To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the impact of local authority budget decisions on dementia and community care services, including care at home, respite, day care and post-diagnostic support, to ensure that people living with dementia continue to receive the support that they need.
The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that people living with dementia and their families have access to consistent, high-quality care and support throughout every stage of their condition.
To support these ambitions, the 2026-27 budget includes record funding of £22.5 billion to health and social care, including supporting the pay uplift for our valued adult social care workforce. The budget also delivers a real terms increase of £700m in the Local Government Settlement between 2025-26 and 2026-27, taking this to over £15.7 billion. This includes an investment of over £2.3 billion for social care, exceeding our commitment to increase funding by 25% by the end of this Parliament.
As part of the national Dementia Strategy and first two-year Delivery Plan, which is jointly being taken forward with COSLA, the voices of lived experience, local and national delivery partners, we have prioritised efforts to ensure the right supports are available in our communities. This helps people living with dementia to access care in the setting of their choice and helps reduce the need for more intensive health and social care interventions for any longer than is clinically necessary. To support these ambitions, we have invested across the lifetime of the Delivery Plan around £1.45 million to increase direct support to dementia community groups and settings nationally, and £7 million via Health and Social Care Partnerships to increase the number of people who benefit from our commitment to a minimum of 12 months’ Post-Diagnostic Support.
The Scottish Government also recognises the invaluable role of care partners and unpaid carers, including those supporting people living with dementia. To help sustain and improve the health and wellbeing of carers across Scotland, we are progressing the Carers Act to further enhance and extend the rights of adult and young carers by investing £88.4 million per year in local carer support through Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 funding; £600,000 in 2025-26 for local carers centres in addition to local authority funding; and £13 million this year for the voluntary Short Breaks Fund.
While the commissioning of local services appropriately sit with local authorities, so that they can best respond to and meet local need, we are focused on wider social care reform and the National Care Service to improve people’s lives. The Care Reform (Scotland) Act 2025 and the new National Care Service Advisory Board, alongside other national programmes including GIRFE, Coming Home, the Self-directed support improvement plan and Support in the Right Direction funding, are all playing a part to improve services across Scotland and will be vital pillars in the National Care Service going forward. These programmes all work towards ensuring that people living with dementia receive the support they need.
