9 June 2026

Social care cannot run on goodwill alone

Our 2026 Workforce Priorities report sets out why action on pay, progression and investment can’t wait, writes CCPS’s Policy Manager Alison Christie

Scotland’s social care workforce makes an extraordinary contribution, but it cannot keep being asked to do more with less.

Published this week, CCPS’s Workforce Priorities 2026 report draws on the experiences of our members across adult and children’s services and sends a clear message: if ministers want a resilient, sustainable social care system, they need to invest in the people who deliver it.

This is a workforce that builds relationships, supports people to live full lives, and strengthens families, communities and the economy. Yet too often, that contribution is praised in principle while undervalued in practice.

The warning from members is stark. As one put it: “We can’t expect goodwill to carry people forever.”

A workforce under pressure

The pressure on the workforce is no longer a warning sign. It is a daily reality. Recruitment and retention remain major challenges, with low pay continuing to drive turnover and deepen instability across services.

The pay gap tells its own story. In 2019, the difference between not-for-profit social care workers and their NHS counterparts stood at £2,400. By April 2025, it had widened to £3,770. That is not sustainable for a sector expected to recruit, retain and reward skilled staff.

At the same time, changes to UK visa rules have led to an 88% drop in Health and Care Worker visas for caring roles, squeezing an already stretched labour market even further.

The case for investment

The answer is not complicated. If Scotland is serious about reform, it has to be serious about investment. Underfunding remains the single biggest barrier to building the workforce social care needs.

That means matching warm words about the value of social care with real action on pay and conditions. These are skilled, regulated roles that demand judgement, responsibility and continual learning. Funding decisions need to reflect that reality.

It also means creating careers people can stay in. Flat structures and weak pay progression in senior roles are hindering retention and making it harder to build a stable, experienced workforce for the future.

As the report puts it: “Social care must be understood for its significant and tangible contribution to individual, family, community and economic wellbeing. Investing in social care and its staff is an investment in people.”

“CCPS and its members stand ready to work collaboratively with partners across the system to develop workforce policies that deliver parity of esteem, pay, and conditions between third sector providers and public sector employers.”

Learning, leadership and the long term

The same applies to learning and development. Training, qualifications and continuous professional learning should help people grow and stay in the sector. Too often, they are still shaped by fragmented systems, outdated thresholds and unnecessary bureaucracy.

CCPS members called for qualification frameworks that better reflect real-world practice and properly funded education pathways.

For those working with children and young people, the message is just as urgent. The ambitions of The Promise will not be met without long-term investment in the workforce expected to deliver it.

Members also called for improvements to leadership development, saying that there is currently too much emphasis on management compliance. Instead, we need leadership that is relational, values-driven and capable of building strong workplace cultures.

And while digital change matters, social care will always depend on human connection. Change and improvement cannot be built around systems alone. It has to be built around people.

A shared starting point

The challenge now is clear. Scotland cannot keep relying on the dedication of a workforce that is too often underpaid, undervalued and stretched beyond what is sustainable.

CCPS and its members stand ready to work collaboratively with partners across the system to develop workforce policies that deliver parity of esteem, pay, and conditions between third sector providers and public sector employers.

A central part of this approach is introducing sectoral bargaining in the voluntary social care sector. This must be done with the Scottish Government, third sector employers, and trade unions having an equal voice at the negotiating table.

If social care is truly valued, that value must be reflected in funding, pay, career progression, and long-term workforce planning.

Read our Workforce Priorities 2026 report

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18 March 2026

The Scottish Government’s commitment to significantly improving terms and conditions for support staff welcome – detail now important

CCPS responds to the Scottish Government’s announcement on the creation of a new voluntary social care bargaining forum.

windows of the Scottish Parliament

Responding to today’s announcement by the Scottish Government about the creation of a new voluntary social care bargaining forum to help improve pay and conditions for social care workers, CCPS’s CEO Rachel Cackett said:

“This is an important pre-election public commitment from the Scottish Government to establish a means to bargain for better terms and conditions for care and support staff in commissioned services for adults and children in advance of the 2027-28 Scottish Budget – a commitment we hope will be shared by whoever forms a new government in May.

We welcome the Minister’s clear statement that social care workers ‘provide essential, skilled support to the people we love, often in demanding and emotionally challenging circumstances’, and that they ‘deserve pay and conditions that reflect that’. At CCPS, we couldn’t agree more and we are pleased our members’ concerns about fairness in pay have been heard.

Sectoral bargaining, if done well, has the potential to finally lever the delivery of Fair Work. The urgency of achieving this is clear to anyone who needs, or works in, social care in Scotland. Because of this, we have been involved in negotiating a new approach for some time with government, union colleagues and our partners at Scottish Care. Following today’s announcement, we look forward to finalising a settlement with government that we, like our partners, can take back to our members to consider, and which new ministers can support.

The announcement of additional immediate funds to relieve some of the financial pressures faced by support staff is also positive and we look forward to seeing the detail of the government’s commitments here, including: how much investment is available to meet the commitment in full across all adult and children’s commissioned services and how it will flow through to providers to support their staff at pace.

As always, we are ready to work with current and future ministers, and their officials, to ensure commitments can realise significant benefits and that the many additional pressures facing providers, their staff and supported people can be prioritised so that all can flourish.”

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24 March 2023

Vison and priorities for social care: Humza Yousaf responds to our questions

One of the three candidates vying to be Scotland’s next First Minister has outlined his commitments.

Humza Yousaf, one of three candidates competing to be Scotland’s next First Minister and leader of the SNP, has responded to a letter sent by our CEO Rachel Cackett and Board chair Andrea Wood.

In the letter, sent on 7 March, the candidates were asked three questions:

  • Will you commit to our 4 Steps to Fair Work?
  • Will you commit to implement social care reform and meet with us, within your first month in post, to discuss constructive ideas for positive and urgent change?
  • How would you articulate your own vision for social care reform in Scotland?

In response Mr Yousaf, who has been Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care since 2021, said:

“Thank you for taking the time to contact me as a candidate in the SNP leadership contest and for your patience in waiting for a response.

Currently as Cabinet Secretary of Health and Social Care, the issues you raise are important to me and would continue to be so if elected as First Minister.

There are two key commitments I want to make in regards to the Health and Social Care sector.

We need to make sure that our staff are properly paid – not only to recruit staff but to retain them.

Secondly, we have some reform to do in our NHS which will see as many people as possible treated as close to home as possible, leaving our hospitals available for emergencies only. This means that investment in our Social Care sector is at the heart of NHS reform and for bettering the conditions of work for social care workers.

If we have social care that has the right workforce, that is working for people, then we can stop them from coming in the front door of hospitals or GP practices, but we can also work on stopping the exit block and see people getting out the doors of hospitals as soon as they are fit to do so and back into their community, keeping as close to home as possible.

Therefore, reforming health care and social care has to be at the heart of my leadership. That is why I am passionate about the idea of a National Care Service – although I recognise that current proposals will need amendments, via dialogue with Local Government, Trade Unions, and membership organisations to make sure it works for everyone.

The principle of the National Care Service, where we have fair pay for our social care workers, where we have national collective sectoral bargaining, and where we have ethical commissioning – these markers will solidify a national social care system that is worthy of the name.”

Our letter also argued that a legislative pause could be an opportunity for the new First Minister to look afresh at social care reform based on our model, and to drive forward Fair Work and sustainable funding.

Ash Regan and Kate Forbes have yet to respond.

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