LOCAL authorities in England are getting most of the blame following the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s year-long inquiry into home care of the elderly.

Although the inquiry didn’t cover Scotland, the situation is exactly the same here.

Care staff time is “bought” from agencies or funded in-house by local authorities, who also decree the amount of time a carer will spend on dressing, washing, feeding or doing whatever else is necessary for an old person. Sometimes that is as little as 15 minutes . . .

A policy introduced under a Labour administration now has far-reaching – and expensive – consequences for the Scottish government that will last long into the future.

17 November 2011

Plans to integrate health and social care across Scotland are being pushed ahead despite the fears of those providing the services that costs will spiral while quality may suffer. Maureen Ferrier reports

The Scottish government has its own directorate for health and social care integration whose purpose is “to ensure that where care is needed it is of high quality and is provided in a timely, efficient and effective way as close to home or a homely setting as possible”.