National Care Service campaign

The Scottish Government is putting a Bill through Parliament to set up a National Care Service (NCS), the bill leaves profiteering at the heart of care, and will outsource a huge range of functions; all of social work and social care out of councils, and an unknown number of responsibilities out of the NHS.    This threatens the employment and pensions of tens of thousands of workers, and meaning a huge sum of money will be spent on structural change rather then on improving services.

This page will be a hub for UNISON Scotland’s information and resources about UNISON Scotland’s campaign to have the current Bill withdrawn and for the Scottish Government to start again and come up with plans for aa real national Care Service.

We are asking all UNISON members to contact their MSPs, many of whom are still unaware of what the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill contains.

  • You can email your MSPs using this one click link here.
  • UNISON Scotland has prepared a short guide to the Bill, its main provisions, and the implications of a measure that is an unequivocal attack on the idea of publicly delivered public services. You can view the guide here.
thumbnail of Briefing 160 Children (Care) Bill 2025

Briefing 160 – Children (Care, Care Experience & Services Planning) Bill: Call for Views

The Government has decided that some reforms recommended by the Independent Care Review for children & young people require legislation ...
thumbnail of Briefing 158 Care Reform Bill June 2025

Briefing 158 – Care Reform (Scotland) Bill passes

On 10 June, the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill was passed. This briefing gives an overview of its provisions. The Act ...
thumbnail of Briefing 157 Care Management June 2025

Briefing 157 – Care Management: Fit for purpose?

Care Management is the process for assessing individuals’ needs for social care services. It is integral to the social care ...
Press Release

Care workers take pay dispute to the Scottish Parliament, says UNISON

 Hundreds of care workers employed by Enable Scotland are to take their protest to the Scottish government tomorrow (Thursday) as ...
Press Release

Enable workers in Lanarkshire to walk out over pay, says UNISON

Care workers employed by Enable Scotland are to take strike action in Lanarkshire tomorrow (Tuesday) in a continuing dispute over ...
thumbnail of Briefing Restraint Bill 2025

Briefing 155 – Call for views: Restraint & seclusion in schools bill

A private members’ Bill has been introduced by Daniel Johnson MSP with the aim of tackling inappropriate use of restraint ...
Press Release

Enable workers in Aberdeenshire and Moray to walk out over pay, says UNISON

Care workers employed by Enable Scotland in Aberdeenshire and Moray will walk out tomorrow (Tuesday) in a dispute over pay, ...
Press Release

Enable Scotland workers to walk out over pay

Care workers employed by Enable Scotland will walk out tomorrow (Thursday) in a dispute over pay, says UNISON today (Wednesday) ...
thumbnail of UNISON Response SSSC Consultation 04 2025

SSSC Consultation on Expanding the Register

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has been consulting on a  proposal for Social Work Assistants to become registered. The ...
thumbnail of e-briefing insourcing July 2025

e-brief – Insourcing of Adult Residential and Home Care

This briefing provides recent examples of where, how and why adult social care services have been returned in-house ('insourced') to ...