United Kingdom
Homecare Association (UKHCA)
Scottish Parliamentary Elections
Manifesto 2016
Enabling people in Scotland to live
independently at home
UKHCA Manifesto
About UKHCA
As a member-led professional association,
UKHCA supports organisations providing
care at home services in Scotland. We call
on politicians in Scotland to make a firm
commitment to high quality and sustainable
care services which enable people to stay at
home and in their community.
Current state of care
Social and health care services in Scotland are
at a tipping point. With policies for Integration
of Health and Social Care Services in their
infancy, the financial pressures and growing
demand for care will add to the requirement
for long term decisions over funding and
the quality of care. The traditional solution
– funding acute health services to support
people who are already in ill health, without
properly funded social care – can only lead
to more of the same problems. Combined
with the current “task and time” based
commissioning practices, this mitigates against
high quality, personalised care and sound
employment practice.
Care at home services in Scotland support
over 61,500¹ people a year to live independent
and fulfilling lives without recourse to
residential care. With the population of over
65s growing at the rate of nearly 16% over
the last decade² the demand for care at home
will increase significantly in the next decade.
The Scottish care at home sector provides
employment to nearly 65,000 front-line
workers, but the costs of providing quality care
at home services are outpacing the funding
that has been made available. Yet with proper
funding of social care there could be a real
reduction in people’s dependence on acute
services, while supporting people to live well
at home.
Timely and effective homecare reduces costs
for the Scottish NHS by supporting people
at home more quickly after illness and by
creating better access to preventative care at
home services, so that people may never need
to be admitted to hospital.
Support people’s right to live
independently at home
• Recognise that the vast majority of people
in Scotland would prefer to remain at
home, in their community, for as long as
possible should they need care. This is in
preference to an emergency admission to
hospital because of the lack of preventative
care at home.
• Make it a priority for Government to
develop a policy that facilitates and
encourages home-based social care and
removes barriers to access, including
increased choice for people using services
from their preferred care provider.
• Consistently encourage and facilitate high
quality co-ordinated social and health
care which meets individual needs of the
people using services and their families,
where a choice of self-directed support and
personalised care can be exercised.
• Commit to improving end of life care
services for people, their families and
carers.
As a start, in the first session of the new
Scottish Parliament:
Require Joint Integration Boards to
demonstrate that they investigate all options
for supporting people in their own home,
where this is their preference, in an efficient
and timely way, regardless of how their care
will be funded.
Realise the potential of social care to
improve Scotland’s health
• Adopt social care policies which maintain
people’s wellbeing and inclusion in society.
• Foster genuine co-ordination of resources
between social care, health and housing
services, so that people get the support
they need early enough to prevent
unnecessary or unplanned admission to
hospital, residential or nursing care.
Commitments for the next Scottish
Government
As a start, in the first session of the new
Scottish Parliament:
UKHCA calls on the next Scottish Government
to commit to the following principles. We have
also identified a number of specific initiatives
that should be acted on in the first session of
the next Scottish Parliament as a start towards
addressing the broader principles.
Require Joint Integration Boards to
include representatives of people who use
commissioned services and social care
providers as full members, so that realistic
joined up services will be developed.
2
UKHCA Manifesto 2016
Prioritise social care
Why we must act now
• Commit to addressing the major deficit
in social care and health care funding,
ensuring the allocation of adequate
resources across both sectors, to improve
well-being and outcomes for people and
value for money for tax payers.
Scotland’s population is ageing: over the next
20 years there will be increasing demands on
society where people of working age are a
smaller proportion of the total population.
• Ensure that resources allocated to meet
social care needs actually reach front-line
services for people who need support.
As a start, in the first session of the new
Scottish Parliament:
Commission a robust, independent review of
the true cost of care in each council area, to
determine the true cost of delivering safe,
dignified care at home to people who need
support; providing additional ring-fenced
money where this is shown to be necessary.
The next Scottish Parliament must start
taking action on these principles to meet the
expectations of voters that the lives of older
and disabled people, their family and the social
care workforce can meet the needs of modern
society, now and in the future.
_____________
Sources:
1. Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser, Scottish Government
(2016). Social Work and Social Care Statistics for Scotland:
A Summary. Available from: http://www.gov.scot/
Resource/0049/00493865.pdf
2.
NRS (2014). Available from: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/
People/Equality/Equalities/DataGrid/Age
Support the social care workforce
• Recognise the significant contribution
that the social care sector makes to
the Scottish economy by maintaining
people’s wellbeing; providing employment;
supporting working family-carers and
generating tax revenue.
• Actively support the social care workforce
through measures which facilitate better
terms and conditions for workers and
actions which develop their skills-base and
raise their professional status in society.
• Ensure that commissioning practices for
social care avoid “task and time” contracts,
in order to improve terms and conditions
and reduce turnover for front-line care
staff.
As a start, in the first session of the new
Scottish Parliament:
Commit to increased government investment
in care staff education to enhance the quality
of care, the status of the workforce and
attractiveness of social care as a career.
UKHCA Manifesto 2016 3
Quick facts about care at home services in Scotland
36 million
61,500
52%
1 million
hours of care at
home were
provided in
20151
people received care
at home services
in March 20152
is supplied by the
private & voluntary
sectors3
people will be of
pensionable age
and over
by 20204
9 out of 10 people
7 out of 10 adults
aged 50+ would want care in their
own home5
want to die in their own home6
_________________________________________________________________________
Sources:
1.
Figure extrapolated from the single week’s figure quoted
in “Social Care Services, Scotland, 2015”. Available
from: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/11/5804/2
2-3. The Scottish Government (2015). Social Care Services,
Scotland, 2015. Available from: http://www.gov.scot/
Publications/2015/11/5804/2
4.
National Records of Scotland (2015). Projected
Population of Scotland (2014-based) - National
population projections by sex and age, with UK
comparisons. Available from: http://www.nrscotland.
gov.uk/files//statistics/population-projections/2014based/pp14.pdf
5.
Saga / Populus survey of Saga customers 2013
6.
Dying matters / Comres 2014
For more information on care at home services
UKHCA website
www.ukhca.co.uk
Reports
• The Homecare Deficit (2015) – a report on the funding of older people’s homecare across
Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Available from: www.ukhca.co.uk/rates
• The Minimum Price for Homecare (2015). Available from: www.ukhca.co.uk/downloads.aspx?ID=434
• Care is not a Commodity – UKHCA Commissioning Survey (2012). Available from: www.ukhca.co.uk/downloads.aspx?ID=356
To contact UKHCA
Twitter: @ukhca | Email: enquiries@ukhca.co.uk | Telephone: 020 8661 8188
Board member for Scotland: Val Robson (valcol.357@btinternet.com)
United Kingdom Homecare Association Ltd. is registered in England. Registration Number: 03083104