Jobs to go as bosses plug £10m funding gap
Health and social care bosses in East Renfrewshire are set to agree a package of cuts to help plug a funding gap of almost £10million.
Jobs are expected to go and social care support will continue to be prioritised to those in “substantial or critical” need to save money.
The area’s integration joint board (IJB) – a partnership between the council and NHS which directs the health and social care partnership (HSCP) – will meet today to set a budget for 2024/25.
Lesley Bairden, the HSCP’s chief financial officer, has reported the “challenge” of “delivering a balanced budget whilst trying to minimise the impact on the people we support has never been more difficult”.
There is a funding shortfall of around £9.8m.
In her report to the board she said: “We will not achieve the required level of savings without impact on our workforce.
“We aim to mitigate the impact as far as possible and hope we can achieve the majority, if not all, staff changes through turnover and attrition. However, service redesign and redeployment will be required.”
Funding for the health and social care services are provided by the board’s two partners – the council and NHS. Pressures facing the HSCP include pay, inflation, an increasing population and demand and the cost of prescribing.
Savings of just over £8.9m are outlined in the budget papers, with a further £800,000 already complete. Redesign proposals are currently being worked on to save another £2m.
Around £4m is expected to be saved through the prioritisation of social care support to those in “substantial or critical” need – where there are “very immediate risks to individuals”.
Known as the ‘supporting people framework,’ savings haven’t been made at the pace expected under the programme, so £3.8m of “legacy savings” from this year are being carried into 2024/25.
Officials believe the framework is “deliverable” but has “taken longer than we hoped for” and has been reprofiled for the coming year.
Phase one of a voluntary severance/early retirement programme is reported to have saved around £780,000, with a second stage targeting £300,000 of savings.
A redesign of children’s services is also planned to save almost £400,000 and changes to prescribing initiatives are expected to save over £600,000.
There is a plan to “top slice” supplies budgets by 20 per cent to save £920,000 and a working group is considering charges for services, with an income of £200,000 listed.
The report adds that the budget proposals would allow the IJB to set a budget that is balanced but “clearly includes significant risk in delivering services whilst achieving the required level of savings”.
It also states the challenges “are not unique to East Renfrewshire”, with “difficult decisions” being made across the country.
There is “less flexibility” within the NHS workforce as there cannot be voluntary redundancies so the “focus is on service redesign and redeployment”, with around £2m expected to be saved.