Council brands social care funding ‘unfair’

NHS Fife has branded social care funding arrangements unfair after picking up most of the tab for a council overspend.

A risk-sharing agreement, drawn up by Fife Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), means the health authority must meet 72% of social care overspend, with the rest coming from Fife Council.

NHS Fife bosses hit out after contributing £8.3 million for an overspend of more than £10m, despite the board itself being in the black.

During a virtual meeting, board members were told the situation was “impacting materially on the NHS Fife overall financial position”.

Tricia Marwick, chairwoman of NHS Fife Board, said: “If you take our underspend into it, deducted before that split was made, Fife NHS contributed 82% of the overspend, and Fife Council has contributed 18%, when all of that overspend was for services that should have been funded by the council.”

Non-executive director Rona Laing said the financial burden on NHS Fife appeared to increase every year, adding: “It’s not sustainable.”

David Graham, the council’s health spokesman, said: “When looking at the financial picture of the health and social care partnership in Fife, we cannot look at them in silos of NHS Fife and Fife Council.

“T h e g o v e r n m e n t ’s requirement for the shift of the balance of care from hospital to home requires the spend to be higher in social care than it has been before.”

Fife HSCP said it was facing “significant” financial challenges as demand increased for services.

Nicky Connor, Fife’s Integration Joint Board chief officer, said “massive inroads” had been made in the past six to nine months to keep within the budget agreed in March 2019.

She added: “A new three-year strategic plan has been agreed, an integrated transformation board established and the continuing development of a medium to long-term financial strategy is in place.”

AFTER 10 weeks of caring for coronavirus patients, the Community Covid-19 Response team in Dundee has now stood down.

The team was set up by NHS Tayside and the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership in March, with the aim of helping patients displaying symptoms.

The team worked 24/7 to proved palliative care and support to patients and their families.

The team was made up of volunteers from community nursing and also re-deployed