The local authority-led model of social care delivery has “clearly failed for thirty plus years”, Scottish Care head Donald Macaskill has said.

In a blog reflecting on the reaction to the independent review of adult social care, the Scottish Care Chief Executive said failures in social care are largely due to too much being done on a local not national basis.

Derek Feeley’s review recommended that power over social care be taken away from councils and given to Integration Joint Boards that would in turn answer to a National Care Service overseen by ministers.

COSLA, which represents local authorities, has spoken out against the changes.

Council leaders said the proposals would be “detrimental to the local delivery of social care and its integration with other key community services”.

But Dr Donald Macaskill, of independent care provider body Scottish Care, said this “simply does not ring true for the vast majority of those who have received social care and who spoke to the Feeley Review group nor to those who have as charities, not for profit and private providers delivered social care under local authority commissioning approaches which have consistently treated in-house provision more favourably than out-sourced contractors.”

He goes on to say: “The delivery of social care placed in the hands of local authorities has clearly failed for thirty plus years and those who use supports and services deserve much better than what they have received.

“Again to underline lest I be misunderstood, this is a critique of a system not of the individuals at local level charged with working within it…

“It is perhaps not that surprising that the voice of local authority government has been resistant to the concept of a National Care Service.  In true ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’ style they have argued against the loss of ‘local democracy’ and ‘accountability’ whilst ignoring the report’s damning critique of failures over which they have presided for decades.”

“…I hope we can all agree that the local-national accountability and delivery issue does not need to be an either/or.

“The Feeley report envisaged a transformed local accountability in Integrated Joint Boards where representation was real, local, participative and immediate.

“Most importantly the report and its ideal of a national care service held before us a vision that those who matter most, the folks who use and will use social care supports in the future, were really in control and in charge, were the engineers of decision-making – that is a vision we simply cannot lose, and which will outlive all the transitory interests of the system defenders.

“It is their voice, not those of local or national politicians, of workers and the unions, of providers and their representatives, that must be at the heart of all design and delivery. We cannot fail to build a future service rooted in that voice.”

Read the full blog here.

Read more: ‘No justification’ for delay on care charge pledge; Councils voice ‘grave concern’ with care review; Irons: Care review offers fix for funding tensions

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