Unite continues the fight against ‘point of no return’ in Scotland’s social care crisis

Today, 15 September, Unite launched a campaign to address the crisis impacting the social work sector in Scotland. The union has warned that social care is at a tipping point from which it may never recover without the Scottish government’s help.

Unite represents thousands of private, public and third-sector social care workers. However, these workers are now facing massive uncertainty because of a lack of investment in service provision. General secretary Sharon Graham said:

There is a social care crisis in Scotland. It is getting to the point of no return whereby social care provision could become irreparably broken. It is outrageous workers’ pay is so low.

 Unite is committed to moving the dial and ensuring social care workers get fair pay and decent conditions. Unite will fight for better jobs, pay and conditions for social care workers across Scotland.

The alarm has been ringing

Hundreds of social care providers have already raised the alarm over increasing demand, long-term underfunding, and staffing pressures. Last month, August 2025, over 200 third-sector health and social care leaders sent an open letter to Scotland’s first minister on the issue. It called for an immediate cash injection and a medium-term, fully-funded recovery plan for the sector as a whole.

This followed on from the June launch of the public service reform strategy by the Scottish government. The plans called for increased public services centred on prevention, place, partnership, people and performance. However, whilst the charities in question fully supported these aims, they pointed out that there simply wasn’t the money to see them through.

A 2024 survey carried out by Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland found that 49% of organisations which responded described their financial position as “insecure”. A more recent 2025 report from the Coalition of Care and Support Providers found that 67% of non-profit care providers are now relying on their financial reserves in order to continue to function. Of these, a shocking 91% stated that they will likely have to close within 4 years.

This underfunding of care organisations is reflected in the low wages of the social care workers themselves. Sandra, a support worker from Dumfries, talked about colleagues relying on food banks to get by:

Highly skilled and experienced social care workers are leaving because they can’t afford to stay in a profession they love as some have to rely on food banks just to put food on the table because of poor pay.

Likewise, Edinburgh care worker Daniel spoke about the undervaluation of the social care profession:

We are a skilled workforce who continue to be underfunded and treated as less than our peers in the healthcare sector. We really are at crisis point, and this has a devastating knock-on effect on other areas of healthcare which are also struggling to cope in their own right.

Social care in crisis

 Shauna Wright, Unite’s lead officer for social care in Scotland, said:

Social care workers need a wage that is reflective of the professional role that they do and they need it now.

 Workers and care users are being put at risk due to chronic underfunding which also impacts on the desire of professional workers to enter into the social care sector due to the lack of funding and financial insecurity.

The Scottish government’s autumn budget is set to come out on 26 November. It will be a deciding factor for the fate of social care across the country. Ahead of that date, Unite has penned an open letter to minister for social care Tom Arthur. It lists three key demands:

1. Fair and sustainable pay for registered social care workers that reflects their essential role.

2. A real terms increase in funding for social care in the Scottish Budget 2025-26.

3. Meaningful engagement with all stakeholders to design a long-term future for social care in Scotland.

Unite has been clear that without urgent investment social care providers could cease to function in the near future. The resulting massive loss of care workers would then lead to a point of no return for the sector as a whole. This would be a crisis for both service users and providers. Kenny, a social care practitioner from Stirling, pointed out that:

The people we work with often need months of 1:1 interaction to develop the personal connections required of our role. Unskilled wages in a challenging role leads to high turnover and difficulty in recruiting. This often leaves the people we are there to help getting distressed and not getting the support society and the Scottish government says they should get. The Scottish government know this. In knowing it and doing nothing about it, means they are content with the situation which is unacceptable.

The Scottish government understand what needs to be done – they proved as much in their public service reform strategy. Now, in their Autumn budget, they need to step up and demonstrate that they’re willing to fund the changes they know are necessary.

Featured image via the Canary