Renfrewshire Carers Centre Hustings Minutes – 20th March 2026

Party Representatives in attendance

Tom Arthur – Scottish National Party

Neil Bibby  – Scottish Labour

Ken Thomson – Alliance for Democracy and Freedom

Jack Hall – Scottish Conservatives

Grant Toghill – Scottish Liberal Democrats

Question 1

As a projected number of carers in Scotland are escalating, what steps are we taking now to plan for rise, people have already waited too long for post diagnostic support – we need the support in place when needed not years later. Equally how are carers going to be supported in Renfrewshire when HSCP are making cuts for Dementia and other services. Carers at crisis point more quickly for them and the person the care for.

Responses

Jack

• Not enough people with the correct skills
• Closures
• Training education skills – lack of funding
• Funding for training in this sector
• Get people trained up

Tom

• 90,000 people with Dementia
• Resources and structure are key
• Manifesto
• 25% increase in social care spending
• Also exceeded by half a million
• Cost of living through the roof
• Introducing sectoral bargaining – more investment into the system
• Structure – 31 varieties
• Low level Dementia – live at home
• What can we do around interventions and supports
• Residential Care – what comes next
• 1^st generation – poor housing, 2^nd generation – long stay at psychiatric wards 3^rd generation in residential care 17,000 in 1980 & 3,000 today. Next generation
• Expecting significant breakthrough in Pharmacology

Neil

• Agrees with Tom, resources are key
• Research & advances
• Better horizon scanning for emerging treatments
• Need to ringfence finances for specialised meds in the UK
• Increasing problem
• Support current & support future
• Challenge

Grant

• Long term planning for support
• 10 year rolling NHS workforce plan
• Right provisions and support in place at the right time
• Social care & homes
• NI rises – struggling to keep things afloat
• Long-term plan – key needs to be agreed across parties

Ken

• Why the increase? Vaccine injured Covid, mini strokes
• Respite care for mum – very difficult
• Support care worker – woefully inadequate
• Aunt in Dykebar
• Don’t have the facilities to properly deal with this in the hospital bit drained and overcrowded
• No proper care in the wards
• Priority
• Availability of resources deflated because of covid
• Destroyed the economy
• Economy moving
• We would give someone a health passport money follows the patient and not NHS – patient has power of how to spend this where they see fit

Tom

• Progress but too many people, £20 million to support people in the community – progress and still work to be done

Carer’s Response

• Still a huge waiting list, could be here for 30 years -LT care, please remember these people aswell as they are part of the Dementia Community and need equal acknowledgement.

Questions 2

Scottish Integrated Board ( IJB) – should they be abolished and the responsibility for Social Care to be returned to local authorities for better positioning to deliver person centre care within the region

Responses

Neil

• Integrated Joint Board in crisis in terms of funding
• Challenge for all parties- how would be find the money?
• HSC system in too much bureaucracy compared to the population
• Is this the case of IJB? Important to have good relationships with council & health board
• Think need to review the whole IJB to ensure it is working and meeting the needs of people

Jack

• Need to get rid of IJB
• Cover for Counsellors
• Funding to be put back into resources

Neil

• Not introduces by labour – was SNP

Ken

• Accountability is important
• Huge power to receive
• Counsellors already on IJB

Tom

• From September, Carers Rep will have to vote on IJB
• Step in the right direction
• Why were IJB created in the first place?
• Why created, Staff representative of integration in most areas of IJB
• East Renfrewshire – 2006 Community HSCP
• Social Care & Health Care – where two different entities
• Need to get round a table and work together
• 30 – 31 Local Authorities – 31 different approaches
• Thoughts of National Care Service
• Concern – not seeing the outcomes of integration that is intended
• Not lost – as back to back to local care
• Moving to East/West region
• Needs to be for more interpreted
• Reform structures
• After a decade – not reaching outcomes
• Lived experience will have vote in IJB’s

IJB

• Cuts in June
• Vote in September

Neil

• Cuts in daycare
• Who are IJB health reps
• Who do we contact?
• How?
• Carers were unable to feed in their views
• Faceless democracy

Grant

• Agree with Tom – needs reviewing
• Decisions should be made at local level
• Does it make sense to go back to local level?
• Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board cover 5 local authorities
• Disjointed – doesn’t marry up with Social Care coverage
• Await legislation in September before doing anything

Carer Response

• Health board – no accountability
• Best situation is a tie
• IJB in Renfrewshire – systematic demises of Learning Disability Social Care Services centres & buildings closing with no accountability
• Only hope is to sway the counsellors to be able to put forward carers views and try get IJB to listen to the concerns of the community which isn’t happening – not working for the community

Question 3

When is Renfrewshire Council going to include a learning base hub to all schools and future schools to further add extra spaces for special needs support for disabled children in Renfrewshire? Breakout areas (as being used in builds) are not proper support for children with special needs.

Responses

Tom

• Frustrations of teachers
• Can’t make these decisions locally
• What is required under statute? Not standing for Renfrewshire Council
• Expectations should be that it is not enough to included people in school estate
• Needs to be individual board
• Education Statutory responsibility

Grant

• Scottish Parliament’s responsibility
• New school just built – parents have voices
• Budgets to councils – lack of investment dictates support needs schools
• Why are council opening without proper planning for new schools
• Future schools should have better planning

Ken

• Give budget to pupils to spend – drive change
• Drive innovation & development in services
• Lost in big pot

Neil

• Major issues for kids with ASN – need to get it right for them and every child in the school as the lack of support is impacting all of the kids
• Standards in school are falling and increase f violence
• Ensuring children who have additional support needs – funding
• Resources are key issue – cuts having an impact
• Unless this changes there will be more of the same
• Labours Focus is for a Local Democracy Act for local authority

Jack

• Resources, Spending and Budgets are key
• Council decision – increase 7% budget
• Making sure choices spent in the right areas
• Renfrewshire Council cuts to Education, Special Needs Education & Daycare Centres. Would like to see reversed

Carers Response

• Counsellors can make into a law that all new schools have to have a base
• Break out rooms are not working for children – can make this a law

Tom

• Option in next Parliament depending on the Government and who is elected to face these challenging issues

Question 4

What do you plan to do regarding the lack of housing in Renfrewshire giving the lack of all level properties and Bungalows, overcrowding and adequate adaptations to enable people to stay in their own homes?

Responses

Neil

• Desperate need to make more homes
• Housing emergency
• Condition of houses – damp & mould
• Making sure homes are adaptable and accessible for those with mobility issues
• Want to build 125,000 new homes over the next 5 years, 25,000 per year – Council, Sold & Private
• Safe housing from Scottish Law
• Will look at planning laws to simplify the process for homes to get built important to get investment
• Adaptations – void housing stock
• Cost of buildings increased energy costs (challenges)
• Schemes in UK – standardised housing & modular housing – if enough on major scale costings going down

Additional Question on same issue

Learning disability Future Planning – what are the plans around housing for people with Learning Disabilities?  Need homes for everyone including Learning Disability supported living accommodation. 

Responses

Jack

• Agree housing emergency across the board
• Need to build more homes
• Focus has been regulation rather than building
• Wants Council & Government to work together

Tom

• Big issue in the UK
• Market, economy & fiscal issues – challenging for Government
• Budgets not in the best place with inflation
• War – more external
• Plan to be innovative
• Quantity – Government work to drive up private investment
• Rent controls – balance to strike
• Facilitating affordable homes part of private developments but also housing associations
• Stopping the right to buy
• Other models
• Caution – focus on quantity
• Must also remember quality
• Communities, facilities etc services – remember past war – quality too
• Quality for everyone
• National planning – for everyone
• What about infrastructure? That is important too.

Ken

• Bring back right to buy
• Would increase investment
• Immigration issues have been prioritised
• Sale of amount improves local area
• Quality housing – agree with Tom
• Local architecture

Tom

• Immigrants – make contributions (social care & hospitality)

Carer Response

• Selling land – why not rebuilding houses, where does the money go?

Tom

• Decision locally

Jack

• 3000 new homes – not enough schools
• Now paying costs

Tom

• Planning can be an issue – only where something happens people engage with it ‘gravity’
• LA – do have to consult in local development plan with local people
• Once agreed, planning application submitted must be agreed with local development plan
• Challenges – time consuming, how do carers make time?
• Need cross party consensus – work with RCC help to shape communities

Grant

• Bungalows
• Down scaling is an issue
• Needs to be different types of housing rather than defaulting to bigger family houses
• Social housing focus

Carer’s  Response

• 6 year old son – vulnerable
• Only option is flat
• Disgrace
• Thousands of emails been sent and son still in unsafe environment
• No end in sight
• Lots of children In same boat
• Can’t have communal areas

Neil

• In this case – quantity is needed
• Modular housing – needs to be key

Tom

• Cuts to vulnerable
• How politician discuss
• Want to see people working together
• Last 7 days – disability assisted dying bill was respectful – debate was fantastic
• Challenge or next parliament – remember what measured debate
• Cuts to underfunding over this session
• Funding has gone up and so has cost 22& ½ billion
• Challenge that IJB are facing issues – total amount of resources – 2027 – 2028
• Pay for social care – budget in collective bargaining
• Acute services – community & social care
• There needs to be a bridge built into that system
• Difficult parallel current funding
• Need consensus
• Whoever is elected need to put the interest of people first
• The debate -but don’t let that get in the way of working together

Jack 

• Funding increase across the board
• Issues – where the money has been spent
• Needs to be looked at
• When funding decreased, difficult to say where coming from & handled
• Has it been taking from another service
• Wasteful spending needs to be reduced
• National Care Service – voted against this, National Care service extra layers of management whilst takes away from supports on the ground

Ken

• Economy is key
• Inflation going up and swallowing up funding
• Not enough focus in Scotland on taxing on businesses
• Begging bowl to use of money
• Raise money in Scotland & spend in Scotland
• Scottish Parliament – huge amount of money
• Over Governed
• Need to focus on priorities enterprise when investment is created for economy and spending

Grant

• Understanding of concerns
• Need to work together to work with other parties to get best outcome
• How do we get things done?

Neil

• Needs to grow economy
• Period of low economy growth
• House building
• Energy sector to come down – needs implemented/investment
• Defence
• Devolution settlement – 50% to Scottish Parliament
• Choice to be made for taxes, NI, employer’s contributions but raised £20 billion spending in the UK
• Need to look at outcomes, cutting waste – national care sector, what would be the outcome?
• Social Care Workers – need to improve pay

Question 5

Unpaid carers -why not being paid £12.12 per hour? Day care being cut – have to give up work, what will we do?

Neil

• Scottish Parties – not working for people in Scotland

Will respond more fully to this question in writing as Q&A session time is up. 

Summing Up

Ken

• Want brew money to change – radical changes
• One idea – negative income tax – minimum level
• Away from UC – basic level of income from everyone
• Improve lives of people
• HMRC
• Want people to be able to work extra
• Not means listed

Grant

• Want change
• Personnel care for older people
• Private members bill
• How do we engage with carers & improve circumstances
• Massive appointments
• Fight for people

Neil

• Thanked us &
• Change of Government – Scottish Government not working for people
• Cut waste
• Not making promises
• Basics need to be right eg GP appointments, non-residential care packages.
• Local – wants to work to get voice of carers heard, DR Centre & daycare challenges

Tom

• Thanked RCC & Panel
• Acknowledged role of Carers
• Heart of good things SNP have done have come from carers directly.
• Reflective in role in parliament – easy to become removed, easy to get caught up in systems
• Important to me to engage directly with carers & the people
• Asked the people what resolutions could be

Jack

• Allocation of Resources – what is money being spent on?
• Benefits £1 in £7 and going up
• Use for disabilities & unpaid Carers
• A real National Care Service