ALLIANCE Hustings 2026: Event Summary

Parties set out positions on human rights, social care and more at our hustings ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament Election.

Earlier this week (April 8) the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) were pleased to host a hustings, giving our members an opportunity to hear directly from candidates ahead of May’s election to the Scottish Parliament. Chaired by the ALLIANCE’s Director of Policy, Research and Impact, candidates from the six major parties were in attendance. Members were invited to submit questions in advance of the hustings, and the ALLIANCE aimed to combine and summarise enough of these that we could put a wide range of issues to the candidates.

Seven questions were put to the candidates, covering human rights, public finances, third sector funding, social care reform, individual choice and control over care, the right to rehabilitation, and mental health law reform. A brief, non-exhaustive summary of each candidate’s responses:

• Mike Collier, Reform UK: emphasised the need to look at wages in the social care sector to support recruitment and retention, and agreed with the need for preventative approaches like the right to rehabilitation.
• Ross Collins, Scottish Greens: supported a Human Rights Bill, reform of local taxation to raise revenues for services, and fair third sector funding inclusive of core rather than just project costs.
• Lyn Jardine, Scottish National Party: also supported a Human Rights Bill and a human rights budgeting approach, and wanted to see legislation on mental health law reform that delivers rights-based reform.
• Carol Mochan, Scottish Labour: likewise was supportive of a Human Rights Bill, called for a new deal for the third sector including change to joint delivery of services, and backed investment in community links workers.
• Jane Alliston Pickard, Scottish Liberal Democrats: would resist any attempt to weaken human rights, work across UK to improve tax take to invest in services, and called for clear and enforceable national standards for social care.
• Brian Whittle, Scottish Conservatives: highlighted importance of not viewing social care as a poor relation to the NHS, need to move spend from crisis to prevention, and agreed with need to remove neurodivergence from scope of mental health law.

Over the remaining few weeks of the campaign, the ALLIANCE will continue to promote our manifesto, “Our Collective Voice“, and encourage members to promote it through your own networks as well. ALLIANCE member and partner manifestos have also been collated on this page. If you are an ALLIANCE member and would like us to add your manifesto to that list, or have any other questions in relation to our election activity, please just get in touch with the Policy Team at policy@alliance-scotland.org.uk.

The ALLIANCE also jointly hosted a separate hustings with Voluntary Health Scotland (VHS) last week on the 31st of March. Our partners at VHS have written up a summary of the event which you can read here.

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