Scottish Government questioned by MSP over ‘questionable’ council spending

The Scottish Government has been challenged on “questionable” choices made over the spending of a fund earmarked for helping Highland families.

Earlier this month it was revealed a group of Highland Council officers, NHS bosses and third sector partners tasked with distributing a multimillion-pound funding pot from the Scottish Government to help families in the region spent £1.4m on salaries and expenses.

But now, Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Tim Eagle has put questions directly to the Scottish Government over the Highland group’s handling of the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund (WFWF).

The fund was created by the Scottish Government to help improve the lives of children and families through providing holistic support before they reach crisis point.

Amounts ranging from £1.4m to £1.6m in total were given annually to each council area in Scotland from 2022 to 2026, with grant applications to be considered locally.

Discounting the current financial year as the full figures can not be calculated yet the Highland group has accumulated £5.8 million of funding.

It has spent £4.3m in total, with £1.4m of that going to “operational costs” – 33 per cent of the total spend – which the service explains as “staff salaries, business expenses, club car hire or travel expenses” or “anything that enables the programme to do the work that it does which is not grant funding or training.”

Mr Eagle has asked what the national government is doing to “assist” local authorities with their spending of the fund and what its position is on the Highland group spending over a third of the cash on staff salaries and expenses.

He has also asked the government how it monitors the spending of the money as each local authority in Scotland was giving yearly grants as part of the WFWF and also wants to know if the Scottish Government plans to meet with Highland Council chief executive Derek Brown to discuss what was revealed.

Mr Eagle said “the public are right to be concerned that vast sums of taxpayers’ money meant to support families in need has been spent on staff salaries and expenses instead.”

Though he said Highland Council’s decision making around the fund was “questionable” he added: “It looks like the SNP government has failed to provide clear guidelines on how this funding should be used.

“We need urgent answers from both Highland Council and the SNP government on why so much money was redirected away from people who need it most.”

The Scottish Government is expected to answer his questions by August 11.