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Scottish Parliament elections 2026: What do party manifestos say about social care?

With the Scottish Parliament elections occurring on Thursday 7 May, all major Scottish political parties have now published their election manifestos.

All parties, except the Scottish National Party, had specific sections in their manifesto dedicated to social care.

Below is a summary of what each political party (in alphabetical order) says they will do, if elected, within their manifestos on key issues relating to social care.

Investment in social care

Most political parties make specific mention of investing further in social care within their manifestos.

Reform UK say they will offer a ‘new deal for local government’, which will ‘give councils greater flexibility and control over their social care services, while simultaneously providing a secure basis of long-term funding’ (p13).
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party say they will ‘increase the amount of funding available to councils so they can deliver these [social care] services to a high standard’ (p73).
Scottish Greens say they would ‘work with councils and health boards to identify the immediate funding boost required to meet their most pressing [social care] demands’.
Scottish National Party say they would ‘invest at least £10 billion in capital spending – funding new and renewed buildings and equipment – over the next ten years, including building new Community Health and Care hubs across the country’ (p12).
Scottish Labour and Scottish Liberal Democrats do not make explicit reference to broad, further investment in social care within their manifestos.

Funding for Local Authorities

Reform UK say they would phase out ‘LBTT [Land and Buildings Transaction Tax] and business rates over the course of ten years’, and combine them into a ‘single, fairer, and more predictable Annual Property Tax’. In addition, Reform UK would conduct a ‘wide-ranging review of the unfunded statutory obligations placed on councils by central government, so that they are given greater control over their own expenditure’ (p11).
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party say they will ‘would guarantee local government
a higher proportion of the Scottish Government’s overall budget. We would fix this proportion over the lifetime of the next Scottish Parliament, so that when the Scottish Government’s budget
increases, local government’s deliver ‘budget increases by the same proportion, ensuring fair funding’ (p73).
Scottish Greens say they would ‘Empower councils to raise at least half of their total funding needs locally where that is possible, primarily through replacing the Council Tax’ and ‘continue to develop a fiscal framework between local and national government so there is multi-year funding certainty’.
Scottish Labour say they would deliver ‘fair funding for local services’ by ‘agreeing a new funding formula for local government that takes account of local levies and the services that councils deliver’.
Scottish Liberal Democrats say they would guarantee ‘fair funding for local authorities (…) with multi-year settlements to boost service transformation and innovation’.
Scottish National Party make no explicit mention of changing how funding is administered to Local Authorities.

Non-residential care charges

Most political parties mentioned non-residential care charges within their manifestos.

Both the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and the Scottish National Party (SNP) say they will retain free personal and nursing care.
Scottish Labour and Scottish Greens say they will remove non-residential care charges.
Reform UK and Liberal Democrats did not explicitly mention anything about non-residential care charges within their manifestos.

Hospital Discharge

All political parties noted a need to reduce the number of delayed discharges, while offering different strategies to doing so.

Reform UK say they will reduce the number of delayed discharges by ‘removing inept and bureaucratic management, by improving staff retention and morale, and by creating new pathways of care’ (p12) and utilising ‘creative’ solutions (p13).
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party say they would provide the NHS with ‘increased funds to temporarily place patients in a suitable care home within 48 hours of being declared fit for discharge’, piloted in areas with capacity within local care homes and ‘amend the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 to allow for these patients to be discharged to an appropriate care home as long as a doctor and the family consent’ (p60).
Scottish Labour say they would ‘immediately fund an additional 1,000 care at home packages and 300 step down beds’.
Scottish Liberal Democrats say they would ‘make sure people can access the care they need close to home, working with authorities where there is a clear need for additional care homes and beds’.
Scottish Greens say they would introduce ‘a “Right to Rehabilitation” whereby everyone is assessed for rehabilitation needs on diagnosis or discharge from hospital’.
Scottish National Party say they would take ‘steps to expand Hospital at Home services to ensure more people are cared for in their communities’ (p15) and would ‘implement a new, recurring Complex Care Investment for Scotland, beginning with £20 million. This will be delivered through Scotland’s Independent Living Fund direct to individuals and will free up around 400 beds in Scotland’s hospitals’ (p55).

Right to breaks for unpaid carers

Scottish Greens and Scottish Liberal Democrats have said they back a right to breaks for unpaid carers.
Scottish Labour say they would improve access to respite and support for unpaid carers.
Scottish National Party say they will legislate for the right to breaks for unpaid carers (p55).
Reform UK and the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party make no specific mention of the right to breaks for unpaid carers within their manifestos.

Social Care Workforce Pay

Scottish Labour and Scottish Greens say they would deliver £15 per hour as a minimum pay for social care workers.
Scottish Liberal Democrats say they would offer a new minimum wage for care that is ‘at least £2 higher – the equivalent of a salary of at least £28,500 per year’.
Reform UK, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, and Scottish National Party make no explicit mention of social care workforce pay within their manifestos.

Social Care Collective Bargaining

Scottish Labour, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Scottish Greens, and Scottish National Party say they would seek to introduce national collective bargaining across social care.
Reform UK and Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party make no explicit mention of collective bargaining for social care in their manifestos.

Other social care workforce manifesto commitments

Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party say they would ‘conduct proper workforce planning to address staff shortages through our Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy, that will be developed in partnership with staff and patients’ (p60).
Scottish Liberal Democrats say they would ‘create clear career pathways, enhanced representation for this skilled workforce, and ending the undervaluing of skills in the sector’ and increase ‘access to housing for care workers to enable them to take up posts’.
Scottish Greens say they would ‘call on the UK Government to reimburse Scottish third sector organisations for the cost of increased employer NICs, which are currently estimated at £75 million per year’.
Scottish National Party say they would ‘We will empower our NHS and social care staff, investing in recruitment of specialists, training places and addressing workforce issues in rural and island communities’ (p15).

Other key social care manifesto commitments

Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party say they will:

‘Oppose any future attempts to centralise social care and take powers away from local authorities’ (p60)
‘Carry out a review of [the Integration Joint Board] framework to see whether an alternative structure could deliver better outcomes for those who need care’ (p60)

Scottish Labour say they would:

‘Work in partnership with the sector to create a National Care Service worthy of the name, creating consistent standards of quality and service delivery everywhere across the country’.

Scottish Liberal Democrats say they would:

Implement ‘a new human rights-focused approach to social care to be provided through integrated and accountable local services’.

Scottish Greens say they would:

‘Introduce ethical commissioning and end competitive tendering to ensure that care services are being provided on the basis of their quality, rather than ‘value for money’.
‘Reform funding and structure of Integration Joint Boards, to allow local health boards to invest better in preventative and community healthcare’.
‘Improve digital and IT systems and introduce a single electronic patient record between primary care, hospital and social care teams’.

Scottish National Party say they would:

‘Establish a Transition to Adulthood Guarantee for all disabled young people offering
them the support they need to plan and achieve their goals’ (p32).
‘Expect more public bodies to adopt all five pillars of fair work and expand the policy’s reach so that contracts and outsourcing undertaken by public bodies in receipt of public funding have to meet the criteria’ (p59).
‘Scotland’s new health and social care app MyCare.scot and delivering a national online booking system for appointments’ (p15).

Although voter registration has now closed, you can read more on mygov.scot about how to vote on Thursday 7 May.