Keeping the climate crisis on the agenda

Progressing climate action in the context of the cost of living crisis.

The current COP27 conference is set in the context of a global cost of living crisis. The crisis poses a significant threat both to individuals, the social care services that support them and the workforce and whilst the challenges are not new, the current situation further exacerbates existing economic and health inequalities and highlights challenges in upholding all citizens’ human rights in a similar way to the climate crisis. Discussions on how to tackle the crisis provide us with an opportunity to challenge the current system and look at how we can achieve true transformational change and design a more sustainable system. This is something that the ALLIANCE has highlighted in a recent cost of living report ‘Disabled People, Unpaid Carers and the Cost of Living Crisis: Impacts, Responses and Long Term Solutions’.  Achieving sustainability should be prioritised both in terms of high quality social care and environmentally, and there are important opportunities presented by current reform discussions to progress the two collaboratively.

Last year in the run up to COP26 the Health and Social Care Academy (the Academy) and Scottish Care (this link will take you away from our website) worked in partnership to host a series of roundtable events to raise awareness of the role that social care can play in supporting sustainability efforts and taking climate action. Whilst the health sector has been paid attention in the context of climate discourse, the social care sector has largely been neglected. Following the series the ‘Climate Action and the Social Care Collective’ report was published which outlined key principles and calls to action.

One year on, it is important to revisit these calls, see where progress has been made, consider where action still needs to take place and look at opportunities to further influence.

Social Care Workforce

One of our core calls to action focused on raising awareness and investing in the social care workforce. Earlier this year a report published by the second Just Transition Commission (this link will take you away from our website) explicitly recognises the role that social infrastructure, covering education, health and care, plays in supporting the economy and providing jobs. The commission recognises the structural inequalities and recommends investing in a package of conditions which demonstrates the value of jobs such as those in the social care sector and the role in our economy. Providing the right conditions gives the workforce the time and space to get involved in conversations about climate change and take action.

Planning and delivery of care

Our report also highlighted that sustainable investment in accessible and affordable travel for those accessing and delivering care was needed due to the reliance on private cars. The recently published National Planning Framework 4 (this link will take you away from our website) states that investing in the health and social care sector supports the wellbeing of communities and the provision of employment and income. It highlights that local planning and the development of 20-minute neighbourhoods will help to improve access to local facilities and reduce car usage.

Funding bids are currently being explored in local areas to enable social care providers to switch to electric vehicles, and to invest in energy efficient heating and lighting systems for managing potential power blackouts rather than using the fuel heavy generators of previous years. In Fife, the model of collaborative route planning across homecare support has helped to reduce both system inefficiencies and emissions.

In Aberdeen, colleagues at Scottish Care have been working with providers to assist with sector care delivery challenges, including recruitment and retention difficulties and a lack of access to necessary resources.  These strategies have supported positive progress against some of the calls to action, including enacting a Scotland-wide collective procurement approach for PPE based in Aberdeen City, reducing emissions from various order creation and deliveries by enabling bulk purchasing.  Additionally, a Digital Support Hub test of change where elements of care could be delivered in a digital form has helped reduce the need for personal transport use.

In Edinburgh, the commitment of NHS Lothian and City of Edinburgh Council in signing up to the Edinburgh Climate Compact represents a positive opportunity for change. As the body responsible for strategy, planning and budget setting across a wide range of health and social care services, they will set plans and budgets in line with and in support of the Edinburgh Climate Compact, with the council detailing a focus on transport and travel, housing and buildings which together account for 83% of emissions.

Embedding climate commitments   

Although there are examples of positive progress there is still a long way to go and existing challenges to progressing climate action have in many instances been further impacted by the cost of living crisis. Policy intention must be translated into meaningful action in achieving sustainable change. We need to keep the momentum and ensure that the climate crisis does not fall off the agenda. For example, the National Care Service must consider climate change within wider long term planning including investing in clinically and environmentally safe PPE and developing more sustainable and accessible travel for people who access and deliver health and social care services.[i] Other opportunities to embed climate considerations include in the review of the National Outcomes and the development of the Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill. Now is the time for change and to work together to build a country with human rights and wellbeing at its centre.

[i] The ALLIANCE calls for National Care Service to be “investment of citizenship” – Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (alliance-scotland.org.uk)

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