National Care Service Forum 2023: report - easy read

Part 3: Next steps and conclusion

Next steps for the NCS

Making improvements to social care support now

We will use what we learned from co-design in 2023 to build the new NCS.

But we will also improve the social care support system right now.

We have projects to improve terms and conditions for the adult social care workforce.

The projects will also help attract new staff.

Higher funding and pay

Funding for social care support in 2024 to 2025 is higher than in 2021 to 2022.

It is £1 billion higher.

Pay for adult social care support staff will go up in April 2024.

From April 2024, pay will have to be at least £12 per hour.

Recruitment and staff development

We have been working with partners to:

• let people know about jobs to apply for
• help people get new skills
• develop the workforce

The partners we have been working with include:

• Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)
• NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
• COSLA
• Developing the Young Workforce Forth Valley
• The Prince’s Trust

Effective Voice Project

Effective Voice is a way for employees to share their views with their employers safely.

It means employers should ask to hear views from their employees. Employees should be listened to. Their views should make a difference.

Effective Voice includes things like:

• regular one-to-one meetings
• staff forums
• Trade Union access in workplaces

We have been working with groups who are interested in social care support.

They are helping develop guidance to make sure workplaces have Effective Voice.

The guidance will reflect the lived experience of social care staff.

We will test the Effective Voice project in early 2024.

In the future we will aim to have Effective Voice resources and guidance across Scotland.

The National Improvement Steering Group and The National Improvement Framework

We set up a group called the National Improvement Steering Group.

This group will make decisions about improving health and social care support.

We set up the group in October 2022.

The group has members from social care support and community health.

It is chaired by:

• COSLA
• SOLACE
• Scottish Government

The group is helping make a National Improvement Framework.

This is a document that will help local areas plan how to improve.

It will also be used across Scotland to check progress on improvements.

Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny and Regulation of Social Care in Scotland (IRISR)

You can read the Independent Review of Inspection, Scrutiny, and Regulation of Social Care in Scotland (IRISR) recommendation report.

The report was published in September 2023.

Inspection means visiting social care settings to make sure they work properly.

Scrutiny means watching or checking something carefully.

Regulation means rules.

The report had 38 recommendations. The Scottish Government is thinking about them.

The Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport will publish a response to them.

The Government will ask the public about any changes to inspection, scrutiny, and regulation.

Any changes will be made together with people who work in community health and social care support.

National Care Service (NCS) Board

There will be a new NCS Board.

A board is a group of people who make decisions about an organisation. For example, decisions about the NCS.

Aims

The Board will make sure social care support and community health services are:

• consistent. Consistent means they are as good everywhere and for everyone across Scotland

• fair and based on human rights

It will do things like:

• help different groups lead and work together

• make sure services are person-centred

• make sure there is a complaints and advocacy service that works

People with lived experience and charities will be built into how the Board works.

We will co-design details like who will be on the Board. But we expect the Board to include people like:

• Scottish Government and local government staff
• NHS Board members
• people who access community health and social care support
• the workforce and unpaid carers

What the Board can do

We suggest that that the Board might do things like:

• make decisions about what will happen across Scotland

• develop rules and guidelines

• support groups delivering services locally

• make sure everyone can see important information and data

We began co-design work on the NCS Board at the end of 2023. There will be more co-design work on the Board in 2024.

We will co-design how the Board will work. This will include how people with lived experience can take part.

Groups involved in this co-design will include:

• people with lived experience of accessing community health and social care support
• social work and social care support services
• unpaid carers
• care providers
• workforce
• other groups who are interested in the NCS

Co-design work since summer 2023

Co-design themes

Our co-design work has continued to focus on 5 themes.

We will keep thinking about the themes. We will change the themes or add more if we need to.

We keep everything we learn from co-design sessions in one place. This means we can easily access the research from different communities and people.

Working with seldom heard voices

We have been working with communities who have not had as many chances to take part in co-design.

We are referring to this as work with ‘seldom heard voices’ groups.

This work will continue into Spring 2024.

The communities we are working with are:

• people with experience of justice social work
• people with experience of homelessness
• the LGBT community
• the Gypsy/Traveller community
• people with experience of dementia or supporting someone with dementia
• people with a disability

In 2024, we plan to broaden this out to also include:

• people with a learning disability
• children and families
• black and ethnic minority communities

We have up to £50,000 to spend on this work.

We are giving several organisations some money. The money will help seldom heard communities get involved in co-design.

These seldom heard organisations will write reports.

We will share these reports later in Spring 2024.

The work is mainly focused on these themes:

• ‘information sharing’

• ‘making sure your voice is heard’

Workforce Charter co-design

We ran co-design sessions in November and December 2023. The sessions were to help develop the Workforce Charter.

The Workforce Charter is a document that helps support workers.

These sessions included Scottish Government staff, professional advisors and the workforce.

We are now developing our draft of the Workforce Charter.

We are checking it against what we learned in the co-design sessions.

Conclusion

The Scottish Government is working to deliver a National Care Service. The NCS will help meet people’s needs better.

This is the biggest public service change in Scotland since devolution.

Devolution was when Scotland got its own Parliament.

We must take the time to make sure the NCS makes good changes. It must use public funds in the best way.

The National Care Service is all about people.

The Scottish Government will carry on co-design work as we develop the NCS.

We will work with people with lived experience, the workforce, trade unions and local government.

Find the report in other formats

Find the full report in plain English online.

A summary of the report is also available in British Sign Language (BSL) and audio.

To ask for the full report in another format:

• email NCSCommunications@gov.scot

• or phone 0808 196 1507 (open Tuesday 9am to 12pm and Thursday 1pm to 4pm)