Health boss announces £4m cuts for this year
Charge increases and withdrawn funding part of annual plan
East Ayrshire health and social care chiefs have laid out cuts and savings of more than £4m over the coming year.
The Integration Joint Board, which operates East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, has been told to cut costs by East Ayrshire Council and NHS Ayrshire & Arran.
The council and health service allocate hundreds of millions of pounds to the IJB to provide services.
In a report to the IJB, interim chief financial officer Alex McPhee outlines its plans to make £2.63m in cuts and savings to its council commissioned services and a further £1.5m in NHS services.
Among the proposals for the council services are:
■Increase of 10 per cent for day care and community alarm charges ( £80k)
■Change to assessment for nonpersonal care support ( £483k)
■Tiered levels of respite support and cap on funding ( £100k)
■Redesign of delivery and support at Witch Road, Kilmarnock ( £150k)
■End funding for suicide intervention training ( £40k)
■Remove participatory budgeting cash ( £100k)
■ Other cuts have already been approved by the IJB, including ending £195k funding for Morven Day Centre and a reduced contract for respite services ( £75k).
The report also recommends reducing staff hours and overtime across the partnership, reducing external foster care placements and review children’s houses support for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
Hours would also be reduced for some staff working in the NHS commissioned services of the HSCP. Cover would also no longer be provided while staff are on maternity leave.
There would also be a ‘redesign’ of the Ayrshire Urgent Care Service, which the IJB report states would be changed to suit service demand, resulting in a saving of £600k.
Additional funding was provided by the Scottish Government to councils to cover costs of adult social care and free personal care.
Mr McPhee stated: “Other than the noted uplifts for the Living Wage and Free Personal and Nursing Care, no additional funding has been allocated for 2024/25 for demographic pressures, inflation (including pay), increasing complexity of care and challenges in recruiting and retaining staff.
“In addition, constrained capacity, including wider local government services, which support social care and reduce pressures on NHS services, will impact on efforts to address significant pressures across health and social care services.”
The situation was similar within the health service aspect of the partnership.
Mr McPhee said: “As with social care services, the additional funding allocated is insufficient to absorb all 2024/25 cost and demand pressures, and represents a real-terms cut for health care, which is extremely challenging given demographic pressures, increasing complexity of care and challenges in recruiting and retaining staff.”