THE SNP Commission on Social Justice and Fairness was established to look ahead to a future independent Scotland and at what could be done now and better to improve people’s social and economic wellbeing. The commission’s membership includes party members and activists, and a number of non-party members who were invited to contribute particular perspectives and expertise.

I am an external member, not a party member and not party aligned. I am deputy director of the WISE Centre for Economic Justice and a former director of Carers Scotland and that is why I believe care is too important to be a political football and must instead be a shared political goal.

For people with disabilities, accessing care and support to live fulfilling lives has been difficult and inconsistent, often requiring long-drawn-out engagement with the bureaucracy of care plans, local funding packages, and characterised by uncertainty and anxiety.

The last few months have amplified that uncertainty and anguish as care services have been withdrawn, care workers have not been properly protected, and public funding has not always been available or transparent.

For decades, unpaid carers have not been properly supported in their care and support for disabled or ill family members and friends. For decades, feminist analysis has consistently pointed to gender-based inequalities in pay and terms and conditions, and the low value attributed to care, care workers, and carers. Experiences during the coronavirus peak have underlined and re-inforced the many ways in which the giving and receiving of care has been undervalued.

In the commission’s discussion paper on social care, published last week, our aim is to contribute to the growing national debate on social care. We are fully aware that the debate is wide-ranging and that there are many voices already engaged. That’s why we are not staking a claim or setting out singular proposals. We hope that the evidence and questions we raise in this paper make a positive contribution to framing and forming the national provision of care and support across Scotland.

In recent weeks, the idea of a “National Care Service” has gained significant traction, including the consultation by the Scottish Labour Party and the commitment in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government. While welcoming attention on social care, some voices are arguing that another review isn’t necessary and that what is needed now is action on the structural, financial, and human elements of providing quality care

across Scotland.

A national care service has considerable appeal for some, as an approach that accords social care an equivalent status to health care; that builds on the many strengths currently in place to ensure an equivalent high quality of care across Scotland; and that assessments and funding for care meet the needs of individuals wherever they live and wherever they might move

in Scotland.

A national care service that is about imposing a monolithic, rigidly procured, narrowly constructed and limited menu of services is not what anyone envisages or would want.

A national approach with shared values, based on common principles of dignity, respect, participation and co-design, publicly funded mixed provision where quality trumps price, and is appropriate to the needs and contexts of an individual, is the character of a national integrated care system that we propose in the commission discussion paper.

The idea of a national care service is not new or particular to Scotland. I am part of the UK Women’s Budget Group (UKWBG), one of the many organisations that have been researching and promoting versions of this idea for many years.

The UKWBG and its Commission for a Gender Equal Economy are clear that our economic and social recovery from Covid-19 has to be centred on care and a caring economy. These calls have been consistently echoed in Scotland by the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, Engender, Close the Gap, WISE, and MSPs including Angela Constance and others across the Scottish Parliament.

The key demands here are for a reconfiguring of care as central to all our lives – as we all need and give care at different times in our lives and in different ways – and as central to our economy. The deep-rooted gendered dimensions of care whereby women are the majority of paid care workers, and the inequities and poor terms and conditions of which have been laid bare in recent months, are the focus of calls for change in the treatment of the care workforce.

WOMEN’S organisations, trade unions, service providers, and this commission are all clear that significant reform of the remuneration and reward in the care workforce is essential and must be immediate. Reconfiguring the gender dimensions of care is one of the fundamental shifts we need to make in our collective thinking about publicly resourcing care and support services.

Another significant change that has to happen is in how we think about funding and investing in care and support. As we highlight in the commission paper, care has consistently been considered a drag on public finance. Care is consistently presented as a cost to public spending, rather than as a key sector that should be considered core to our economic and social infrastructure.

Repeated analysis by leading economists including Susan Himmelweit and Jerome de Henau has consistently shown that investment in care produces significantly higher economic returns than equivalent investment in other areas of the economy.

As we highlight in the paper, looking across 40 OECD economies it is clear that an extra 2% of GDP invested in care would see overall employment increase in range from 2.4% to 6.1%, and that investing in care infrastructure has long-term benefits for the economy, not least boosting tax revenue from an expanded workforce.

A national integrated care system, flexible and informed by individuals needs and based on the rights to live independently, free from discrimination, and enjoying a socially, culturally, and economically fulfilling life is the central proposition for discussion from the commission.

Our principles echo those from disabled people’s organisations such as Glasgow Disability Alliance, and aim to engage with the perspectives and concerns from disabled people, carers, service providers and funding managers who we encourage to engage with and respond to the questions we have deliberated over in the commission and pose in

this paper.

The arguments have been well made and rehearsed over many years. The ambition for ensuring a national quality of care is complex, but securing it is urgent.