A £1.5m fund set aside to manage budget cuts in health care provision in West Lothian could be better spent keeping staff in jobs, unions have said.
A union rep told health officials at the Integration Joint Board this week that his members would ask: “How can they spend £1.5m on a transformation fund but can’t spend £1.5m to keep us in our jobs?”
The Board is responsible for commissioning adult health and social care services and overseeing the delivery of these services and is provided with funding by West Lothian Council and NHS Lothian to do so.
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Last month Board members agreed to a package of cuts over the next three years as part of a budget revenue plan. This will see a wide ranging review of the way social care services are delivered in care homes and throughout the care at home services.
In a report to the Board this month Sharon Houston, Interim Head of Strategic Planning and Performance said: “The Board agreed to establish a Transformation Fund of £1.5 million from uncommitted reserves. The aim of this fund is to provide scope to invest in transformative service delivery projects and also to support one off costs to support the delivery of the three year budget plan and associated budget savings.”
She described the fund as a “bridge” to smooth the transformation of services, adding that more detailed proposals would be brought to the next meeting of the Board on 27 June.
“Budget savings will be complex and will be monitored closely,” she promised.
Stevie Dunn, a Unison branch secretary asked: “What exactly do you envisage the fund being used for. Would that be used for voluntary redundancies?.”
He added it raised a question for union members facing difficult times: “Why are they spending £1.5m to get us out of our current roles when they could be spending that money to keep us in the roles that we are in?.
Alison White, Director of the Health and Social Care Partnership said: “This is one-off money,” adding that it would be used to make the transition “from where we are to where we need to be as smooth as possible”.
She added: “If we invested that £1.5m in just keeping services all it does is push back the ultimate decision about when those decisions need to be made. It doesn’t actually change things fundamentally in terms of the financial challenges highlighted. Rather than just puting off those difficult decisions for 12 months”
Mr Dunn responded: “Yes but you can understand our concerns. That we’ve got £1.5m to try to get people out of a role when they could maybe stay in a role, and who knows where we are going to be in 12 months' time. We are talking about uncertainties. Inflation might drop. Things might happen with the Scottish Government. Who knows?
“Any of our members reading that will say how can the spend £1.5m in a a transformation fund but they can’t pay £1.5m to keep us in our jobs”
Chairing the meeting Bill McQueen said: “It’s not recurring money, you can only spend your pound once and we have savings to make for three years. I hear what you are saying and we’ll have another chance to look at where some of this money will be going in June.”
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