National Care Service: factsheet

Improvements we are making now

Our priority is to make sure everyone in Scotland can access the support they need to thrive.

As part of this model, these are some of the initiatives we are already working on to help us bring about real improvements in people’s experience.

NCS Advisory Board

We are creating a new NCS Advisory Board. This replaces our original plans to legislate to create an NCS National Board as a new public body. We expect the Advisory Board to meet for the first time in March 2025.

Membership of the Advisory Board will include:

• people who access and deliver support
• trade unions
• NHS leadership
• local councils
• Integration Joint Boards (IJBs)
• the third sector
• Scottish Government representatives

We will ensure that people with lived experience of accessing care or being a carer have a strong voice on the Board and that their interests are at the heart of the Board’s work.  This will be reflected in the choice of Chair for the Board.

We will develop a Support and Improvement Framework, structured like a ladder. Where agreed standards are not being met, this framework will offer progressive and targeted support to those areas to help them improve. The Advisory Board will advise on the best way to do this. 

The Advisory Board will advise on how Ministers might use their existing powers of guidance, direction and funding in cases where agreed standards are still not met after support has been offered. The framework will work alongside a wider support offer available to all local areas. It will help to ensure consistent, fair, high-quality services for everyone.

This approach will mean that there is a shared understanding of what “good” looks like. It will also give a systematic, open and transparent approach to tackling problems in local areas quickly, when they first emerge and before they become a crisis.

We will agree the approach with partners and stakeholders, including people with lived experience.

There will be scope for the Advisory Board to advise Ministers about national priorities for integrated health and social care services. This could include:

• delivery of the National Carers Strategy
• improving support for the workforce and advancing Fair Work
• delivery of Self-Directed Support

We will also explore how the board will link to existing oversight and governance. This includes around children’s services and justice social work.

We are prioritising further work to define and deliver the NCS Advisory Board.

It will be important to get the remit and membership of the Board right. We will make sure the right support is available to enable all Board members to take part equally. We will be guided by the outputs from the co-design work we have done over the past year.

Further investment

We are investing £88.4 million per year in local carer support through local council Carers Act funding. We will deliver £125 million to enable the funding of the real living wage for our children’s and adult social care workers.  

Our social care and community health services must have a high standard of workforce planning and staff learning, development and leadership support. This will be a priority as the NCS continues to take shape.

We have insisted that the UK Government work to reduce the impact of the rise in employers’ National Insurance payments. We will continue to apply pressure to them to find a solution that works for the care and health sectors.

Integration Joint Boards (IJBs)

We will support Highland Council and NHS Highland to move from the lead agency model of integration to the Integration Joint Board (IJB) model within their timescales. IJBs will still be responsible for local planning of services.