Private Care Sector Workforce Initiative
Free care of the elderly in Scotland a contentious issue
Free care for the elderly, which has been available in Scotland since 2002, can boast uneasily that it is both a defining policy of devolution and yet also one of the most contentious.
In the words of its architect, Lord Sutherland of Houndwood, the policy of offering free personal care to people, whether in their own houses or in residential homes, suffers from “tall poppy syndrome”: it is both highly visible and easily lopped.
The argument over free personal care has raged since the birth of this hurried child of the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition in the Scottish Parliament. Those of an old Labour persuasion despair of it because they believe the country cannot afford it; and also because it is universal, and therefore feeds their prejudice about benefiting the comfortably off.
Certainly the costs are huge. More people have sought it than expected, and by some estimates the costs were twice as high as anticipated. Nearly 55,000 Scots receive free personal care at home at a cost running at £256 million a year. Costs are projected to rise to £813 million a year by 2031, when Scotland will have 1.3 million pensioners.
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