Cole-Hamilton: Both governments neglecting social care

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said that both the Scottish and UK governments are neglecting social care, as he highlighted the gaps in provision affecting Highland communities and challenged the SNP for their failure to deliver.

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Cole-Hamilton asked the Social Care Minister, Maree Todd, whether she recognised that her government had neglected the sector.

He highlighted the SNP’s failure to provide affordable housing to care workers and the gaps in social care funding which have particularly affected areas like the Highlands.

Speaking after the exchange, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

“There is no doubt that the Labour government’s decisions have dealt a huge blow to social care. But people are fed up with the SNP pretending that they haven’t done any damage either.

“Under the SNP, staff have been forgotten. They wasted £30 million trying to centralise social care- that was money that could have paid the salaries of more than 1,000 care workers.

“In the Minister’s own Highland constituency, there is a dearth of social care, with care homes closing at a rate of knots.

“Only the Liberal Democrats have a plan to fix care and save our NHS. Our representatives are bursting with ideas for how to ease the crisis in the Highlands and across Scotland; we’re backing that up with a new and higher national minimum wage for care workers to attract more into the profession.”