Another week, another crisis in health and social care spending as the Integration Joint Board (IJB) faces more decisions about how to tackle the spiralling costs of keeping people healthy in a time of ongoing austerity.
(Read Cllr Claire Miller’s previous blogs about how the IJB works and some of its history:
The Integration Joint Board (IJB) started life with a £32 million pound deficit and it has taken significant steps since then to try and get to a balanced budget position – including making really difficult decisions about the care which is provided to people.
Given the financial pressures facing both the Council and the NHS though, and the increasing costs everyone is facing due to the cost-of-living crisis, Brexit and global conflict, the IJB is now facing a position where breaking even this year looks impossible. This is what has led to the proposals revealed this week to end grant funding to third sector organisations two months early, and to not do any grant funding next year at all (you can read all of the papers for the IJB meeting here – paper 7.2 relates to these cuts).
This has understandably led to lots of anger and confusion from those in the third sector who are concerned that this unexpected removal of funding will have disastrous consequences for their organisations and the people they support. It also seems to fly in the face of the overarching health and wellbeing strategy in Edinburgh, and across Scotland, which recognises that early intervention and preventative measures are the best ways to tackle health inequality, and can save money by preventing more acute healthcare needs further down the line.
We also think there are more things that the IJB can be doing to save money before removing small amounts of money which are a lifeline to communities (cutting the funding before it was due to end will only save £700,000 – an absolutely tiny amount compared to the overall in-year deficit of 26.2 million pounds). We want to see far less reliance on private agencies – costing us money and depriving workers of decent rights – and proper long-term thinking around care for disabled people, investment in facilities, and recognition of the health impacts of climate change and inequality. But all of these things take time and space to operate in, which simply can’t happen when the IJB is constantly having to make cuts to vital services. As always, a lot of this rests with both Westminster and Holyrood to properly fund local authorities to deliver public services.
Green councillor Alys Mumford currently sits on the IJB but, as with all boards, she is there to represent the Council and not the Edinburgh Green Party. But we want to assure our members that she has been working hard to try and find a solution to this proposal which recognises the positive impact that the third sector has on people’s health and wellbeing, while also ensuring that the IJB can afford to carry out its statutory duties and look after the most vulnerable. This has involved lots of conversations with other board members and officers, engaging with the third sector organisations affected by the cuts, meeting with our MSPs Lorna Slater and Gillian Mackay, and talking to others in the Council about whether the Council can step in to help.
She has submitted a proposal to the IJB meeting on Friday which points out the importance of the third sector in Edinburgh’s strategy for health and social care, and rejects the cuts – building in more time to try and co-produce a solution with the third sector. We’ll provide an update after the meeting on Friday, but you can also watch along on the webcast here from 10am.