by Andrew Galloway, local democracy reporter
The leader of Argyll and Bute Council has called for better communication on the finances of the area’s health and social care partnership (HSCP).
Aileen Morton expressed her frustration after the HSCP’s integration joint board (IJB) was asked to accept funding offers which it had already agreed to take on.
A report at last Wednesday’s meeting by the HSCP’s chief financial officer, Lesley McLeod, recommended that the partnership – which faces a projected overspend of £4m in 2019-20 – accept proposed funding injections from the council and NHS Highland.
But after Cllr Morton pointed out that a decision to accept those cash offers had been taken at the last meeting in September, checks confirmed that was the case.
And HSCP chairman Robin Creelman, who missed the September meeting, said: “What does the public, reading our papers, make of all this?”
Cllr Morton said: “It is concerning to be sitting at such a high level at this point, but what frustrates me is that this is a substantial decision which we have already picked up at the last meeting to be brought back today.
“We are back here today and it is not here.
“In the scheme of integration, it says that the chief financial officer will provide reports on a monthly basis with details of any actions required.
“My frustration is that as a relatively new board member, I can’t grasp where the scale of risk sits in terms of red, amber, green. Where have we delivered in the past?
“I also have concerns that if the financial recovery plan cannot be delivered in the year, we don’t have any budget outlook report in front of us.
“I speak from a genuine sense of frustration that I don’t have a grasp on it, and as a board, we need to be clear on how this is progressing.”
Cllr Morton then distributed an amended list of recommendations, including that the IJB acknowledge that it was extremely unlikely’ that the HSCP will achieve a break-even position by the financial year-end in April.
But Mr Creelman said: “I agree with an awful lot of what you say, but you have said it is extremely unlikely that the HSCP will achieve a break-even position at the year-end.
“We have already heard the chief officer saying that we haven’t given up on that. To take that point of view is a bit dramatic, although I understand why you have said it.”
There then followed lengthy debate, with a solution required after it was agreed that the issue needed to be resolved before the meeting closed.
Subject to changing Cllr Morton’s phrase ‘extremely unlikely’ to an alternative, more optimistic ‘extremely challenging’, those decisions were agreed.
Cllr Morton said after the meeting: “While the reported scale of overspend for this year is concerning, it was good to hear officers say very clearly that substantial action is being taken to address this and the aim is still to achieve financial balance by the end of year if at all possible.
“The partnership delivers incredibly important services so in addition to getting the financial position under control for this year we also need to be considering the services we will deliver in years to come and be looking at planning for future years.”
Can you make any sense of this?
I find it confusing and repetitive, Yes there is an overspend and yes there is an action to address it. Has this action really been agreed or is somebody making it up? Is it likely to work within the arbitrary timescales imposed, probably not but will it work over a little longer time? Are we likely to be back to square one if things slip into the next financial year? Anybody’s guess.