Successive Scottish governments have aspired to a policy of shifting the balance of care from hospital services into community settings, which include social care. We firmly support this ambition, recognising it as essential to meeting population needs and ensuring long-term sustainability. But this shift cannot be realised without strengthening the nursing workforce in social care.

Our manifesto calls for:

• Funding for the social care sector to significantly increase the number of registered nurses employed directly in care homes for adults. 
• Nursing staff working in care homes should have comparable pay, terms and conditions to those working in the NHS. Achieving pay parity is vital for addressing the recruitment and retention challenges in these services.
• Registered nurses and nursing support workers in the NHS, independent sector and social care must have fair pay and good employment terms and conditions that reflect their safety-critical role. A sectoral pay bargaining system should be swiftly established to ensure fair pay in social care.  

Find out more about our other themes and calls in our manifesto by visiting The Gloves are Off web pages.