People over 65 would receive free home care under a plan proposed by Scottish Labour.
Leader Anas Sarwar announced the policy at the party’s conference in Glasgow.
The move would benefit nearly 10,000 care home residents and their families across Scotland, Mr Sarwar said.
The Scottish Government wants to create a National Care Service by 2026, which would be responsible for social care instead of local government.
But Mr Sarwar said changes would need to be made by then.
Speaking at the conference, he said: “We can now take steps to move forward so that all care in Scotland is free at the point of need and provides a health and care system that people rely on throughout their lives can leave for a long time.
“This will be the biggest reform of the nursing service since the introduction of free personal hygiene.”
Under Scottish Labour’s proposals, money provided by Westminster to the Scottish Government as a result of increased healthcare spending in England would help fund the proposal, which also includes raising welfare payments to £15 an hour.
Scottish Labor is also proposing new legislation called Milly’s Law to ensure that ‘bereaved families are at the heart of response to disasters and public scandals’.
The law is named after cancer patient Milly Main, who died in 2017 at the age of 10 on the campus of Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
A later review found that an infection that contributed to her death was likely caused by the hospital environment, and her mother has since called for health board chiefs to be replaced.
The plans are based on proposals for a Hillsborough law in England that would ensure fairer treatment for survivors.
Scottish Labor said its plans would include the establishment of an independent public solicitor who could act on behalf of the deceased’s families and a requirement that evidence from public inquiries must be taken into account in any subsequent criminal proceedings.
Mr Sarwar said: “We will change the law to fundamentally restore the balance – and create a system that stands on the side of families, not institutions, and that ensures justice, not cover-ups.”
The party has also unveiled a new logo consisting of a thistle, replacing the traditional cut-out rose used for decades.
This week marks a year since Mr Sarwar took over as Scottish Labor leader and he told delegates he was “determined to transform the party” and rebuild its fortunes.
He also spoke about the racism he and his family have faced at times, saying it drives him to “make Scotland a fairer place”.
And he said Scottish politics is “broken”, too narrowly focused and “lacking in reality”.
He said: “We must reject the old policies – the policies of the past favored by our opponents – and choose the policies of the future. I want Scottish Labor to be the party that changes our broken politics so we can change our country’s future.”
The party has a new, more Scottish logo – a thistle instead of a rose – and a relatively new leader in Anas Sarwar.
He has only been in office for a year, the tenth office since the founding of the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Sarwar brings new energy to the role and in his first address at a Scottish conference as leader he presented a major new policy idea.
Providing free residential care to all over 65s is a costly commitment which Labor believes expected growth in the Scottish Government’s budget can fund.
It is also distinctive and, like UK Labor’s plans for a windfall tax on big oil and gas companies, has yet to be adopted by the Conservatives or the SNP.
These are the parties that have pushed Labor into third place in Scottish politics – the parties from which it must win back voters if it is to regain lost ground.
This is not a short-term project for Mr Sarwar, but his efforts will be tested in local elections across Scotland in two months’ time.
Add Comment