Current status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 5 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its draft Budget 2026-27, what its response is to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities' (COSLA) assessment that, despite calling for an additional £750 million for social care, there is no additional funding for social care after pay uplifts.
The Scottish Government are fully aware that the budgetary pressures on the Health and Social Care system in 2026-27 have never been greater. After the disappointing UK Government Spending Review in June, we called on the UK Chancellor to increase funding, but they failed to deliver anything like the scale of change required.
Nevertheless, the draft Budget 2026-27 will provide almost £22.5 billion investment in health and social care services exceeding consequentials and providing a real terms uplift to enable more sustainable and resilient services. This includes investment of over £2.3 billion for social care, delivering our commitment to increase funding by 25%, and exceeding this by over £0.5 billion.
The Scottish Budget also provides a real terms increase to the Local Government Settlement, bringing it to almost £15.7 billion and while I recognise COSLA’s view that further funding is needed, there has never been greater pressures on public finances and simply increasing resource without wider reform risks leaving us in the same unsustainable position next year.