There are moments in public life when the gap between rhetoric and reality becomes so wide that it can no longer be bridged by warm words, sympathetic tones, or polished political narratives. The Scottish Government’s 2026–27 Budget is one such moment. It speaks the language of dignity, rights and fairness, yet delivers a settlement that undermines all three. For those who work in social care, and even more critically, those who depend upon it, this Budget is not simply inadequate. It is to put it frankly, a betrayal.
The tenth anniversary of me doing this job as the CEO of Scottish Care comes on the 1st April. I remember it well because on the 1st April 2016 the ground-breaking and at the time dramatically innovative commitment of the then Scottish Government to pay all care workers the Real Living Wage (or as we used to call it the Scottish Living Wage) came into force. Indeed one of my first tasks as CEO, was a radio interview to laud the game-changing nature of this action. But even then, although it valued workers, we all recognised it was a first step on a journey towards the proper reward and renumeration our critical frontline care workforce deserved. Along with many others I had been involved for months in the planning for the day and in ensuring there was sufficient funds in place. We didn’t get it completely right, and there remains huge issues f equity not least at local government level, but it was a great first step. Roll on ten years and we have a very different set of behaviours at play in the current Scottish Government.
The Real Living Wage: a promise broken
The Real Living Wage was meant to be a baseline of decency, a statement that Scotland values the people who provide intimate, skilled and emotionally demanding care. It has been a continual commitment of successive administrations. Yet the latest Budget fails to fund this commitment. COSLA described the Budget a failure “to fully fund… the Real Living Wage to workers in Adult Social Care”, leaving local authorities to absorb the difference.
The consequences are profound.
Social care organisations, particularly independent, charitable and small providers, cannot magic up unfunded wages. They operate on ultra‑thin margins, with fee rates set by local authorities. When government increases wage expectations without increasing funding, providers must either cut services, reduce hours, freeze recruitment, or hand back contracts. This is not hypothetical. It is already happening.
And all this means that staff who are continually told they are valued, are denied the means to live. Frontline workers hear ministers praise them as heroes while watching other sectors achieve pay rises. Without funded differentials, experienced workers earn the same as new entrants. Without stable contracts and predictable hours, workers juggle shifts to pay the rent. Without respect reflected in pay, they leave.
Every unfunded wage rise becomes a cut in disguise: shorter visits, inconsistent staff, unmet need, closed services, exhausted families. The Budget may never state it in writing, but this is how human rights erode, not by decision, but by neglect. And the human rights of those who use social care in Scotland have been run into the ground.
Government cannot meaningfully claim commitment to social care while shifting the financial goalposts year after year.
This is not partnership. It is the slow extraction of responsibility from government onto providers, workers and unpaid carers, cloaked in the language of “efficiency” and “local flexibility”.
The result is that councils will be forced to raise council tax; services are being trimmed to statutory minimum; community supports are being hollowed out and the most vulnerable and valuable of our citizens are being left with fewer options and longer waits.
Scottish Care’s verdict is unambiguous: “This Budget fails the people who rely on social care support – and those who deliver it.”
This failure is not abstract; it is personal. It touches so many lives.
It means older people waiting months for assessments and years for packages of care and support. When providers cannot recruit because pay is uncompetitive, packages do not start. People deteriorate. Families burn out. Hospitals fill.
It means people with disabilities whose independence depends on stable care relationships have their very autonomy undermined because of inconsistent staffing, driven by poor wages and high turnover, all of which puts their lives at risk.
It means unpaid carers are continually being stretched past breaking point. Shared Care Scotland and the National Carer Organisations highlight the absence of clear investment in short breaks, respite and local support organisations. These omissions are not oversights; they are choices.
It means that workers cannot afford to stay and cannot afford to leave. They hold lives in their hands daily, supporting complex care, offering emotional labour, and carrying profound responsibility and yet they are told, through this Budget, that their worth is negotiable.
Now I know that a Government Minister or spokesperson will give the oft quoted statement about ‘record’ investment. Indeed, ministers have presented the Budget as delivering a “record” £22.5 billion for health and social care and a “record settlement” for local government. But this narrative dissolves when placed beside the truth which is no full funding for the Real Living Wage policy for adult social care, children’s social care, or early learning and childcare.
These headline figures create the illusion of investment while disguising the truth: frontline social care does not feel “record” anything. It feels cut, stretched and disregarded.
If the Government truly believed in social care, the Budget would have:
- Fully funded the Real Living Wage, including progression and differentials.
- Provided ring‑fenced, multi‑year social care funding aligned to evidence‑based cost‑of‑care models.
- Invested in ethical digital transformation rather than delaying core infrastructure until 2029.
- Protected and expanded community‑based supports that keep people well.
These actions would stabilise the system, honour the workforce, and safeguard human rights.
The 2026–27 Budget represents a deliberate political choice: to underfund social care while claiming otherwise. It asks the workforce to bear the burden of government decisions. It asks families to fill the gaps left by inadequate planning. It asks providers to deliver more with less until they collapse. It makes clear that this Government no longer funds the Real Living Wage for frontline carers.
But most of all, it asks the people who need support to wait. To cope. To endure.
That is not dignity. It is not fairness. It is not Scotland at its best.
It is a betrayal—and it must not stand.
Donald Macaskill
Photo by Sarah Agnew on Unsplash
