A former SNP health secretary has branded plans to create a National Care Service as "nonsensical" and called for the legislation to be scrapped.
Alex Neil, who served as a Cabinet minister under both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, spoke out as the Scottish Government comes under pressure to reveal more detail on how the proposed system will work.
Care services across are currently provided by both private firms and local authorities, with councils largely responsible for regulating the sector.
But following criticism of care home performance during the coronavirus pandemic SNP ministers want to centralise the system to ensure consistent standards across the country.
The government also claims a National Care Service is required to boost pay and standards for care staff amid a recruitment crisis in the industry.
Neil - who served as health secretary from 2012 to 2014 - said: "It should be scrapped as it's nonsensical and doesn’t address the urgent changes needed, especially a significant improvement in the employment terms and conditions of social care workers."
The former MSP spoke out just minutes after social care minister Kevin Stewart had defended the plans to a Holyrood committee.
He has previously acknowledged some councils feel "discontent" but said there is overwhelming support for the changes from people who rely on social care.
Stewart told the finance committee that the process of "co-designing" the legislation with other organisations meant certain financial assumptions could not be made right now.
He said: "If we were to make assumptions on some of these issues at this moment in time, we would probably rightly be accused of having already made our minds up around about certain aspects of what we want to do as we move forward.
"And that’s not what we’re about, this co-design is not lip service."
Conservative MSP Liz Smith said parliamentarians currently did not have enough information in order to properly scrutinise the Government’s plans.
She asked: "Do you accept that there is a cause to pause this until there is more detail than is before us just now?"
Stewart said he did not, adding: "What some other folk want at the moment is detail around aspects of the costs in terms of delivery of services."
The plan to merge social care services into a national body has been described as the most significant reform to public services since the creation of the NHS.
But auditors and other experts have said they have concerns around the financial implications of the change, saying the final price tag is unclear.
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