SCVO response: Scottish Parliament Health & Sport Committee

SCVO response: Scottish Parliament Health & Sport Committee

13 August 2018

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Our position

SCVO regards the Bill’s provisions around social care services as unnecessary. Any future legislative proposals in this area that affect the third sector should be co-produced with the sector. Any legal requirements made of the sector must consider how these are resourced.

Our response

This response sets out SCVO’s views to the Health and Sport Committee’s consultation on the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Bill, as introduced by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport on 23 May 2018. SCVO is supportive of the submission by the Coalition of Care and Support Providers (CCPS), in particular, that the Bill offers no clear benefit to organisations delivering social services, and is unnecessary. CCPS have outlined several concerns to support this point. According to the SSSC, the Official Statistics Provider for the social service workforce, 40,500 people work in social care within the third sector (http://data.sssc.uk.com/component/ssscvisualisations/local-level-data).  This is a large and diverse sector which does not have a single governance structure and hundreds of employers ranging from large nationals to small local services. Therefore, any legislation that imposes requirements or the use of standardised workforce tools designed for the public sector to the third sector will not work. In addition, we would suggest the following principles need to be applied by the Scottish Government in progressing any further legislation in this area:

• Building on Compacts between the Scottish Government and Third Sector in the past, Government must co-produce any proposals that may affect the sector and its workforce, before it comes to legislative stage.
• Any additional requirements made of third sector delivery organisations needs to take into account how these additional duties are resourced, before they are written into legislation.

About us

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is the national body representing the third sector. There are over 45,000 voluntary organisations in Scotland involving around 138,000 paid staff and approximately 1.3 million volunteers. The sector manages an income of £5.3 billion. SCVO works in partnership with the third sector in Scotland to advance our shared values and interests. We have over 1,900 members who range from individuals and grassroots groups, to Scotland-wide organisations and intermediary bodies. As the only inclusive representative umbrella organisation for the sector SCVO:

• has the largest Scotland-wide membership from the sector – our 1,900 members include charities, community groups, social enterprises and voluntary organisations of all shapes and sizes
• our governance and membership structures are democratic and accountable - with an elected board and policy committee from the sector, we are managed by the sector, for the sector
• brings together organisations and networks connecting across the whole of Scotland
• SCVO works to support people to take voluntary action to help themselves and others, and to bring about social change.
• Further details about SCVO can be found at scvo.scot.

Contact

Ruchir Shah (Head of Policy) Email: politicalengagement@scvo.scot Tel: 0131 474 8000