IJB backs health and social care budget for year ahead

Wed 13 Mar 2019

Aberdeen Integration Joint Board (IJB) members have backed the 2019/20 budget for adult primary care and social care services in the city.

Members also supported a detailed Medium-Term Financial Framework (MTFF), which pinpoints the likely budget pressures over the next five years and maps out the estimated level of savings which will need to be made to close the forecast funding gaps in each financial year.

IJB members approved funding for Bon Accord Care of £27.233millon for 2019/20.

The board supported an uplift of 2.8%, from 1 May 2019, to direct payments for social work clients with a staffing element included in their payment, to cover the increase in the Scottish Living Wage. They also gave the go-ahead for negotiations to be concluded for uplifts for those social care providers which are not covered by the National Care Home Contract.

Provisional funding levels for the IJB to fund services in 2019/20 comprise about £222million from NHS Grampian and some £91million from Aberdeen City Council.

The board, which is the governance body overseeing Aberdeen’s adult primary care and adult social services delivered by ACHSCP, expressed concern over the funding pressures on the IJB due to the reduced allocations for the next financial year from its funding partners.

IJB chair Councillor Sarah Duncan said: “I am confident that we have a robust budget for 2019/20 and clear and coherent financial plans for the following medium-term period – but nobody is denying the many funding pressures which lie ahead and we need to be mindful of these in everything that we do.”