Services for sex assault victims and elderly among £37m in cuts agreed

Health chiefs have been warned Glasgow “cannot weather the storm” of repeated budget cuts, after they agreed plans to cut over 145 jobs to cover a £42.5m gap.

A supported living service for the elderly — including people with dementia — will be axed while a counselling service for sexual assault victims at the Sandyford clinic is also expected to stop.

Senior officials said a package of savings produced to help fill the budget shortfall are the “best of the worst” — and give health and social care services “the best chance to weather the storm”.

Union reps said there “needs to be a paradigm shift in the funding settlement” from both the UK and Scottish Governments. Officials had said funding pressures are “unprecedented”, with a deficit of £120m estimated over the next three years.

The budget does not include the soaring cost of dealing with a Home Office decision to speed up asylum claims, estimated to be £45.3m — which Glasgow City Council has agreed to cover.

Almost 73 full-time equivalent roles in council services are now set to be removed, with another 75 roles in health services. Officials have said there will be no compulsory redundancies.

Vacant posts could be left empty and staff redeployed where possible, while some council employees could take voluntary redundancy or early retirement.

Glasgow’s integration joint board (IJB), which directs the health and social care partnership (HSCP), set its budget today (Wednesday).

It receives funding from both the council and NHS, but officials reported settlements are “not keeping pace with the demand and inflationary pressures” being faced.

Members, which include councillors and NHS directors, approved £37.3m of savings. Just over £5m had already been agreed.

They include cutting the supported living services, which help almost 40 elderly users, to save £2.8m. It will impact 60 staff.

The counselling service at the Sandyford clinic, which has supported victims of sexual assaults, will be removed to save £200,000, and reviews are planned to save cash in commissioned services for alcohol and drug recovery and homelessness as well as the psychotherapy service and health improvement.

Primary care mental health teams and the health visiting service, which supports families with children under five, are set to be reduced. It is hoped £4.6m can be saved on prescribing costs.

Charges for non-residential services are also set to increase, with most rising by 5%. Hot meals are expected to go up by 13% due to “increased food costs”. Almost £3m will be taken from reserves.

Lorcan Mullen, from trade union Unison, said: “The outlook is even worse next year, the year after that, the year after that.

“We cannot weather the storm. This is already huge unmet need in the city, health inequalities are escalating.”

He said the IJB must clearly communicate “to the decision makers at the Scottish Government level and the UK Government level that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the funding settlement”.

“This structural underfunding if not resolved is just going to lead to us doing exactly the same thing. Something has to change.”

Stuart Graham, also from Unison, said: “The cuts this year are basically 150 full-time equivalent posts across both health and social work. That was the same last year. We’ve had nine years of least worst options.”

HSCP boss Pat Togher said the savings were “the best of the worst”. “I don’t think any of these papers suggest we are weathering the storm comfortably at all,” he added.

“What we are saying is the proposals give us the best chance to weather the storm.”

Glasgow Greens co-leader Jon Molyneux attempted to delay a decision on the budget to push both governments for more funding.

He also wanted £2.25m provided by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde — to help cover some of the cost of the UK Government’s decision to increase employers’ national insurance contributions [ENIC] — to be used to remove some of the cuts instead.

The Scottish Government is covering 60% of the cost of the rise. Cllr Molyneux said his plan “could help reduce some of the most serious impacts”, particularly on community mental health services.

However, Margaret Hogg, the IJB’s finance chief, explained the Scottish Government’s “health division is taking a different view than the local government division”.

She said: “Both divisions are agreeing they are only funding 60% of ENIC, however the health division has also agreed they will provide an additional sustainability payment to health boards.”

Ms Hogg added she would not be in support of using that funding to reduce savings, as that is “the only funding solution that is coming for health board services for the ENIC shortfall”.

An SNP amendment was passed instead, which didn’t reallocate the sustainability payment but did agree to write to the UK Government to call for all public services to be fully compensated for the rise in ENICs.

Both parties had noted the “most significant ongoing risks stem from decisions of the UK Government, in relation to national insurance and asylum decisions, as well as the impact of social security cuts”.

The budget passed by 10 votes to five. Green and Labour councillors voted against the plan. Bailie Ann Jenkins, Labour, said it “makes the wrong choices and fails frontline services”.