The Holyrood election is a chance for our members in Scotland to choose who will represent them in the Scottish Parliament and have their say on the future of health and social care.
It’s coming at a crucial time for health and social care in Scotland. Now is your chance to engage with the politicians who are seeking to represent you, and use your vote to influence how health care will be delivered and how the nursing profession will look between now and 2031.
The RCN is not affiliated with any political party. We work with politicians across all parties to champion nursing, create positive change and help influence government policies that benefit nursing staff and the health of the nation.
“Make sure you use your vote. Nursing staff are fed up of warm words and vague promises. The next Scottish government must deliver action,” says Colin Poolman, Executive Director of RCN Scotland.
“In the run-up to this election, we’re calling on all political parties to prioritise nursing and safe patient care.”
We’ve developed this campaign because five years after the last Scottish Parliament elections, nursing staff haven’t seen meaningful improvement to health and care services, in neither the NHS nor independent sector.
So, our message is simple: The Gloves are Off, and nursing is ready to be heard.
Nursing is the solution to so many of the current problems and we’re looking for the next Scottish government to take bold action on health and social care, built around a strong nursing workforce. By saying “The Gloves are Off”, nursing staff are not walking away – they are signalling their intent to stand up, to be heard, and to be counted as an asset for the future of our health and care services.
We’re calling for politicians and the next Scottish government to:
- value the nursing profession
- ensure staffing for safe and effective care
- invest in community services to deliver care closer to the individual
- support better health for everyone.
We’ve read the manifestos of the main political parties. Here’s an outline of what each one includes on issues affecting nursing, health and social care. This is not an exhaustive list, so for further details, we recommend reading the manifestos in full.
Parties and priorities appear in alphabetical order.
Reform UK
- Community and primary care. Expand frontline services in the community and GP practices.
- Funding and system reform. Establish an independent, expert Scottish Healthcare Reform Commission to undertake an ambitious review of health care delivery. The NHS in Scotland to remain free at point of need and fully funded by general taxation.
- Social care. Long-term funding and optimisation of the integration of adult social care. A new deal for local government to give councils greater flexibility and control over their social care services.
- Staffing, recruitment and retention. Introduce a workforce plan to train more doctors and nurses in Scotland. The manifesto claims that the party’s plans to cut income tax will result in higher take-home pay for doctors and nurses.
- Technology. Embrace tech including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the NHS England app.
- Waiting times and capacity. Allow medics and nurses to be more productive by fixing delayed discharges, reducing bureaucratic management, improving staff retention and morale, and creating new pathways of care.
Read the Reform UK manifesto in full.
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Community and primary care. Introduce a GP Guarantee, which would see General Practice double to 12% of the health budget and guarantee access to a GP appointment within 48 hours.
- Funding and system reform. Uplift the health budget above inflation every year, consolidate back-office functions and reduce senior management to deliver more funding to frontline care.
- Mental health. Roll-out walk-in mental health hubs to help patients get the support they need.
- Social care. Review integration framework to see whether an alternative structure could deliver better outcomes for those who need care, and conduct workforce planning for social care.
- Staffing, recruitment and retention. Deliver a new workforce plan, developed in consultation with staff and patients, and bring back recently retired doctors and nurses to deliver procedures.
- Palliative and end-of-life care. Ensure the palliative care strategy is backed up with a new funding model to deliver the care our country deserves.
- Technology. Deliver a “One NHS” Information Technology (IT) platform, fast-track the roll-out of a single national NHS App and roll out AI across the NHS to cut administration costs.
- Waiting times and capacity. Eliminate corridor care within a year. Reduce NHS waiting lists by increasing NHS capacity for procedures, including by introducing off-peak scanning and opening five more National Treatment Centres.
- Women's health. Guarantee access to a female GP or women’s health specialist, improve access to menopause and endometriosis services, and deliver a Women’s Health Charter.
Read the Scottish Conservative and Unionist manifesto in full.
Scottish Greens
- Community and primary care. Expand the primary care multidisciplinary team and embed community link workers in every GP practice.
- Funding and system reform. Increase investment in general practice and reform funding and structure of Integration Joint Boards, allowing local health boards to invest better in preventative and community health care.
- Mental health. Annual real-term increases to mental health spending, including increasing funding for community mental health services. Introduce a network of free walk-in mental health support hubs.
- Palliative and end-of-life care. Deliver a long-term, sustainable funding model for hospice care – including fully implementing pay parity between NHS and hospice care staff. Ensure all patients, carers and health and care staff can access a 24/7 palliative care helpline.
- Social care. Deliver an immediate funding boost, before working to collectively identify a sustainable model for funding and delivering social care. Deliver pay parity between NHS and social care nurses, collective sectoral bargaining, and transfer failing care homes into public or community ownership.
- Staffing, recruitment and retention. Introduce nurse-to-patient ratios for all health and care settings, so no nurse will have a caseload over a pre-defined number of patients. Act to attract more people into the nursing profession, including a nationwide recruitment campaign and expansion of the routes into nursing, and introduce a cost-of-living increase to the nursing student bursary.
- Technology. Improve digital and IT systems and introduce a single electronic patient record between primary care, hospital and social care teams.
- Waiting times and capacity. Drive down waiting times for ADHD and autism assessments by rolling out a network of community hubs for assessment, diagnosis and post-diagnostic support.
- Women's health. Invest in gynaecology services and produce a fully costed workforce plan, invest in the health visitor programme and workforce, introduce mandatory menopause education for public sector employers, and require that menopause symptoms qualify people for leave from work.
Read the Scottish Greens manifesto in full.
Scottish Labour
- Community and primary care. End the 8am rush for a GP appointment and bring back the family doctor. Guarantee a GP appointment within 48 hours and create neighbourhood health hubs.
- Funding and system reform. Reduce the number of territorial NHS boards to three, to cut bureaucracy and direct resources to the frontline, and reform NHS funding so that funding follows the patient.
- Mental health. Form a new emergency mental health response service staffed by specially trained paramedics, nurses and mental health professionals.
- Palliative and end-of-life care. End patchwork provision of palliative care, improve training for staff, and deliver parity of pay for hospice-based doctors and nurses, with a long-term sustainable funding model for end-of-life care.
- Social care. Work in partnership with the sector to establish a National Care Service and deliver £15 per hour as a minimum pay for care workers, working with trade unions to improve terms and conditions through collective pay bargaining in the sector.
- Staffing, recruitment and retention. Deliver flexible working and establish a 10-year workforce plan, with a "train here, stay here" policy for new medical and nursing graduates.
- Technology. Invest in modern AI scanners and speed up the NHS App so patients can order repeat prescriptions and book appointments on their smartphone. Establish a virtual hospital that will allow patients to attend outpatient consultations and follow up appointments online.
- Waiting times and capacity. Drive down waiting lists by breaking down barriers between boards, using capacity wherever available. End corridor care, and tackle delayed discharge, with 300 step-down beds in care homes and 1,000 more care-at-home packages.
- Women's health. Tackle long waits for gynaecological procedures, provide menopause clinics, train and recruit more health visitors, and protect women’s reproductive rights.
Read the Scottish Labour manifesto in full.
Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Community and primary care. Embed 900 new multidisciplinary patient-facing staff in GP practices and neighbourhood health teams. End the 8am rush for GP appointments by enabling patients to use the NHS App to manage appointments.
- Funding and system reform. Reinvigorate local health facilities, increase the share of the NHS budget spent on local surgeries and introduce a Fair Deal for Rural Healthcare, aimed at increasing the range of services, treatments and diagnoses available locally.
- Mental health. Improve workforce planning, set a new target for additional mental health professionals working alongside the police and prison staff, and guarantee year-on-year, real-terms increases to the mental health budget.
- Palliative and end-of-life care. Support hospices, enabling them to pay doctors and nurses in line with NHS salaries, and introduce a legal right to palliative care.
- Social care. Create national standards to support better services and reward care workers through national bargaining on pay and conditions, fair work and a career ladder that boosts skills.
- Staffing, recruitment and retention. Establish a rolling 10-year workforce plan, create a Health and Social Care Staff Assembly, build dedicated housing for key workers, and introduce a homecoming incentive scheme for health workers trained in Scotland currently working overseas.
- Technology. Roll out a comprehensive NHS App and require all IT systems used by the NHS to work with each other.
- Waiting times and capacity. Record and publish data on instances of corridor care and tackle long waits and delayed discharge by changing to a seven-day discharge model and investing in social and community care.
- Women's health. Focus on ending medical misogyny and prioritising research and training on issues including endometriosis, menopause, polycystic ovary syndrome, hyperemesis, and ectopic and molar pregnancies.
Scottish National Party (SNP)
- Community and primary care. End the 8am rush for GP appointments with further roll-out of GP walk-in clinics, increase the Hospital at Home service, and start work on a new programme of Community Health and Care centres.
- Funding and system reform. Ensure all health consequential funding from the Westminster government is passed on to health and care services, and adopt a "once for Scotland" approach to reducing duplication of corporate activity to increase efficiency and free up resources for service delivery.
- Mental health. Expand 24/7 mental health support by rolling out mental health triage cars and supporting the delivery of five new drop-in mental health hubs.
- Palliative and end-of-life care. Investment in hospices to introduce NHS pay parity for hospice staff, co-develop a funding model for hospices to ensure annual public funding keeps pace with need, and explore ways to expand the palliative care workforce.
- Social care. Expand collective bargaining into social care and introduce a new £20m complex care investment to support individuals delayed in hospital due to complex care needs.
- Staffing, recruitment and retention. Launch a new three-year NHS Job Guarantee for nursing graduates, expand the pathways into nursing, improve pathways to progression from band 5 to band 6 for nurses, and develop more community-based placements for nurses. Provide a cost-of-living increase to the nursing student bursary, by at least inflation, in each year of the Parliament.
- Technology. Launch Scotland’s new health and social care app and deliver a national online booking system for appointments.
- Waiting times and capacity. Ensure dedicated funding of at least £200m each year for improving waiting times, and implement a national plan for hospital flow to drive down delayed discharge.
- Women's health. Deliver a national review of maternity services, improve support offered to new mothers, fund new research into menstrual health, and urgently review In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
Read the SNP manifesto in full.
