An embarrassing but predictable end to Scotland's National Care Service

The Scottish government is scrapping its plans to create a National Care Service.

It is an embarrassing but perhaps predictable end to years of ambitious talk about finally coming up with a solution to the social care crisis.

In a statement at Holyrood, the government tore up parts of the bill that would require major structural changes to the Scottish social care system.

The downfall of the plan wasn't money or lack of ambition necessarily. And there was cross-party agreement on what needed to be done. The problem was a frustrating lack of consensus on how to get there.

It is also the end of the process that has been costly too. More than £30m has already been spent on planning the policy cover the last three years.

In 2021, Ms Sturgeon branded the National Care Service the "most ambitious reform since devolution".

Now, the plan is in tatters, and it tells us a lot about how difficult social care reform is and what might lie in store for the Westminster government.

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Source: Sky News, 27 January 2025