A National Care Service for Scotland consultation: easy read

Chapter 7: Valuing people who work in social care

Scotland's health and social care workforce provide important support to people across Scotland every day. We need to do more to ensure that there is a greater understanding of the role that they play and care they bring every day to the job they do.

We need to grow the workforce as more people need support.

Fair Work

There are lots of service providers. Each is responsible for setting their workforce terms and conditions.

There is no way to set minimum standards for workforce conditions to service providers. This has led to differences in terms and conditions and low pay across the sector. Many workers feel undervalued and underpaid. They can be dealing with high workloads and stress.

We plan for the National Care Service (NCS) to take the lead in developing workforce quality standards. This could include rates of pay, employment contracts, and training.

We also plan for the NCS to develop and manage standards. Contracts will only be provided to services that support and meet these standards.

Question 22: Should the National Care Service take action to make pay, working conditions, and training and development for social care workers better?

• Yes
• No
• No preference

Please explain your answers below

Workforce Planning

Planning for the workforce is complicated. There is a large number and lots of different staff. It is difficult due to not having the best and easy information.

The Independent Review of Adult Social Care said planning for the workforce across Scotland should be a priority for a National Care Service.

Training and Development

Training and development is different in different workplaces. Social Care services do not have to make staff get qualifications. Training and development of staff is not in contracts.

There are lots of issues about training and development. People are not always aware which qualifications are available and which they need to get.

The National Care Service should set training and development rules. They should support starting work in care and development for staff.

Personal Assistants

Personal assistants are individuals directly recruited by people in receipt direct payments and/or Independent Living Fund (ILF) funds. They play a key role in social care support.

We are unsure how many personal assistants there are in Scotland, we think there are around 6,000 funded via option 1 self-directed support and/or ILF.

Personal assistant support is not set by the Care Inspectorate. This makes it harder to speak with them and support them. There is no law for them to get training or support to do their role. Employing personal assistants can be a lot of admin and work.

We want to register all personal assistants in one place. We are also thinking about how the National Care Service (NCS) could support personal assistants.

We are thinking about how to help with support around admin that may mean more people use direct payments.

Question 23: Do you think that personal assistants should be required to register in one place?

• Yes
• No
• No preference

Question 24: What other support might help personal assistants and people wanting to employ personal assistants? (Please tick all that apply)

• All personal assistants would have the same job standards across the whole country
• Tell more people about the job of a social care personal assistant
• Ways to match employers with personal assistants who want work
• Jobs at different grades for personal assistants
• Recognise personal assistants as part of the social care workforce
• A free national phone line about self-directed support advice
• Enough support to make sure there are payroll services
• Other (please explain)