Recommendations
The A Scotland that Cares campaign and its partners have set out a wide range of detailed recommendations for policy and investment across care. The recommendations below focus on the overarching changes highlighted through the Scorecard. They reflect what we learned from assessing Scotland’s care policy environment and where action is most urgently needed.
Transparently increase investment in care
Across all areas of care, greater investment is needed to realise its transformative potential for individuals, society and the economy. Too often budget allocations are either not rising to support care policy or are insufficient to meet the aims of the policy – resulting in unmet or partially met care needs and gaps for those supporting someone. Improved transparency of budget allocations to support care policies is also needed to build stronger accountability into the system.
Ensure care services are fully accessible to all
Care services need to be fully and consistently accessible to everyone across society. This Scorecard found that, too often, across multiple policy areas and indicators within them, this is not the case. Sustained effort is therefore needed to ensure that services are accessible in practice, particularly for the most marginalised communities in Scotland.
Actively recognise, reduce and redistribute care
The role of care, and unpaid care in particular, must be fully recognised within policy design and implementation. This means actively considering how each policy impacts on levels of unpaid care, who is undertaking this care and how the policy and the way it is implemented can actively support the reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work. This is particularly critical to ensuring policy is supporting greater gender equality, because the majority of those who provide care, both paid and unpaid, are women.
Enhance data collection and use across all areas of care
Production of this scorecard has been challenging due to inadequate publicly available data. Better monitoring is essential to ensure policy delivery can be effectively evaluated. This must ensure disaggregated data is available across protected characteristics. Action is also needed to record unmet care needs. Without more robust data, Scotland’s ability to target resources effectively and improve outcomes for those who need care most, will be severely hampered.
End the invisibility of care in Scotland’s wellbeing framework
The driving force behind the establishment of the A Scotland that Cares campaign was the call for a dedicated National Outcome on Care. This remains a core recommendation for the campaign, and the need for this clear and strong commitment to fully valuing and investing in care is strongly reinforced by the results of this scorecard. Care must be fully reflected within the new National Performance Framework and supported by a comprehensive set of National Indicators, to ensure that the impact and outcomes flowing from improved policy action is fully assessed.
Action should begin immediately.
The Scottish election in May 2026 creates a substantial opportunity for all political parties seeking power in Scotland to make fully-costed, time-bound commitments to better value and invest in all forms of care, and to ensure policy ambition is realised in practice for all.