Are we a Scotland that cares?
We all need to be cared for at some point in our lives – as children, when we’re older, or due to additional support needs. In fact, care is crucial to every part of our society and the economy that serves it.
Our collective wellbeing depends on care.
Find out more about the campaign, read our handy explainer here.
Right now, those who provide care are often under-valued and under-rewarded.
Too many carers face deep personal and financial costs, including poverty.
Women – who provide the majority of care – are affected most. After the huge impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost of living crisis – with rising energy, food and fuel bills – has created yet more pressures.
A range of actions have been taken, or are planned, in Scotland, with the potential to create positive change. But progress remains too slow and too shallow.
Those who rely on or provide care are paying the price.
What we're calling for
Scotland must commit to fully valuing and investing in care and all those who provide it – whether paid or unpaid.
Right now, the Scottish Government has 11 National Outcomes, which it says describe the kind of Scotland it aims to create. Yet within these, care is almost invisible. That can’t be right – and it needs to change.
We want the Scottish Government to create a dedicated National Outcome on Care, and then ensure it drives the new action that’s needed to fully value and invest in care right across Scotland. We want every MSP to back this.
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Why now?
The Scottish Government recently reviewed their National Outcomes for the first time in five years. Thanks to our campaign, it proposed a new National Outcome on Care.
But now Scottish Ministers have pressed pause.
Instead, they’ve launched another review – this time of the wider system the National Outcomes sit within – the National Performance Framework.
Carers shouldn’t have to wait: the new National Outcome on Care should be introduced now, with necessary improvements to the wider Framework then made quickly.
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You spoke, will the Scottish Government listen?
We want to say ‘thank you’. People across Scotland, including those who experience care and those who provide it, wrote to every party represented in the Scottish Parliament, to tell them why this is so important.
The decision now rests with the Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes. We’re urging her to make the right call – and we’ll keep the pressure on.
Read our letter to the Deputy First Minister sent on 19 February 2024.
Get in touch if you want to get more involved: Scotland@oxfam.org.uk
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Want to know more?
Read our briefing: Invaluable, But Invisible: Why Scotland needs a new National Outcome on Care.
For further background information, read our campaign briefing and our Scottish Parliament Briefing, both from 2022.
Finally, you can read the blueprint for our proposed National Outcome on Care, which was created in collaboration with academics at the University of the West of Scotland as part of the UWS-Oxfam Partnership.
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Access our Easy Read documents
Find out more about the campaign in our Easy Read documents here (Word) and here (PDF).
Led by
A unique collaboration of organisations has come together to create and lead this campaign, supported by research carried out by academics at the University of the West of Scotland through the UWS-Oxfam Partnership.
Supported by
If you would like to know more about the campaign, or you represent an organisation who would like to join, you can also contact us at scotland@oxfam.org.uk.