Council leaders in Scotland have called for their Government’s plans for a new national care service to be dropped.
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities said setting up the service would be costly and disruptive during a time of financial crisis. Scottish ministers say it would produce the biggest and most valuable improvement in public services since the establishment of the NHS in 1947.
It would aim to merge social care, elderly care, family support and community healthcare into a single service.
But the proposals, which could be replicated in England if Labour wins the next general election, have been widely criticised for being poorly thought through, very costly and much more unwieldy than ministers admit.
The Scottish government estimates the scheme could cost between £664m and £1.26bn to establish over the next five years.
But Scotland’s councils, many run by the Scottish National Party, say it should not be pursued after they were told to expect a significant real-terms funding cut from April.
Paul Kelly, Cosla’s health and social care spokesperson, said: ‘Improvements to care could progress faster and with more impact if services were properly resourced and did not face the distraction of structural reform.
‘Instead, we are presented with reorganisation and real-terms cuts, which will have a significant impact on the delivery of care.’
