**February 2020** **[The Future Delivery of Social Care in Scotland](https://cms.scvo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/The-Future-Delivery-of-Social-Care-in-Scotland.pdf)** **Our Position** ---------------- SCVO believes that the contribution of the voluntary sector to health and social care is significantly undervalued and that this is holding back progress on improving people’s outcomes and experiences. In our response, SCVO is putting the case to the Health and Sport Committee that the sector has to be given a key role in strategic decision-making in order to shift spend to prevention, early intervention, reducing inequality and wellbeing. The Auditor General has confirmed that good quality social care is what most people need and what protects them from needing higher tariff health interventions. Yet social care remains undervalued, with a commissioning system which dehumanises the very people it is supposed to serve and who need our care the most continues. Transformational change can only happen if the importance of the sector is recognised and it is supported on to a more sustainable footing. **Recognising the importance of the voluntary sector** ------------------------------------------------------ The voluntary sector delivers the highest quality social care, and the vast majority of community activities that promote wellbeing, inclusion and social interaction. The sector deserves to be taken seriously and local authorities and health boards need to recognise that. The sector is expertly placed to address many of the key challenges facing integration joint boards (IJBs) such as citizen participation, community empowerment, early intervention and prevention.  The contribution of the voluntary sector should not be underestimated: 2% of all Scottish public spending (£1.45bn of £73.4bn) is on voluntary sector contracts and 31% of adult social care workers (around 43,400) are employed in the voluntary sector. The involvement of the voluntary sector in IJBs varies significantly across Scotland, though this can often be interpreted as tokenistic. **Sustaining the voluntary sector** ----------------------------------- Despite the key role played by the voluntary sector, many organisations are being placed in financial peril by the current system. There needs to be a fundamental redesign of the commissioning and procurement process for IJBs, such as removing competitive tendering. The current predominance of one year contracts is deeply damaging to the voluntary sector, creating massive instability in the form of yearly redundancy notices, which restrict the ability to plan strategically and place challenges on staff retention. This latter effect is also produced by the lack of inclusion of funds in contracts for staff wage uplifts or pension contributions for the sector delivering partnership priorities. A tendering system geared towards voluntary sector competition frustrates innovation, demoralises staff, and ultimately hinders the care people receive. **Cross-sector partnership working** ------------------------------------ The need to improve partnership working with the voluntary sector has been consistently and clearly articulated across the spectrum, including in the Health and Sport Committee’s own report of 2017, and the Ministerial Steering Group of February 2019. There are numerous examples across the country of successful cross-sector partnerships, a sample of which are documented in SCVO’s [Positive Partnerships](https://scvo.scot/p/32615/2019/09/18/positive-partnerships) collection. Central to these are the building of trust, regular and honest conversations, the sharing of data and other resources and collective decision making. The learning from these must be shared across the country and be something for everyone to aspire to. **Conclusion** -------------- The purpose of integrating social care and health services is to improve the outcomes and experiences of the people using those services and their families. That requires a genuine partnership of everyone involved, not least the voluntary sector. The sector delivers the highest quality of social care and leads the way in innovative service redesign across the board, from community empowerment to early intervention. Yet many voluntary organisations feel excluded from decision making and placed in unsustainable financial situations. Both of these challenges must be addressed comprehensively if we are to see the success of health and social care integration. **Contact** ----------- Allan Young, Engagement Officer, allan.young@scvo.scot, 0141 465 7533 --- ## About SCVO SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) is the national membership organisation for Scotland's voluntary sector. Our role is to champion the role of voluntary organisations in Scotland and to support them to do work that has a positive impact. SCVO supports members and the wider voluntary sector with all aspects of setting up and running a voluntary organisation. SCVO represents the needs and concerns of the voluntary sector to the Scottish government in Holyrood and UK government and Westminster. Through our learning and events programme SCVO offers training and development opportunities to the sector. Members access an extensive membership benefits package including specialist, in-depth, 1-to-1 guidance from our Information Services team and from professional service partners. Access to exclusive membership networks (including comms, employers, governance and policy) supports members to grow their connections, stay up to date, exchange ideas and views with peers, and learn through tailored, learning opportunities. SCVO members enjoy free access to Funding Scotland Premium to stay on top of funding opportunities to support their organisation’s financial resilience. Discounts and savings savings on SCVO products and services (including our HR service, managed IT support, payroll service and events and training) and partner offers provide members with support to allow them to focus on delivering their organisation’s goals. Further SCVO products and services include [extensive digital support](https://scvo.scot/support/digital), a climate action resource [Growing Climate Confidence](https://climateconfident.scot), a voluntary sector publication [Third Force News](https://tfn.scot) and a voluntary sector jobs and recruitment service [Goodmoves](https://goodmoves.org). For more information on SCVO membership, visit [SCVO membership](https://scvo.scot/membership)