MSPs have backed an extension to free personal care known as "Frank's Law", but councils have warned they could face a £30m bill when the measure comes into force next April.
The change, announced by Health Secretary Shona Robison last September will mean that under-65s with degenerative conditions will qualify for free personal care.
It follows a campaign by Amanda Kopel, the wife of former Dundee United player Frank Kopel, who died in 2014. He was diagnosed with early onset dementia aged 59 and faced bills of £1,200 a month for care until he died aged 65, just weeks after he qualified for free personal care.
MSPs on the Health Committee unanimously backed the measure yesterday.
However councillor Peter Johnston, health and social care spokesman for councils' body Cosla said Scotland's local authorities would need more cash to fund the policy.
Under-65s currently pay around £10m a year in personal care charges, but Cosla anticipates making such services free will increase demand, and costs could be up to three times higher.
Cllr Johnston said Cosla was absolutely committed to delivering the policy by April 2019. But he said the policy must be fully funded, with "new money", with implementation closely monitored to ensure any increase in demand is reflected in future financial settlements for local authorities.
Cosla had previously expressed concern over an expected surge in demand once personal care charges are removed for under-65s, and had suggested delaying full implementation until 2021.
"Frank's Law" is expected to be rubber-stamped by the Scottish Parliament's full chamber later this month.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said the regulations were being considered "significantly ahead" of the date they come into force to enable local authorities to plan for changes to their processes around care and financial assessments.
Ms Robison added: "In preparation for the extension, an implementation advisory group has been set up, making use of expertise from local authorities, health and social care partnerships, Cosla, care providers and service users, to ensure that implementation takes into account the impact of this change on local authority systems."
She said discussions on costs would reach a conclusion "well in advance" of implementation date.
"Going forward ... once we see the actual levels of unmet need ... we will make sure that that is in line with the resources that have been provided," she said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel