Scottish Government

The Scottish Government have published details of this year’s National Care Service national forum, which will be in Glasgow (and online) on Monday 30 October. The annual National Forum was first held in Perth last year. It is an opportunity for people who access social care support, the social care workforce, carers and unpaid carers […]

As part of on-going discussions on the National Care Service (NCS) (Scotland) Bill, the Scottish Government has reached an initial agreement with local government and the NHS about accountability arrangements for the National Care Service. The agreement aims to establish who will be responsible for people’s care once the NCS is established. Overall legal accountability will […]

  The Scottish Government and COSLA have published a new plan to drive forward improvement in Self-directed Support over the next few years.  The SDS Improvement Plan 2023 – 2027 sets priorities for work that will take place right across the sector – from Government and local councils to third sector organisations, independent support organisations […]

The Scottish Government are looking for volunteers to help them test the Health and Care Experience (HACE) survey. The survey is carried out every two years and aims to gather the views of hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland about their experiences of health and social care. The team that conducts the survey wants […]

The Scottish Government have published a new strategy which sets out 10-year plan to deliver a better experience for people living with dementia, their families and carers. The strategy sets out a number of aims that describe the “difference we need to make” in order to improve things. These cover a range of topics including […]

  Following feedback from the National SDS Collaboration, the draft SDS Improvement Plan 2023-27 is being reviewed by Scottish Ministers and COSLA and is expected to be published in June. Updates on these processes will be provided by the Scottish Government at meetings of the National SDS Collaboration. The new strategic plan is being developed […]

  A new strategic plan is being developed to improve the implementation of Self-Directed Support in Scotland.  Since the passing of the Self-Directed Support (Scotland) Act in 2013 and the accompanying strategy, several multi-year Implementation Plans have been in place to drive forward SDS implementation.   As the last plan expired in 2021, there have been […]

The Scottish Government published the updated SDS Statutory Guidance on 21st November 2022. You can see the newly updated Guidance here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/statutory-guidance-accompany-social-care-self-directed-support-scotland-act-2013-2/ The Guidance has incorporated a number of recent developments, as well as others that have occurred over the last eight years, including: The SDS Standards Parts of the COVID-19 SDS Guidance The Carers […]

The first meeting of the Personal Assistants’ (PA) Programme Board took place in August 2021, and it continues to meet on a quarterly basis. The Board is formed of PAs, employers, Scottish Government, Independent Support Organisations and more, with the shared aim of ensuring the integration of PAs into the overall social care workforce. Purpose […]

Guidance reinforces need for increased flexibility for SDS during the Pandemic The Guidance covers both children and adult services. The aim of the Guidance is to: ‘. . . ensure supported people have flexibility of choice over how they manage their SDS budgets to meet their personal outcomes. This guidance also enables local authorities and […]