Eddie Fraser, chief executive of East Ayrshire Council, said social care services are “truly unstable” in the current circumstances.

Holyrood’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee heard evidence from a panel of experts on the proposed introduction of a National Care Service on Tuesday.

The National Care Service (Scotland) Bill seeks to consolidate social care services under a national body divided into regional boards in a set-up similar to the NHS.

It is being considered at the Scottish Parliament following an independent review of adult social care services in 2021, which recommended reforming social care in Scotland and strengthening national accountability for social care support.

However, Mr Fraser has said that uncertainties over the future means that a bill of this nature is difficult to plan for.

He said: “We have no certainty as local authority leaders on what services are going to look like in the next three to four years, and the current circumstances are truly unstable for social work, for social care, but also for the rest of the council.

“There seems to be a real lack of understanding about how intertwined different parts of the council are. How to deliver good social care – you need to be linked to housing – how our social work services and our education services work together."

Mr Fraser added: "How our legal services, our HR services have, everything down to our transport services within a council.

“They are all interrelated in terms of doing that. So we have no certainty where we are going forward in this framework nature of the bill, in terms of planning for it.”

Councillor Paul Kelly, Cosla’s health and social care spokesman, said the local government body is “absolutely open to having dialogue with the Scottish Government” on the Bill.

He echoed the issues raised about a lack of detail in the plans, some of which he said are “very, very significant”.