The Scottish Greens are poised to deliver a final and fatal blow to the SNP Government’s troubled national care service plan. A motion at the party’s conference this weekend calls for the Greens to withdraw support for the proposals.
The Government’s NCS proposal involves a huge shake up of the sector in a bid to drive up standards and wages. But the plan, which involves creating a new national care board, has been seen as a power grab from councils and NHS boards.
Local authorities and trade unions have walked away from the Bill and parliamentary support is hanging by a thread. With John Swinney leading a minority SNP Government, he needs support from another party and the Greens so far have been sympathetic.
However, the Greens are set to line up behind the other opposition parties as well as sceptical unions and councils. The emergency motion this Saturday has been tabled by Councillor Anthony Carroll and backed by the Scottish Green health spokeswoman Gillian Mackay.
It calls for a “radically reduced bill which focuses on support for unpaid carers and enhanced rights” for care sector staff. The motion states: “After two years of negotiation and even before final consideration of stage two amendments, the SNP have lost confidence of major stakeholders. The bill is now contrary to Green values. This motion directs the party to respond accordingly.”
“Conference believes that Scottish Green MSPs have striven to bring our manifesto’s radical vision for structural reform to care, however conference recognises the Scottish Government’s bill for a National Care Service does not deliver that.
“Greens re-affirm our commitment to local accountability and delivery, and believes that the funding for re-structuring in the Scottish Government’s plans could be better used to help deliver local social care services that have been under intense financial pressure.”
Councillor Carroll told the Herald: “As this bill stands it is clearly not fit for purpose and we cannot support it.”
Mackay added: “The proposed bill is far from what we want it to be and, its present form, we can’t support it. We recognise that there are a lot of people, including trade unions and other stakeholders, who have serious concerns that urgently need to be addressed.”
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here