Boards facing funding challenge amid ‘extreme financial crisis’, MSPs told

The boards tasked with integrating health and social care services are facing their biggest ever funding challenges as the Scottish Government deals with its “most extreme financial crisis since devolution”, MSPs have heard.

Holyrood’s Health Committee received a report from professor David Bell of Stirling University, examining the finances of Integrated Joint Boards (IJBs).

Created in 2014, the 30 IJBs across Scotland are intended to improve health outcomes and provide person-centred care.

Prof Bell’s report noted they face a number of challenges: including inflation; wage rises; workforce pressures; increasing demand due to an ageing population; and uncertainty around the role of the forthcoming National Care Service.

The economics professor noted there is a lack of data with which to measure the performance of some IJBs and there are marked differences in the way certain boards are funded.

His report said the upcoming IJB budgets “will be set in the context of the Scottish Government facing its most extreme financial crisis since devolution in 1999”.

The report said: “Given the weak performance of the Scottish and UK economies in recent years, and the projections for mediocre growth in the short to medium term, it is unlikely that sufficient tax revenue will be generated to alleviate the funding crises that confront the public sector in Scotland.

“This will be particularly acute in health and social care where demand is growing more rapidly than in other parts of the public sector.

“For IJBs, this will present the most challenging financial environment they have yet faced.”

Speaking to the Health Committee on Tuesday, Prof Bell said both the Scottish and UK Governments appeared to have underestimated the wage costs in the health and social care sector.

Some boards are in the “pretty difficult situation” of having to make in-year adjustments to their budgets, he said.