The Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) is the influential voice of third sector providers, who campaign on behalf of the sector, influence policymakers, and provide a forum for collaboration. Our CEO Hazel, sits on their Board, helping to steer the direction of the organisation.

Lesley de Jager, Cornerstone’s Director of People and Culture recently attended the CCPS AGM and reported, 

“The AGM saw around 50 senior leaders from across the social care third sector in Scotland gathered together, taking the opportunity to reflect upon and talk about the challenges and opportunities in our sector, and to think about how we can best influence change in the year ahead. We were joined by Neil Gray MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care who held a lively and challenging question and answer session with the members. The Cabinet Secretary was keen to stress that ‘the Scottish Government remains committed to investing in social care’ but also emphasised the restrictions of the ‘challenging’ government finances. He highlighted progress that had been made to improve fair work in the sector, but also conceded that some planned activities had stalled due to lack of available funding. CCPS members highlighted the disparity between public third sector pay, and made it clear that the government must take a whole system approach to health and social care”. 

Keen to look forward, Rachel Cackett, the CEO of CCPS, focussed on what can be done collectively in the next 12 months to increase CCPS’ impact on how the government and the public recognise the value of social care. There were many discussions about how providers can work together to tackle common challenges and improve conditions for our workforce and outcomes for the people we support.

Cornerstone remains committed to supporting the collaborative efforts of CCPS and its other members to influence and effect change in the sector and will be active members of the campaigning community over the next year.