£4m cash reserves to bridge gap

SERVICES: Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. Picture by Kim Cessford.

Health chiefs in Dundee are set to use £4 million of reserves to balance the books as next year’s budget is approved. Members of the Integration Joint Board (IJB) met yesterday to agree the finances available for community-based services in the next financial year.

Board members had been warned the IJB was facing its biggest ever budget gap as the partnership grappled with increasing demand.

The £4m figure is due to the anticipated level of reserves available to the IJB at the start of the 2024-25 financial year.

The health and social care partnership has identified £1.1mworth of savings by reducing the number of care home placements by 34.

The reduction is not anticipated to have a negative impact due to decreasing demand and need for care home placements.

A budget report said: “Actual in-year demand for placements will be monitored via operational management teams and any excess need/demand will be identified and managed accordingly.”

In-house and commissioned day provision for older people is to be reviewed in a bid to save £400,000.

The IJB budget report said this will better support the needs of individuals closer to home and better utilise available capacity and services across the city.

Around £300,000 is expected to be saved through a review of contractual arrangements for services supporting people with learning disabilities and mental health challenges.

The review will look at the demand for these services and their capacity to “ensure efficiency and potential rebasing of some contract values”.

Increases in the rates charged to Dundee City Council’s housing department for out-of-hours community response to sheltered housing tenants is expected to raise £34,000.

Around £1.4m will be saved by capping the budgets of areas that consistently underspend their allocated funds.

The surplus subsequently be other areas.

The approved budget will see the employee contributions to the Local Government Pension Scheme reduced from 17% to 15.7%.

Budget papers detailed this is a decision made by the city council and is expected to save £300,000.

Costs relating to staff within the Health and Social Care Partnership’s budget have been consistently underspent over the last three financial years, the budget papers revealed.

This is due to challenges in hiring staff and not because of any policy decision to stop or slow down recruitment.

These problems are expected to continue throughout the 2024-25 financial year and the approved budget will be adjusted to “reflect the reality of the situation”.

This is expected to wield savings of around £1.3m. budget will redirected to