Scottish Government ‘determined’ to retain free personal care

The Scottish Government is determined to continue providing free personal care for the elderly, the Health Minister has said.

Shona Robison warned MSPs meeting the commitment would be “even more challenging” as a result of this week’s emergency Budget. But she said it was a “challenge the Scottish Government is determined to rise to”.

In Tuesday’s Budget, Chancellor George Osborne said that government departments whose spending is not ring-fenced will have their budgets cut by as much as 25%.

Despite the cuts, as MSPs debated the landmark free personal care policy on Thursday, Ms Robison stressed: “The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to free personal and nursing care.

“The reason for our commitment is the policy delivers real benefits and better outcomes to more than 50,000 older, vulnerable people throughout Scotland.”

She also said that scrapping free personal care may not produce significant savings.

Ms Robison told MSPs: “It’s too simple to imagine that removing a popular and landmark policy such as free personal care would achieve major budgetary savings.

“Indeed, it might have the opposite effect by pushing up the numbers seeking to remain in hospital beds free of charge because they can’t immediately find the money to pay for their care at home.”

She hailed free personal care as “one of the great achievements” of the Scottish Parliament and added: “The proper administration and funding of the policy has been one of the great achievements of this Government with the £40 million investment to stabilise the policy and a clear set of eligibility criteria.”

Ms Robison also said that, in the future, “it might well be that better integration could produce a more efficient service without jeopardising the care that is given to older people, and that is something we are looking at”.

MSPs were debating free personal care after a wide-ranging report earlier this month suggested it could become means-tested. The architect of the policy, Lord Sutherland, insisted at the time that there were “no sacred cows” for spending cuts.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Ross Finnie said he was “proud” of the role his party had played in bringing in the “landmark social reform” as part of the previous Executive.

However, with an increasingly elderly population and growing pressure on public finances, he admitted there was now a need to “face up to challenges presented by demographic change and fiscal consolidation”.

The Lib Dem MSP said that almost 10,000 people in care homes and about 45,000 people living in the own homes benefited from free personal care

He said: “This policy is of huge importance to older people in Scotland.” However, he said that it had “not been easy to deliver”.

Mr Finnie called on MSPs to give an “absolute endorsement as a matter of principle” to the provision of free personal care in the long term.

But he added: “If we are going to sustain that policy, it requires a lot of hard work in how we deliver it and how we drive cost out of its delivery.”

Labour’s Jackie Baillie said free personal care is seen by many as a “defining policy” of devolution and should be protected.

She also welcomed work by the Government and local authorities group Cosla to reshape the way services are provided to older people.

However, Ms Baillie said there is a “postcode lottery” of care across Scotland, with various councils having different criteria for assessing eligibility for a service.

She said there are a number of “key principles” on which any system of future care for older people should be based, including helping older people remain in their homes rather than having costly admissions to hospital.

She said: “These are costly to the NHS, but also costly to the individuals and the families involved.

“I see older people admitted to hospital after a fall at home. In some cases because they’ve had to wait months for a necessary aid or adaptation to their home, that would’ve prevented the fall in the first place.

“We need to get better at making sure we get the balance right and move where possible towards prevention.”

Tory health spokesman Murdo Fraser said his MSP colleagues backed the policy despite it not being supported by the Conservatives south of the border.

However, he warned the policy is expensive and “becoming more so” because of a growing number of over-75s who need it most.

He said: “If the policy is to be affordable in the long term, we will have to find savings elsewhere to help pay for it.”

Mr Fraser said he supported Lord Sutherland’s suggestion that health and social care come from a combined budget, adding: “This reflects something the Scottish Conservatives have been calling for for years.

“It was also the unanimous recommendation of this Parliament’s Health and Community Care Committee back in 2000.

“It would represent a way of doing things differently.

“It would represent a transfer of budgets from local authorities in terms of social care to the NHS or possibly to some other body, but we believe we need to seriously look at this if we are to free up the savings that are required.”