National Care Service - keeping care support local part 2 – community health care: regional forums - findings summary

Next steps

What’s next for Keeping Care Support Local Part 2 – Community Health Care

We will use what we have learned during the regional forums to continue to co-design with people and organisations how community health integrates with social care services, and how the National Care Service and NHS should work together.

We will update the definition of community health based on the feedback received, test it again with people who deliver and access services as well as with stakeholders, and publish it on the Scottish Government website.

What’s next for the National Care Service

The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering a National Care Service to improve quality, fairness and consistency of provision that meets individuals’ needs. We are also working to make improvements to the social care system now.

What we have learned during the summer events will inform these early improvements, as well as the future structures and policies of the NCS, including the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill.

The Bill is currently at committee stage in the Scottish Parliament. In January 2024, MSPs will take their first vote on the general principles of the Bill. This is called Stage 1.

Over the next 18 months we will continue to co-design with people who have experience of accessing and delivering social care support to design the National Care Service.

We will be doing additional work with people from groups we know are currently under represented in our work so far.

In the meantime, we will continue to drive forward improvements across the social care sector, including improving terms and conditions for our valued workforce - making it an attractive profession and bringing even more talent into the sector.

Getting involved

We want to hear from as many voices as possible as we shape and develop the new National Care Service. If you’d like to share your experience or views, you can join our Lived Experience Expert Panel. If you join the panel, you’ll be invited to take part in different things like:

• surveys
• interviews
• helping come up with ideas about what the NCS could look like
• helping us understand what our research is telling us helping us make sure we’re designing the NCS to meet everyone’s needs

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