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Post-legislative Scrutiny of the Self-directed Support Act report published

  • Area of Work: Policy and Research, Social Care
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 13th September 2024
Graphic image of a birds eye view of a neatly arranged desk with an ALLIANCE laptop, research paper, stationary, mobile phone and a coffee.

The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee published report on the Post-legislative Scrutiny of the Self-directed Support (Scotland) Act.

The Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has published its phase 2 report on their findings on the Post-legislative Scrutiny of the Self-directed Support (Scotland) Act.

The Committee undertook an inquiry, or post-legislative scrutiny, into how the Social Care (Self-directed Support (Scotland) Act 2013 has worked since it came into force. Through the inquiry they also want to find out if it has not worked as planned, why not and what solutions could resolve such issues.

The ALLIANCE was able to respond to the inquiry and feed back the views of our members in the Committee’s evidence session.

From gathering the views from various stakeholder’s the Committee found that the social care sector is in crisis and that those accessing, assessing and delivering social care face considerable barriers and challenges which have prevented the full implementation of SDS as intended.

There remains much further work for the Scottish Government to do to achieve proper implementation of the legislation through improved national consistency, by supporting better local authority implementation, addressing related issues around commissioning and tendering, and significantly improving processes for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the policy.

Further recommendations made by the Committee include:

  • Additional resourcing and funding to ensure consistency in improvement across Scotland, with local direction from the Scottish Government on allocation, in line with the Improvement Plan.
  • Further guidance provided to HSCPS so they improve communication of information, advice and support.
  • Changing the model of social work from one of care management to a relationship based practice, replacing means tested assessments with community based services.
  • To prevent a continuation of the ‘postcode lottery’ of SDS implementation, COSLA and Health and Social Care Scotland should undertake an evaluation of all HSCPs and local processes.
  • Local authorities should evaluate what actions are needed within their area to ensure the SDS principles are fully realised, with oversight from COSLA.
  • Development of a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan for SDS as a whole should be conducted by the Scottish Government as a matter of urgency.
  • A formal complaints process for social care available and accessible.

Key to achieving such change is enabling those seeking care and support to have choice and control over their social care so they can achieve the positive outcomes they want and desire.

Read the full report here.

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