National Care Service

The Scottish Government is improving social care support, social work and community health in Scotland.

Vision for the National Care Service

We want everyone to have access to consistently high-quality social care support across Scotland, whenever they might need it.

We also want our social care workforce to flourish. Our goal is to future-proof the social care sector for generations to come - and for people coming into the profession.

That is why we’re introducing the National Care Service (NCS). It is being shaped by people who have experience of accessing and delivering social care support.

Watch a video about our vision for the NCS.

NCS forums

People and local communities are at the heart of our planning for a new NCS.

We’ve been hosting a series of in-person and online forums and events. These are part of our work to design the new NCS with people who receive or deliver social care, social work and community health support.

NCS National Forum 2024

Each year we host a NCS National Forum. This is a chance for us to share updates on the progress of the NCS and hear people’s views and ideas. The Forum is open to everyone.

This year we held the NCS National Forum on 7 October 2024 at Glasgow Science Centre.

We have published transcripts of speeches from the event.

We will also publish a report about the Forum here when it is ready.

Past NCS forums

You can find information about our 2023 NCS National Forum here. This includes a report about what happened at the event, and transcripts and videos of the speeches.

You can also read reports from our 2023 regional forums. These were smaller local events we held in different areas across Scotland.

Co-designing with the people of Scotland

Co-design means working together to understand, explore, and agree how the NCS should work.

As we continue to co-design the NCS, we’re committed to listening to the voices of experts.

These are people with experience of social care services, including:

people who access social care support
their family and support network
unpaid carers
the workforce
organisations and people who deliver social care support
third sector organisations
people who have received or been involved in delivering social care support in the past

Find out more by reading the National Care Service: Co-design Paper.

There are also other easy read documents, which explain some of the most important ideas around the NCS and how it will work.

Get involved in co-designing the National Care Service

Social care