An expert review has backed calls for a National Care Service to drive up standards on an equal footing to the NHS.
The recommendation was published today in a report on adult social care ordered by the Scottish Government.
The Record had championed the campaign to improve the country’s care system with failings highlighted in the coronavirus pandemic.
Chair of the independent review, Derek Feeley, said: "This is a time to be bold and radical. Scotland needs a National Care Service to deliver the high quality, human rights-based services people need to life fulfilling lives, whatever their circumstances.
"Scotland has ground breaking legislation on social care but there is a gap, sometimes a chasm, between the intent and the lived experiences of those who access support. We have a system that gets unwarranted local variation, crisis intervention, a focus on inputs, a reliance on the market, and an undervalued workforce."
Feeley added: "If we want a different set of results, we need a different system. That’s why I want to see a National Care Service, delivered in partnership with the people who rely on it and with the workforce, which provides the opportunity for everyone in Scotland to flourish."
The proposal is among 50 recommendations in the report.
It also calls for greater involvement of people who experience social support, and national programmes to raise quality in care homes.
It recommends an end to charging for non-residential services so social care cab be “free at the point of need” for people receiving care in their own homes or community settings.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon welcomed the report in parliament today and said the SNP government will respond shortly.
She said: "The pandemic has shown us more starkly than ever before just how much our care services matter, so the review report provides us with a basis for significantly improving these services, as a vital first step towards the creation of a national care service."
Dr Sally Witcher, chief executive of Inclusion Scotland, said: “The covid pandemic did not break the social care support system. It shone a spotlight on just how broken it long had been.”
The review estimates the recommendations will cos £0.6billion a year.
