National Care Service - making sure your voice is heard: seldom heard voices co-design findings

What’s next

What’s next for access and support planning

We will use what people have told us to inform how we can ensure a consistent approach to access and support planning within the National Care Service which fully takes account of people’s identities.

What’s next for independent advocacy

We will use what people have told us to inform our approach to improving independent advocacy provision. We want independent advocacy to be a way for people to have their voices heard and participate fully in decisions about their care. This means increasing and improving independent advocacy provision. We will co-design the best way to do this.

We will use the information we have gathered to inform the next phase of co-design for independent advocacy, the sensemaking phase.

What’s next for complaints and redress

We will reflect on how existing complaints processes can be improved ahead of the creation of the new complaints service for the National Care Service. As part of this, we will look at how good examples in the existing processes can be used in future.

We will look at how the complaints service for the National Care Service can be accessible to everyone.

We will consider the role of guidance and training for staff to ensure that they feel supported and confident when dealing with complaints.

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.

The National Care Service Bill passed Stage 1 in the Scottish Parliament in February 2024. This stage is where MSPs decide whether they agree with the general principles of the Bill by:

• hearing views
• writing reports of what they have heard
• voting on whether the Bill should go on to the next stage

The Bill will now go on to Stage 2. This is where MSPs can make changes (called amendments in Parliament) to the Bill.

We will continue with engagement and co-design as the Bill progresses through Parliament. This commitment will continue throughout the establishment of the National Care Service. We will be doing additional work with people from groups we know are currently underrepresented 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.