SPENDING ON ADULT SOCIAL CARE HAS ALWAYS BEEN PRIORITISED, SAYS COSLA

Despite the cuts to its overall core funding Scottish Local Government has continued to prioritise spending on Social Care, COSLA’s Resources Spokesperson Councillor Gail Macgregor has said today (Thursday).

Councillor Macgregor said:  “Since 2010/11 – 2019/2020 total revenue funding for Local Government has fallen by 7.2% in real terms. Despite this Local Government has continued to prioritise spending in social care.  Indeed Adult social care has seen a real terms increase of 14.8% during this period at the expense of other services.”

Councillor Macgregor continued:  “The problem is that while spending on adult social care has increased in real terms, it has still not been able to keep up with the demographic and severe demand pressures.

“This is due to Scotland’s aging population, the increasing complexity of care and our shared ambition to support more people to live independently in their own homes for longer, which alleviates the pressure on our NHS.

“It is for these reasons that we are particularly concerned that there are no transparent and realistic costings set out in the Scottish Government’s consultation relating to the development of a National Care Service, and how this would be funded over the longer term to deal with these known pressures.

“Local Government will continue to work in a collaborative way with the Scottish Government to reform social care, but it is vital that we have a transparent conversation about the investment required.  However, we continue to believe that services should be designed and delivered as close as possible to the people who use them on a daily basis, and not centralised, as is being proposed.”