National Care Service - realising rights and responsibilities: regional forums - easy read findings summary

Next steps

What is next for realising rights and responsibilities

We will keep working on the charter and there will be more ways to have a say on it. We learned from the events and we will:

• add examples of some of the rights

• add information on advocacy in the charter. Advocacy is an independent service, separate from the care services to support people to speak up for their rights.
• add people’s suggestions where possible.

• make words in the charter clear and easy to understand where it is possible.

• make sure all information in the charter is correct.

We will make changes that people told us would help make the charter better. We will then ask people to look at the charter again.

Work to make the charter better

People told us that the rights in the charter are different from what they experience of social care, social work, and community health.

People felt that the way social care and health are delivered would need to be different for people to have the rights in the charter.

People suggested that National Care Service staff should receive training on the charter.

People felt that there would need to be a good complaints process to make sure that they can have the rights in the charter.

We are working to make sure the charter, the complaints process and advocacy are joined and work well together.

We will continue to work with services to make sure the rights in the charter are delivered and respected by the staff.

What is next for the National Care Service

The Scottish Government wants the National Care Service by 2026. We are now working to improve the social care system.

Events will help us to make the National Care System, its policies, and the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill better.

A Bill is a proposed law that needs to be passed by the Parliament before it could become a law. The Scottish Parliament will vote on the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill in January 2024.

Over the next 18 months we will continue making the National Care Charter.

We will involve people who have used social care support. We will also involve groups of people whose voices are not heard.

We will keep improving the social care sector for the existing staff and to make it a good profession to work for.

Getting involved

We want to hear from you as we develop the new National Care Service. If you would like to share your experiences you can join our Lived Experience Expert Panel.

If you join the panel, you will be invited to take part in different things like:

• surveys
• interviews
• discussions

For more information about the National Care Service, visit gov.scot/ncs