The National Care Service Consultation: Analysis of responses

March 9, 2022

Scottish Government publishes responses to National Care Service Consultation

The Scottish Government has recently published their analysis of the responses they received from the consultation on the setting up of a National Care Service in Scotland. There are some interesting areas, covering:

Access to care and support
Complaints and putting things right
Personal Assistants

In terms of access to care and support people had said that:

Speaking to their GP or another health professional, a voluntary organisation, a national helpdesk or national online form were the options that were most likely to be used

On Personal Assistants, they asked the question: Do you agree that all personal assistants should be required to register centrally moving forward?

86% of individuals and 88% or organisations that responded agreed that PAs should be required to register centrally.

Reasons provided by those in agreement included:

It offers security and safeguarding of both the PA and the employer/vulnerable adult
It ensures standards and pay are equal within the social care system
It allows access to support and training for the PA
It provides increased regulation and knowledge of the number of PAs and training record
Protecting Vulnerable Group (PVG) checks should be a minimum requirement for PAs

On Complaints:

65% of individuals and 64% of organisations thought that it would be helpful to have a Charter of rights and responsibilities, so people know what they can expect
52% of individuals and 55% of organisations thought that there needed to be clear information about advocacy services and the right to a voice
57% of individuals and 56% of organisations thought there needed to be a consistent model for handling complaints for all bodies

There was very strong support for using a measure of experience in demonstrating how feedback and complaints have been taken on board and actioned. 88% of individuals 95% of organisations who were in agreement with this.

You can find a copy of the full analysis of responses here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-care-service-consultation-analysis-responses/documents/