Leader: Taking issue with McLeish on social care solutions

AS THE politician who drove through the policy of free personal care in Scotland, former First Minister Henry McLeish has more right than many to contribute to the debate on how we look after our old people or those who have an illness or a disability.

Writing here today, Mr McLeish praises the "thoughtful" Dilnot commission call yesterday for social care costs south of the Border to be capped at 35,000, a measure which will prevent people having to sell off their homes to pay for their care. In contrast, Mr McLeish is scathing about the demand by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) yesterday for the end to free personal care with the introduction of charges and means-testing.

Whilst we do not doubt Mr McLeish's sincerity, born partly from personal experience, there is a contradiction in his approach. Dilnot is not proposing that social care, as it is described, is free but that there is a mix of personal and state financial contributions. Given Scotland will have to deal with the demographic timebomb of a growing number of elderly people, this approach is surely right.

Further, Mr McLeish's suggestion that free care could be continued by ending the council tax freeze is misplaced. Although the SNP Government's motive in imposing the freeze was populism, it has at least provided some relief for hard-pressed householders coping with an unprecedented economic downturn. Dilnot's idea of charging a reasonable but limited sum for personal care is the rational way forward - north and south of the Border.