Public Bodies (Joint Working) Scotland Bill: Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

Summary and recommendation

The Scottish Government is legislating to integrate adult health and social care across Scotland. The legislation has been developed in collaboration with partners. Furthermore, the Bill policy has cross party support and we have garnered support with external agencies through engagement events.

We are proposing that as a minimum, adult health and social care services should be integrated and partnerships would be able to integrate additional services if they agree to do so.

The integration of adult health and social care will be driven forward through the formation of integration authorities which will be the joint and equal responsibility of Health Boards and local authorities. Integration authorities will be held to account for their delivery of nationally agreed outcomes.

The legislation provides two models for the governance of the integration authorities: delegation between partners; and delegation to the integration authority, established as a body corporate.

Recommendation/Next steps

We recommend further engagement, by Scottish Government and integration authorities, with businesses identified as most likely to be impacted by the legislation, particularly third and private sector providers. At this stage, stakeholders have been unable to provide an informed view as there is not enough information available to fully assess the potential impact. Stakeholders will be able to contribute more fully once the policy has been agreed.

The Financial Memorandum provides details of support already underway for third and independent sectors. This includes a three year project, delivered by the Health and Social Care Alliance in partnership with other third sector partners, and designed to build the capacity of the third sector to engage with the Reshaping Care for Older People Programme^[6]. This project is funded by the Joint Improvement Team and the Third Sector Unit of the Scottish Government.

Summary costs and benefits table

The costs and any potential savings associated with the Bill are detailed in the Financial Memorandum which accompanies the Bill.