National Care Service: islands communities impact assessment - easy read

National Care Service Bill: Islands Communities Impact Assessment

A law called the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 says the Scottish Government has to do an assessment to check how the National Care Service Bill affects people who live in island communities.

The National Care Service Bill sets out how we will create the National Care Service.

It gives the Scottish Government the power to create the National Care Service including local care boards.

It allows local care boards to be responsible for social care and community health services in your area.

The Scottish Government has asked people what they think about the National Care Service by having:

• a consultation that 1 thousand 3 hundred people answered

• 50 people used an Easy Read version of the consultation
• more than 1 hundred events and meetings that around 3 thousand people took part in

Other meetings happened after the consultation with:

• the Island Assessment Impact Group
• the National Islands Delivery Plan Group
• the Islands Strategic Group

People who live on the islands told us they were worried about these things:

• services for people who live on the islands need to be different from services in the rest of Scotland

• making sure local organisations are responsible for social care services
• having enough services for communities that are small and scattered across the islands
• not having enough transport

• it is difficult to get people to work in care services on the islands

• the number of people of working age on the islands is getting less and less
• it could affect services and organisations that have been working well together for a long time

• local councils deliver more social care services in island communities compared to the rest of Scotland
• there could be too many organisations providing health and social care services

Another public consultation was held on Anne's Law.

Anne's Law will make sure that people who live in adult care homes have rights to see and spend time with the people who are important to them.

We have listened to what people in island communities have told us about the National Care Service.

We think the National Care Service Bill will have a positive impact on people in island communities.

A lot of the details of the National Care Service have not yet been created.

The Scottish Government will develop and plan the National Care Service with people who get and give social work and social care support, and with other organisations.

We have designed the National Care Service Bill in a way that we can deal with any worries people have when we design those details.

These include:

• what services will be delivered

• how the services will be planned, designed, and delivered

• who will make decisions about how services are delivered

The National Care Service will also include:

• a Charter of Rights
• a way for people to complain about services
• an electronic social care and health record

It will support local care boards to work with organisations to find ways to make care services better.

When we develop the details of how the National Care Service will work we will do more impact assessments, including on island communities, when needed.