An Ayrshire politician has blasted what he's described as an 'undemocratic money grab' from the Scottish Government.
Integration Joint Boards in Ayrshire are set to hand back a total of around £23.657 million in unspent Covid cash due to an apparent change in the response to the pandemic.
In February this year, the Scottish Government dished out £619m in additional funds to Integration Joint Boards (IJB) throughout Scotland to aid with the response to Covid.
In September, it's understood the Scottish Government’s director of health finance and governance told the NHS, councils and health and social care partnerships that the expected spend had reduced significantly.
And so, the Scottish Government plans to reclaim any surplus Covid reserves that Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCP) will not spend.
This figure is expected to be around £8.654m in South Ayrshire, £8.203m in North Ayrshire and £6.8m in East Ayrshire.
However, Irvine East councillor Nairn McDonald lodged a question on the matter at the most recent meeting of North Ayrshire Council.
Cllr McDonald said after receiving a written response to his question: "This is nothing more than an undemocratic money grab from the SNP in Holyrood, something they wouldn't accept if it were the Tories in Westminster doing the same to them.
"This will remove funding that will be vital to provide services to elderly, disabled and other vulnerable groups over the coming months and years and the Tories embark on Austerity 2.0"
The Scottish Government said the claims made were completely wrong.
A spokesperson said: “These claims are completely wrong. The Covid balances referred to relate to Scottish Government funding, not funding from Local Government.
“The majority of Integration Joint Board reserves are earmarked for specific purposes, in particular the ongoing response to COVID-19. They are not uncommitted funding and cannot be used to fund new spending commitments.
“Further Covid funding has not been available from the UK Government for Covid related pressures in 2022/23.
“The Scottish Government has set out £600m of total investment to support winter resilience across our health and care system. Furthermore we are progressing our commitment to increase spend in social care by at least 25 per cent by the end of this Parliament, an increase of over £840 million, laying the groundwork for the establishment of a National Care Service.”
The response to cllr McDonald's initial question read: "At the end of September, the projected utilisation of this funding by the HSCP for the 2022-23 financial year is £5.118m.
"This is significantly less than the previous two financial years, due to a reduction in additional costs as well as the provision of new funding by Scottish Government to support areas of additional expenditure which were covered by the Covid funding in previous years, for example additional funding for investment in Care at Home capacity.
"This underutilisation of Covid funding is consistent across all IJBs in Scotland.
"On this basis, it is anticipated that the amount reclaimed by Scottish Government from North Ayrshire IJB would be £8.203m."
A spokesperson for South Ayrshire Council added that "The Scottish Government will reclaim any surplus Covid reserves that HSCP’s will not spend, the mechanism for this has still to be communicated.
"This will have no impact on services as only funds that cannot be utilised in responding to Covid will be returned. The Scottish Government are then able to redistribute any returned funds into the wider Heath and Social Care system pressures."
East Ayrshire Council said that no money has been requested or returned to the Scottish Government yet.
A spokesperson said: "Recent correspondence from the Scottish Government has indicated that, following a number of significant changes to covid policies and the anticipated profile of spend against previously issued covid funding therefore changing, they intend to reclaim surplus covid reserves from Integrated Joint Boards (IJB's).
"It is anticipated that the Scottish Government will seek to recover up to £6.8m of covid funding from East Ayrshire. This assumes that all permitted covid spending in 2022/23 has been funded, with this surplus money not earmarked against specific activities.
"No money has yet been requested by or returned to the Scottish Government, with an expectation that this will require to be considered and approved by the IJB."
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