The Scottish government has unveiled a roadmap towards the creation of a National Care Service in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport Jeane Freeman has commissioned an independent review of adult social care to examine how it can be most effectively reformed to deliver a national approach to care and support services.
The scope of the review - chaired by Derek Feeley, former director general of Health and Social Care in the Scottish government - will include how adult social care is organised, commissioned, regulated and funded.
The review will feature an advisory panel consisting of Caroline Gardner, who was until very recently Scotland’s Auditor General, Malcolm Chisholm, a former Minister for Health and Community Care, Anna Dixon, chief executive at the Centre for Better Ageing, Goran Henriks, chief executive of Learning and Innovation in Jonkoping County in Sweden, Cllr Stuart Currie of East Lothian Council, and Ian Welsh, chief executive of Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland.
The review will begin immediately and report back to Holyrood by January 2021.
Freeman said the tight timescale will “ensure that the next parliament has the options before them straight away so they can take any steps necessary - legislative or otherwise - to put in place the reforms our adult care sector needs”.
“I’ve made no secret of my sympathy for a national care service, and this will be part of the considerations of the review,” she added.
The review was announced as part of the SNP’s programme for government delivered by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (pictured).
“This is a moment to be bold and to build a service fit for the future. The National Health Service was born out of the tragedy of the Second World War,” she said.
“Let us resolve that we will build out of this Covid crisis the lasting and positive legacy of a high-quality National Care Service,” she added.
