Greens and Labour will fight Scottish elections on pledge to scrap care charges

Two parties will be fighting next month’s Scottish parliament elections on manifestos that pledge to end non-residential care charges in Scotland.

Personal care in Scotland is already free for those assessed as needing it under their council’s eligibility criteria, but there are still charges for aspects of independent living such as housework, support with shopping, and access to the community.

Last year, the Scottish government scrapped its plans for a National Care Service, which had already been scaled back and delayed.

The SNP government’s failure to secure a political consensus led to the “jettisoning” of much of its planned legislation.

The reforms followed the Feeley review, which had called for a human rights-based approach to social care through a new National Care Service on an equal footing with NHS Scotland, with accountability for social care moving from local government to Scottish government ministers.

Of the six largest parties fighting for seats in the Scottish parliament, only Scottish Labour explicitly states in its manifesto that it will make a fresh attempt to introduce a National Care Service.

Despite that pledge, it is the Greens who have most to say in their election manifesto about a right to independent living and an end to care charges.

The Scottish Greens, the only one of the six leading parties to devote a chapter in their manifesto to disabled people, say their first step towards a social care system which is free at the point of need and “where no one is forced into poverty due to their care needs” would be to end non-residential care charges as “an immediate priority”.

The manifesto says the SNP’s National Care Service “failed due to a lack of ambition”.

The Greens also plan to “end the outsourcing of social care to private companies by seeking opportunities to bring private care homes into public or community ownership”, while recognising in their manifesto that the third sector is “an equal partner in the delivery of social care” and “the need for people to have choice over their care”.

The party also pledges to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into Scottish law, which it says would underpin “crucial rights such as the right to independent living, personal assistance and independent advocacy”.

Scottish Labour’s manifesto makes no mention of the UN disability convention or of incorporating it into Scottish law.

But it does say it would work in partnership with “the sector” to “create a National Care Service worthy of the name, creating consistent standards of quality and service delivery everywhere across the country”.

There is no reference by Labour to a right to independent living, but the manifesto does pledge to remove non-residential care charges so “people are not penalised financially for needing help to live at home independently”.

It would also “crack down on poorly run care homes” and immediately fund an extra 1,000 “care at home packages” as part of plans to reduce levels of delayed discharge in hospitals.

In a short section on social care, the SNP’s manifesto says nothing about ending care charges or any fresh plans for a National Care Service.

Instead, it pledges further investment in social care, particularly “for the most complex cases”, with continuing funding for “complex care” that would begin with £20 million delivered “direct to individuals” through Scotland’s Independent Living Fund.

Although it does not explicitly mention the disability convention, the manifesto says that an SNP government would introduce a human rights bill in the next parliament and “incorporate a range of conventions into Scots Law”, although it says its experience of government shows “how restricted Scotland is to incorporate human rights” without independence from Westminster.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats say in their manifesto that social care services are “in crisis” and that a Liberal Democrat government would demand “truly personalised care” and implement a new “human rights-focused approach to social care” with “national standards and entitlements” for all users of social care.

But the party’s social care policy appears to be focused on family carers and care workers, rather than on the disabled people who rely on services, and there is no mention in the manifesto’s social care section of a right to independent living.

Despite this omission, the manifesto does say elsewhere that the party backs the UK party’s call for the UN disability convention to be incorporated into UK law, which would itself create a right to independent living.

The Scottish Conservatives focus their manifesto attention on opposing any future SNP attempt to “centralise” social care, following the collapse of the Scottish government’s plans to create a National Care Service.

The Scottish Conservatives’ manifesto makes it clear the party would oppose “any future attempts to centralise social care and take powers away from local authorities” because it says those councils “know what’s best for people in their local area”.

There is no mention in the Conservative manifesto of disability rights or incorporating the UN convention into UK or Scottish law.

Reform UK makes almost no mention of social care in its manifesto, or of rights, independent living or the UN convention.

In its 84-word section on social care, it focuses on family carers, before claiming that its new deal for local government would give councils “greater flexibility and control over their social care services, while simultaneously providing a secure basis of long-term funding”.

Meanwhile, the disabled people’s organisation Glasgow Disability Alliance has published its Manifesto for a Fairer Scotland for Disabled People, including five key asks for parties across disability poverty, employment, public services (including scrapping care charges), participating in society, and disability rights (including incorporating the UN disability convention into Scottish law).

People First (Scotland) has also published a manifesto (PDF), as has Vox Scotland.

Inclusion Scotland published its own disabled people’s manifesto last October.