National Care Service cost: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much money in total has been spent on the National Care Service bill so far, with a breakdown of these costs?
2. Out of the costs of consultants, can you list every consultant company who has been given money to work on the proposals and how much has been handed to each one?
3. How much money has been given to Derek Feeley for his work on the National Care Service bill, with a breakdown of what the cash was for and when he received it?
4. All correspondence between the Scottish Government and outside bodies regarding the National Care Service bill between May 1 and the date of this FOI? (A clarification by email restricted this to correspondence between the Scottish Government and COSLA and the Trades Unions.)

Response

Below are the answers to questions 1-3. In response to question 4, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because exemptions under sections 29(1)(a) (formulation or development of Scottish Government policy), 29(1)(b) (Ministerial communications) and 30(b)(ii) (free and frank exchange of views) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why those exemptions apply are explained later in this letter.

1. How much money in total has been spent on the National Care Service bill so far, with a breakdown of these costs?

Below is a table setting out the spend incurred to date on the National Care Service (NCS) Programme from its establishment in financial year 2021/22 through to the end of Period 1 in 2023/24. The costs noted cover not just the NCS Bill but the wider NCS Programme, which also incorporates developments such as the Integrated Health & Social Care Record. Due to the integrated nature of the teams working on the Programme and the various workstreams it’s not possible to disaggregate the costs specific to the Bill and so we have instead provided a full account of all NCS related spend for the programme, including the Bill.

Spend Categories	21/22 (£000's)	22/23 (£000's)	23/24 (£000's)
Staff	£1,387	£9,800	£923
Staff Related	£31	£134	£12
Engagement	£66	£1,026	£7
Consultancy	£302	£1,683	£29
Total	£1,785	£12,643	£971

2. Out of the costs of consultants, can you list every consultant company who has been given money to work on the proposals and how much has been handed to each one?

Noted below are all the externally procured consultancy costs with a breakdown of the provider, contract value and area of work.

KPMG were awarded a contract to produce a ‘Current Operating Model’ for the current social care sector, a ‘Target Operating Model’ for the National Care Service and a Programme Business Case. The contract cost the Scottish Government £655,200 (incl. VAT) and duration was between was 13 December 2021 – 12 June 2023.

PwC were awarded a contract for advice and report on Programme Governance arrangements and a Design Authority within the National Care Service Programme. The contract cost the Scottish Government £107,021 (incl. VAT) and the duration was 3 September 2021 – 3 November 2021.

PwC were awarded a contract for undertaking analysis and the production of a report for the public consultation on A National Care Service for Scotland. The contract cost the Scottish Government £82,032 (incl. VAT) and the duration was 22 November 2021 – 11 February 2022.

Capgemini were awarded a consultancy contract for undertaking International Research to understand what digital approaches, services and products have enabled similar services outside of Scotland and what lessons can be learned from both successful and unsuccessful digital projects and programmes. The focus was on the technical and practical elements of work rather than the policy drivers. The contract cost the Scottish Government £58,800 (incl. VAT) and the duration was 24 February 2022 – 15 April 2022.

Socitm were awarded a contract for undertaking a review of the technology, service and digital architectural landscape across the public, private and third sector organisations who are involved in the delivery of social care services in Scotland to understand what will and will not work in the system. The contract cost the Scottish Government £380,778 (incl. VAT) and the duration was 12 May 2022 – 11 May 2023.

Capgemini were awarded a contract for undertaking a platform review and data flows. This technical project allowed us to understand, in granular detail, how data is currently flowing in the social care and health system. This is vital to inform decisions on the future development of the integrated electronic social care and health record and will underpin work on information sharing regulations, subject to the passage of the NCS Bill. It also looked into existing national digital assets to ensure we have the right, detailed technical information to make safe and secure design decisions to reuse where appropriate rather than develop new assets. The contract cost the Scottish Government £406,476 (incl. VAT) and the duration is 15 August 2022 – 14 August 2023.

Storm ID were awarded a contract for undertaking User Research to explore how people experience interacting with services in Scotland, with a particular focus on what data is important to them. The contract cost the Scottish Government £56,760 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 21 February 2022 – 27 April 2022.

IPSOS Mori were awarded a consultancy contract for undertaking Justice Research to undertake a programme of research to provide an evidence base to support a decision on the possible inclusion of Justice Social Work (JSW) within a future National Care Service. This incorporates a desk review and series of interviews with JSW staff and service users across Scotland. The contract cost the Scottish Government £39,900 (incl. VAT) and the duration is between 9 January 2023 – 31 October 2023. This is Milk were awarded a contract for undertaking a User Centred Design Services to design work to analyse and illustrate current and potential to-be user journeys in Social Care and to support co-design activities with people with lived experience of social care support services. The contract cost the Scottish Government £25,313 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 13 March 2023 – 31 March 2023.

Civic Computing were awarded a contract for undertaking Accessibility Services to support development of a strategic approach in relation to best practice for our co-design approach focusing on four areas: enhancing organisational knowledge and digital accessibility and inclusion; accessible and inclusive digital publishing; engagement people in co-design; and usability testing of digital products and services. The contract cost the Scottish Government £73,536 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 27 February 2023 – 31 March 2023.

Anderson Anderson Brown were awarded a contract for VAT Advice to provide advice on necessary VAT preparations for the establishment of a NCS, and the VAT impact of different NCS scenarios and recommend any options and/or solutions that could potentially achieve a VAT neutral outcome. The contract cost the Scottish Government £49,949 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 16 January 2023 – 15 July 2023.

Anderson Anderson Brown were awarded a contract for a Financial Controls Review to provide advice to the NCS finance team on recommendations for improvement where necessary on the financial controls in place, the capacity and capability of the finance team, and the methodology used to provide estimates set-up and running costs for the NCS. The contract cost the Scottish Government £54,605 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 25 April 2023 – 5 August July 2023.

There are two contracts valued at £24,174 that are attributed to the consultancy costs in the table above. We have not released information relating to these two contracts as they are not related specifically to the National Care Service but Social Care more widely, those contract costs will be recharged to the relevant areas in the Scottish Government.

In addition to these we have also procured Deloitte to provide advice on the pensions impact of NCS staff pensions and outline potential options whilst considering the risks, challenges and opportunities on the implications of each option. This is not included within the above as currently there have been no costs incurred.

3. How much money has been given to Derek Feeley for his work on the National Care Service bill, with a breakdown of what the cash was for and when he received it?

Derek Feeley has received no money to work on the NCS Programme since its establishment in 2021/22.

Reasons for not providing some information

Three exemptions apply to the information you have requested under question 4. An exemption under section 29(1)(a) of FOISA (formulation or development of government policy) applies to some of the information requested because it relates to the development of the Scottish Government’s policy on carers’ rights to breaks.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in high quality policy and decision-making, and in the properly considered implementation and development of policies and decisions. This means that Ministers and officials need to be able to consider all issues raised and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications. Their candour in doing so will be affected by their assessment of whether the discussions on carers’ rights to breaks will be disclosed in the near future, when it may undermine or constrain the Government’s view on that policy while it is still under discussion and development.

An exemption under section 29(1)(b) of FOISA (Ministerial communications) applies to some of the information requested because it relates to communications between Scottish Ministers.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing Ministers a private space within which policy positions can be explored and refined, until the Government as a whole can adopt a policy that is sound and likely to be effective. Premature disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Ministers, which in turn will undermine the quality of the policy making process.

An exemption under section 30(b)(ii) of FOISA (free and frank exchange of views) applies to some of the information requested. This exemption applies because disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. This exemption recognises the need for Ministers and officials and external stakeholders to have a private space within which to discuss issues and options before coming to a settled public agreement. Disclosing the content of these discussions with COSLA and with Trades Unions on the National Care Service Bill will substantially inhibit such discussions in the future, because these stakeholders will be reluctant to provide their views fully and frankly if they believe that those views are likely to be made public, particularly while these discussions are still ongoing; only an initial agreement has been reached with COSLA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing Ministers and officials and key stakeholders a private space within which to discuss the issues in order to reach consensus. Premature disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between the Scottish Government and these stakeholders, which in turn will undermine the ability to reach consensus and move forward in developing the NCS.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.