The government has appointed a new Chair to its Standing Committee for Pandemic Preparedness with a remit to provide advice to ministers in preparation of future pandemics, but concerns have been raised over the absence of any clear social care focus.

Professor Andrew Morris, Director and CEO Health Data Research UK and Vice-Principal Data Science and University of Edinburgh was recently appointed as the Chair of the Scottish government’s Standing Committee for Pandemic Preparedness. Alongside this announcement, came the release of the previous meeting’s minutes, providing insight into the key areas discussed and planned actions.

Professor Morris is also the Chair of the Scottish government’s covid-19 advisory group, which provides advise on all novel scientific aspects of the current pandemic. Of his new appointment, he said:

“We will engage with clinicians and the wider scientific community in Scotland to ensure that our work is informed by a range of expertise.

“We will also look to international experience to ensure our report reflects the global nature of pandemics and the international learning that will help us best prepare Scotland to face the future.”

However, concerns are being raised that what appears to be lacking from both Professor Morris’ statement and the previous meeting’s minutes is mention of social care.

In these minutes, the committee discussed widening the scope from biological developments and medical response to include wider scientific advice and look at the impacts of the pandemic beyond science and medicine.

Although the need for better understanding of the impacts of mental health and inequalities to prepare for future pandemics was highlighted, there was no specific mention of the importance of social care contributions in these minutes.

One area listed in the minutes, but not discussed in detail, was the ‘system response and pandemic partnerships’.The organisation representing thousands of third sector health and care organisations says the committee risks missing key voices from their meetings.

“I think what we need to strongly pull into this discussion is the value of the third sector and what it can bring to the table. I think the value and the role of the third sector and social care does really seem to be undervalued in policy making,” says Justine Duncan from the ALLIANCE – Scotland’s national third sector intermediary.

During the pandemic, the ALLIANCE spoke to third sector groups about their rapid response to the pandemic in their series, Community in Action. An example they cite is Govan Youth Project which ran youth clubs and services, as well as delivering food parcels to people in need.

Ms Duncan added that social care is considered the ‘cinderella service’ to healthcare, in terms of funding opportunities and policy-making, telling healthandcare.scot:

“While the pandemic was universal, some people were much more affected than others. Social care has to be considered as equal to health services. Certainly with this advisory group, it shows that it still is relatively hidden or ignored in our policy discussions.”

Despite a range of professionals from across Scotland representing different areas of research on the committee, there is not currently a member from the social care sector, or a dedicated lived experiences representative for people who have been most impacted.

Professor Ian Welsh, previously Chief Executive of the ALLIANCE, said he is concerned about this lack of a perspective representing those with lived experiences on the committee:

“Much good work is currently being done in primary care, digital health, women’s health and in a range of specific condition responses – including Long Covid – to include the voices of those with lived experience, but often the collective voice and expertise of the third and independent sectors – including major social care providers – is separated from these specialist committees.”

Ms Duncan also highlighted the importance of hearing powerful lived experiences from those who struggled throughout this pandemic. She said that although the integrated joint boards behind Scotland’s health and social care partnerships have people with lived experiences and carers’ representatives, these representatives do not have voting rights.

She added that beyond these committees, there is a lack of good data on social care:

“If we don’t have adequate social care data, how do we know that we’re going to be providing good quality services in the future? Funding and more robust social care data are key as well.”

We have asked the Scottish government whether such voices will be added to the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness and if they intend to add social care to the commission setting out its role.They responded that, per their terms of reference: " the remit extends to all aspects of preparedness in relation to public health and connected issues."

A representative from the Scottish government added that while the committee does include a range of experts spanning public health, epidemiology, statistical modelling, medicine and behavioural sciences, this could change, stating:

"Additional members may be added in the future and input will continue to be sought from experts in areas under consideration by the Standing Committee."

Read more: Social care regulator flags course correction; Analysis: Care homes face a perfect storm in 2022; Scotland commits to coproduce health and care policy

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