Rachel Cackett responds to the latest news about the NCS Bill

Ah, the irony. At CCPS we were set to publish our proposals for amendments to the National Care Service Bill.

This was later than we’d have liked because it had been hard to know what we are attempting to amend. Is it the bill that was laid, which has been completely overtaken by events? Or the proposals for an amended bill, which the Scottish Government published in June – including a shared accountability agreement that has been blown out the water – but which can’t technically be amended, because it’s not an actual bill?

You see our dilemma?

But we’ve done our best because, if the Scottish Parliament has decided to take the bill this far we have a duty to do all we can to make it work for our social care provider members, their staff and ultimately the people they support.

Then the news broke: the Bill is scrapped… or perhaps bits of it are scrapped…. or perhaps none if it is scrapped but just delayed while it’s re-written again.

So here we are.

In the meantime, far too many people who need support can’t get it, providers are seeing budgets cut, and now we are staring into the face of catastrophic changes to employers’ National Insurance contributions.

Ever since Derek Feeley published the Independent Review of Adult Social Care we have been clear: our sector desperately needs reform and we will do all we can to collaborate with government and anyone else who can effect good change. CCPS members have the experience and expertise to help. It’s not always been easy to be heard.

But our commitment remains – and we will still publish our ideas on the bill as a marker of the commitment (see links below) – but I now make a heartfelt plea.

We’ve been attempting to inform and improve this bill for nearly three years while at the same time trying to support members through an ever-increasing real-time crisis. So, my plea is for clarity and a shared purpose across the political spectrum as we head towards the 2026 election.

There are many routes to positive reform – and an a much-improved NCS Bill may be one of them.

But either give us the timescales for legislative change and a space for our voice to shape collective reform, or look at alternatives to the current bill and let us get on with those. Political wrangling, backroom deals and power-struggles for another 18 months won’t help the people who any NCS is meant to be for – the people across Scotland who really need well-resourced, rights-based, accessible, quality support.

Those of us trying to keep a woefully under-resourced sector afloat for the people who need it need more than the hope of reform; we need to know that something better is really coming our way.

Read our Briefing on Priority Areas of Focus for Amendments to the NCS Bill at Stage 2

Read our Thematic Assessment of the Alignment of Principles to Underpin a National Care Service

Rachel Cackett is CEO of Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS).