing complex support to people.
The effect of wages being set at this level is that many staff understandably look for better paid roles elsewhere, services struggle, and vulnerable people lose out.
In March, over 80 per cent of our members were delivering public contracts despite a deficit budget. Over 60 per cent were discussing contract viability with councils. And nearly 40 per cent were declining, or not taking on, new support services. The impact of decades of underinvestment in the sector has been apparent for years – and we have been sharing the evidence.
Things were already bad.
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Hide AdBut the existential tipping point for provider organisations came in the Chancellor’s October Budget when the UK Government announced massive increases to employers’ National Insurance contributions, with no dispensation for social care organisations.
For our membership alone we estimate this will have additional costs of around £30 million next year – an ongoing, annual cost. But there is no exemption in sight, and no word from the Scottish Government on whether they will foot the bill to save their own public services if Rachel Reeves won’t. The sustainability of support across our communities and people’s jobs are now in jeopardy. Services cannot operate if they are financially unviable.
What is even more detrimental about this policy – introduced, shockingly, by a UK Government that says it supports gender equality – is the impact it will have on a largely female workforce. Around 80 per cent of roles in not-for-profit social care are filled by women. And 59 per cent of unpaid carers are female. If services are cut and jobs lost, women will shoulder the burden of this policy disproportionately. Where is the equality impact assessment on that?
All this is happening at a time when demand for care is only going up, with over 6,000 people waiting for a social care assessment, over 3,200 still waiting for the care they are entitled to and the 2022 Census warning of demand only increasing as the population ages.
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Hide AdMost social care support takes place quietly in people’s homes, enabling people to be independent, live with dignity and lead the life they want. But the time to be quiet is over – because unless those in power really hear the concerns of voters and act, what will be left is the silence of the empty space where support used to be.
Rachel Cackett is CEO of the Coalition of Care & Support Providers in Scotland