Angus to dip into reserves to stem flow

Angus is to make a raid on reserves to help soften the multi-million-pound impact of coronavirus on the area’s health and social care services.

Finance chiefs say the final cost of the pandemic remains uncertain but the crisis has cost £10 million.

Even after Scottish Government support to help deal with the challenges of the pandemic and cost-cutting measures across areas of its work, the Integration Joint Board (IJB) could still be facing an overspend figure of £3.6m for 2020-21.

It would have to be met on the 36:64 Angus Council/NHS Tayside split agreed between the partner organisations.

IJB members agreed to dip into £4.5m of reserves by using £0.5m to keep programmes on track.

Chief finance officer Alexander

Berry said it will remain an “evolving picture” amid other uncertainties such as prescribing costs.

The board was also warned another dip into reserves could result from any shortfall in Scottish Government financing of coronavirus-related costs.

Mr Berry added: “It is generally assumed that Covid-19 costs, to the extent that they trigger in-year overspends within the partnership, will be fully funded by the Scottish Government then when this happens the IJB might reasonably expect to break even in this financial year.

“However should the Scottish Government not fully fund the excess cost of Covid-19, in this scenario the IJB would report a year end overspend and would be required to consider the use of IJB reserves to offset any overspend.

“The scale of this is difficult to determine.”

Angus Council is set to make a raid on cash reserves.