Scots probe cost of free personal care

The Scottish executive has promised to examine claims that it has
seriously underestimated the cost of free personal care in
Scotland.

New research finds that original costings by the executive’s Care
Development Group, chaired by the then deputy health minister
Malcolm Chisholm, were based on flawed research in relation to the
number of older disabled people in private households in
Scotland.

This and other “dubious” assumptions resulted in a £60m
shortfall in estimates for the initial cost of the introduction of
free personal care in Scotland, claims research published by the
Fraser of Allander Institute at Strathclyde University.

In the longer-term, it warns that an additional £130m will
need to be set aside by 2022 to cover costs of the scheme.

Deputy health minister Rhona Brankin said free personal care
remained one of the Scottish parliament’s greatest achievements,
and that initial costings had been based on all available
evidence.

“We will examine the findings of this new report along with the
figures from the executive’s care development group report and this
will feed into new research that we have commissioned on the cost
of the policy,” she said.