First Minister Humza Yousaf visited our Glasgow office to discuss our support in the city and across Scotland.
Last Friday, we were delighted to welcome Humza Yousaf to meet with our Chief Executive, Lucy Wren, Senior Operations Manager, Paul Marshall, and Operations Manager, Kevin O Donnell.
With his regional constituency office next door, it was a great opportunity to talk about how we are supporting people across Glasgow to live safely and well at home.
The First Minister heard about our Supported Living services and Integrated Teams and their delayed discharge project. All examples of partnership working and person-centred solutions to challenges such as the over-reliance on care homes for older people, hospital waiting times and social isolation. He was interested in how we can empower the social care sector to replicate such examples of innovative practice to multiple areas of Scotland.
Lucy raised the recent Programme for Government announcement of a £12 uplift, commenting how it was too little and too late. It was remarked that this brings little comfort to staff who cannot afford to stay within social care and dissuades people from considering a career in the sector.
“Our staff have been waiting a year for the promised uplift to £12 an hour. They should not have to wait another 6 months until April 2024”, said Chief Executive Lucy Wren. “It is now critical that the Government fulfils its commitment so we can begin to believe that we are in a process of moving to equity with other health and social work staff. We need to see we are valued through the proper funding of our work.”
The First Minister also reiterated his commitment to the National Care Service (NCS) and its potential to bring about significant improvements in health and social care, such as fair work and ethical commissioning. Lucy noted Carr Gomm’s early excitement for the NCS but recent disappointment at how third-sector organisations such as Carr Gomm and the people we support are not around the table when decisions are already being made.
We appreciated the time the First Minister gave to meeting with us, and we hope that we can continue to engage with him to make sure everyone in Scotland who needs it can experience person-centred support, which enables them to live their best possible life.
