North Ayrshire's Health and Social Care Partnership in £5million budget overspend

Almost half of the overspend is coming from mental health services and almost £1.5million is set to come from Children’s services and Criminal Justice Services, which equates to just under 5 per cent of the specific budget for the department. 

Having been introduced less than two years ago, the partnership sees the council and NHS working together to deliver vital services across the region, including home helps, recovery services and mental health. 

It is unclear where the overspend will be recovered from but the money will have to come from somewhere else within the budget. 

The summary of the year is set to go in front of the Integration Joint Board (IJB) at North Ayrshire Council on Thursday where board members will hear the full breakdown. 

Included in the agenda, it says there are four main reasons for the overspend which are: increased demand for services, unfunded services, unachieved efficiency savings and high sickness absence.

The partnership say that the work that they do is ‘demand-led’ and means it difficult to project what they will have to spend. 

A spokesperson for North Ayrshire’s Health and Social Care Partnership said:” The HCSP is still very much in its infancy and has achieved a great deal as we look forward to celebrating our second anniversary in April.

“We have opened Woodland View, our new mental health community hospital in Irvine, developed new health and social care locality forums to support local communities and joined together NHS and Council addiction teams into North Ayrshire Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service (NADARS), with open referral for everyone.

“Working together with local people, we continue to make changes to services that will improve people’s experiences of local health and social care.

“These are challenging times and this overspend covers both Council and NHS functions. 

“It comes in the wake of unprecedented demand for the lifeline services we provide to some of the most vulnerable people across North Ayrshire.

“The work we do is demand-led and therefore it is more difficult to project with certainty how much will be spent from year to year.

“Care at Home services have experienced a 30 percent increase in demand in the past six months. This increase in demand is exceptional. 

“It is outwith the control of the Partnership and funding has not kept pace. This means we have an overspend and our Care at Home service now has a waiting list.

“£1m of the overspend relates to children’s services. We must provide services to ensure children remain safe and secure.

“The HSCP are continuing to look at ways this overspend can be recovered in forthcoming years without jeopardising the services we provide. 

“This includes the development of a medium-term financial plan and a transformational change programme.”

Councillor Anthea Dickson, the SNP's shadow portfolio holder on Health and Social Care at North Ayrshire Council, commented: “The integration of health and social care services has been the biggest reform to affect the National Health Service since its founding in 1948, allowing us to provide a better and more streamlined, community based care system. We are delighted at the progress being made by the North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership in realising these challenging aims, with all the staff having to be congratulated on their input, co-operation, and suggestions for better ways of delivering our services.

“As a new organisation, the accounting and the shape of the demand and delivery of services is constantly being reviewed and adjusted by both the parent bodies. Increasing levels of demand in care services, on placements for children, on the complexity of caseload, and the number of care providers having to be brought in-house have all contributed to the current overspend of 2.5%, although some of this will be mitigated by projected savings still to be realised.

“North Ayrshire, as with the rest of Scotland, is facing serious demographic pressures in straitened times. However, how we care for our most vulnerable, our elderly and our children, is how we will be measured as a society. It falls to the SNP to hold the line against the damaging and obscene austerity based cuts being implemented by the current UK based Conservative government. Should the SNP be returned to administration in North Ayrshire following the council elections in May, we will continue to follow the agenda set by the Scottish Government to deliver more integrated care in our community.”