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Plans to cut £4.5m to Edinburgh charities rejected amid backlash

Sakege November 2, 2024

Edinburgh charities will not see an immediate cut in their funding but still face the long-term prospect of losing millions.

Dozens of the city’s charities receive support from the Edinburgh Joint Integration Board, which oversees the capital’s health and social services but is currently facing its own financial crisis.

The health body voted on Friday on plans to cut funding to 64 organisations, which provide services ranging from mental health support to promoting healthy eating.

Protesters gathered in front of the City Chamber before the meeting. Chants of “cuts will kill” could be heard from the committee room, where attendees filled the gallery and spilled into another room where the proceedings were broadcast on television.

There was almost unanimous agreement that a proposal to immediately stop this year’s current funding, which would have saved £750,000 but would have given charities just 90 days to fund alternative funding, should not go ahead.

However, the board was divided over whether to accept the recommendation not to offer a grant scheme in the year from March to save an additional £4.5m.

Members voted 6-4 to reject both proposals and agreed instead to “hold discussions” with NHS Lothian Council, which jointly funds the funding body, to “consider alternative proposals for the long-term future of third sector funding.” .

They were urged to ensure the additional cash for Scotland announced in the UK Government’s budget was used to address funding shortfalls.

Third sector leaders said the cuts would put at risk 150 jobs and vital services accessed by tens of thousands of vulnerable residents.

Councilor Vicky Nicolson said “hundreds” of local GPs had sent her emails last week warning her of the huge additional pressures the cuts would put on doctors, carers and nurses.

But the service’s director, Andrew Hall, said a “forensic analysis” of every aspect of operations found the report’s proposals were the “best option” as without a “significant injection of additional funding” the EIJB could not comply with their legal obligations to provide care to the sickest.

This was met with repeated claims that the plans would save the Health and Social Care Partnership nothing in the long term, as those currently accessing services provided by the 64 charities would end up flocking to GPs. and A and E.

Rachel Green, director of Restalrig-based Project Ripple, which runs lunch clubs and day services for over-65s, including people with dementia and learning disabilities, said officials were “exaggerating the benefits and downplaying the risks.” of the cuts.

He said the charities had been “noticed” there would be an extension to the grant program in 2025-26 and “had no reason to believe this would not happen”. However, Mr Hall disputed this.

Green added that if the cuts went ahead, he would have to refer 87 people “immediately” to social care services for support packages.

Catriona Windell, of the Edinburgh Community Health Forum and Health All Round, was dismayed that affected organizations had not been consulted before the meeting, adding: “I don’t think we have ever been treated with such disrespect. .

“I think we could save a lot of money if we put our heads together.”

Representatives of other projects put at risk, including healthy cooking classes, citizen advisory services and homeless support services, said the cuts would put lives at risk and “destroy what has taken years to build and would take years to rebuild.” “. .

At his last meeting as EIJB chief executive Pat Togher highlighted that the partnership between the NHS and the council had been created in 2016 with a “structural deficit” of £32m and was now “aggravating all of our financial problems”.

Cuts totaling £50 million have been made to board-run services over the past two years, with a looming shortfall of £26 million in the current year and a further shortfall of £50 million in the next financial year. .

He said this meant that attention had to be focused on “the core business and core legal responsibilities”, as the requirement to comply with legal duties was “far more important than anything else”.

He said: “This is the worst it has been and we are projecting another £50m next year. It is completely unsustainable.”

He added: “We are concerned as IJB, as a health and social care association. . . There is a risk that we will revert to central and legal services only.

“What delegations have made clear this morning is that this will require a collective effort going forward.

“We also have to recognize that to move forward it is necessary to produce collaborative work.”

Togher said the decision not to accept the recommendations would lead to a “refocus on where we get all of our health and social care partnership savings”, and urged the board to carefully consider the impact on the wider workforce it would face. more cuts. .

Speaking after the meeting, Katharina Kasper, chair of the joint board, said: “The EIJB has listened to voices from across Edinburgh and has voted not to continue the annual savings for third sector grants at this time.

“We have also agreed that the lack of long-term funding of the EIJB cannot continue.

“We have committed to working with third sector partners and our partners at Edinburgh City Council and NHS Lothian to find a way forward that supports charities across the city.

“The EIJB’s budget deficit, which was inherited from its partners in 2016, persists, with savings of £60m this year and £50m next. The EIJB has a legal duty to protect essential services such as nursing homes and drug death prevention services. “If a solution cannot be found, we will have to come back with a recovery plan to achieve these savings.”