Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland
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Policy and Public Affairs round up 2023

  • Area of Work: Policy and Research
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 20th December 2023
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The Policy team continues to raise members’ views and influence change in social care, human rights, finance, COVID-19 and much more.

The development of a National Care Service (NCS) has continued to be a key focus of our social care policy work. With the input and support of members, the ALLIANCE drafted 10 amendments to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill ahead of the original timescale for it being debated in Parliament. When the legislation was delayed, we continued to build relationships with Scottish Government NCS teams, and encourage members to take part in NCS regional and online co-design forums. The ALLIANCE also raised the concerns our had about the co-design process and the deal between the Scottish Government and COSLA with the Minister and the Scottish Parliament.

The focus of our human rights policy work has been the plans to incorporate human rights instruments into Scots law. The ALLIANCE prepared a comprehensive response to the consultation on a Scottish Human Rights Bill, based on engagement the ALLIANCE has undertaken on human rights incorporation over the past three years, as well as hosting and attending engagement events with members and partners on the Right to Health and Social Care and how the proposals would affect them. Ahead of the consultation, we published a piece of commissioned research, ‘The Opportunity is Now’, which explored human rights in health and social care across Scotland, with a successful online launch event as part of the Digital Gathering.

Our work on the cost of living crisis, which began in 2022, continued throughout the year. The ALLIANCE published the ‘Stretched to the Limit’ report on the cost of living and the impact on third sector organisations. The report was informed by a survey and interviews with members, and is in follow up to the ‘Disabled People, Unpaid Carers and the Cost of Living Crisis: Impacts, Responses and Long Term Solutions’ report from last year. We met with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, alongside Volunteer Scotland and others to raise examples of the impact of the cost of living crisis affected volunteering and voluntary organisations. This also fed into our wider policy work on finance, which included providing written and oral evidence to Scottish Parliament committees as part of their pre-Budget scrutiny. We also continue to actively work on social security issues, including regular engagement with Social Security Scotland, and participation in the Scottish Campaign on Rights to Social Security (SCoRSS) steering group.

The ALLIANCE separately submitted written evidence to the UK and Scottish COVID-19 Inquiries, informed by extensive engagement with lived experience and organisational members since 2020. This was complemented by giving evidence to the Scottish Inquiry in person, to share the experiences of disabled people, people living with long term conditions, unpaid carers and third sector organisations. This year, we also published a report looking at unpaid carers’ ongoing experiences of Living with COVID-19, as well as raising issues for people living with Long Covid with the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament.

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