Unite demands that Holyrood act to fix social care crisis in Scotland with this year’s budget

Unite the union has issued a press statement demanding that the government address the dire state of the social care sector in Scotland. The move comes as Scottish finance secretary Shona Robinson is set to announce the country’s budget for the coming year.

Crucially, the union argued that pumping money and support in the sector will actually lead to immediate savings in hospitals. What’s more, they’ve got the figures to prove it.

Social care crisis

In the last year, NHS Scotland spent an eye-watering £440m on beds for hospital patients who were ready for discharge, but couldn’t actually leave the hospital. Audit Scotland and the Accounts Commission found that one in every nine beds were taken up by delayed discharges between April 2024 and April 2025.

The report showed that there were almost 18,000 delayed discharges across the 12-month period. Two in every three of those delayed discharges affected people over the age of 75. In total, the delayed discharges accounted for over 720,000 hospital bed days.

Likewise, the findings also broke down the different reasons why otherwise-ready patients couldn’t leave the hospital:

• 28% were waiting for a care home place;
• 27% were likewise awaiting the completion of their care home arrangements;
• 27% couldn’t leave for more complex reasons;
• 14% needed a community care assessment;
• 4% were due to other reasons.

Care homes and community care assessments fall under the remit of social care. As such, Unite is arguing that this £440m is wasted money that could be better spent elsewhere. More specifically, it could go towards more effective patient support packages, if only Scottish social care services were funded properly.

Nationwide campaign

Back in September, Unite rang the alarm bell about the dire state of the social care sector in Scotland. At the time, the union highlighted that social care workers perform skilled, challenging labour. Nevertheless, they’re paid unskilled wages, leading to low recruitment rates and high staff turnover.

The union also kicked off a nationwide campaign to center the demands of social care workers in the strategy to fix the growing problem. In particular, it highlighted three key requirements:

• Fair and sustainable pay for registered social care workers that reflects their essential role;

• A real terms increase in funding for social care in the Scottish Budget;

• Meaningful engagement with all stakeholders to design a long-term future for social care in Scotland.

Thousands of social care workers are part of Unite, across the private, not-for-profit, and public sectors. However, their futures within the profession are looking less and less certain due to the growing crisis within Scottish social care.

The union’s lead officer for social care in Scotland, Shauna Wright, said:

Scotland’s social care workers are closely watching the Scottish government as it sets out their priorities for the coming year. The politicians can either back them and start to fix the crisis or continue to ignore them at a massive cost to Scottish society.

‘Point of no return’

Unite has made it clear that unless the Scottish government does something soon, social care in Scotland could grind to a halt altogether over the coming years. This ‘point of no return‘ would be a direct result of years of people leaving the profession, without the recruitment to replace and train them.

General secretary Sharon Graham stated:

The Scottish government has a clear choice to support frontline social care before the system becomes irreparably broken. It’s time for the politicians to back our social care workers and that only comes through investment in people and services.

Social care workers perform a vital function in our society. Regardless of any other factors, they perform difficult, emotionally and physically demanding labour that deserves fair compensation.

However, as the delayed discharge report has shown, it also makes sound financial sense to fund social care. Having care homes ready to receive patients means that they can be discharged on time, without needlessly taking up vital hospital beds.

As such, the Scottish government must act now to fix its social care crisis with today’s budget – anything less is a betrayal of care workers, hospitals, and the vulnerable people they care for.

Featured image via the Canary