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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe GMB union has withdrawn from Scotland’s proposed national care service, warning it “won’t deliver real change” for health and social care in the country.<\/p>\n A total of 79% of care workers balloted by the union voted in favour of leaving the project, which has been hindered by delays and rising costs.<\/p>\n GMB Scotland’s senior organiser Keir Greenaway told the BBC that, after years of talks, the scheme will add more bureaucracy to the sector.<\/p>\n The Scottish government’s Minister for Social Care Maree Todd said she was “disappointed” by the news but plans would go ahead by the end of the government’s current term. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ms Todd admitted on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland<\/a> programme that progress had been “slow” on the scheme, which was first proposed in August 2021.<\/p>\n It was set up with the aim of simplifying community health and social care across the nation, with a streamlined approach going across all of Scotland’s 32 council areas. <\/p>\n The Scottish government described it as the “biggest public service reform in Scotland since devolution”, helping elderly and disabled people as well as the homeless, addicts, families and unpaid carers.<\/p>\n However, in December 2023 Todd announced the service would not be implemented until 2028-29<\/a>, while parts of the plan would be scaled back to save costs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mr Greenaway said that while members of the union were supportive of the idea, talks with the government “have not delivered”.<\/p>\n He said: “It looks like the national care service will just be an added layer of bureaucracy that won’t change the terms and conditions our members need.<\/p>\n “Einstein’s definition of madness was doing the same thing and expecting different results. <\/p>\n “We have spent a long time trying to get the national care service into a position where we can make the vital changes needed, but that is not forthcoming from the Scottish government.”<\/p>\n He added that “real change” was needed for the whole sector, and that “potentially” the scheme could never take off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The social care minister told the BBC that was not the case, and that the Scottish government was “determined to deliver” on the service.<\/p>\n She said: “I’m disappointed that they are withdrawing, but I’m going to carry on with my work.<\/p>\n “We are in a process of delivering that legislation. I agree that it has been slow, we’ve had to re-think our approach as we have worked through what people have told us, but I believe that we will deliver a national care service by the end of this parliament and we will begin to see change.” <\/p>\n She added that once the legislation – currently in its second stage – is passed it would take “some years” to implement it, but that it would provide better pay and conditions for workers, creating a more “accountable” care system.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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