£5m social work cash crisis

Published on Wednesday 6 August 2008 10:36

THE city's health and social care department has plunged nearly £5 million into the red – sparking warnings that more cash is needed to help Edinburgh's vulnerable residents.

New figures show that in its first year, the Lib Dem/SNP administration almost doubled the overspend run up by the previous Labour council in 2006-7.

Health and social care chiefs today said that demands being put on the department by an ageing population are behind the crisis, but insisted there will be no frontline service cuts this year to alleviate the problem. An extra 6.9m was put into this year's budget, designed to allow more people to receive care in their own homes.

However, union leaders and opposition politicians warned cutbacks could be on the horizon.

In 2006-7, the department overspent by 2.28m, rising to 4.96m in 2007-8. The previous Labour administration had put 196m into the health and social care budget, before it was voted out at the May elections.

Lib Dem councillor Paul Edie, the city's health and social care leader, said: "The overspend in 2007-8 was largely a result of under-investment and because demand for services has increased.

"An additional 2.2m was needed to deliver care at home services for older people. This was addressed by allocating additional money in this year's budget.

"Another contribution to the overspend can be attributed to one-off events such as the Government's free personal care policy – over 1m had to be reimbursed for meal preparation charges (which were wrongly charged based on government guidance].

He added: "We are facing huge demographic pressures and it is vital we shift the balance of care towards supporting people in their own homes for longer. This was reflected in our budget."

Across all departments, the Lib Dem/SNP administration managed to balance the books and underspent by 600,000 in 2007-8. This compares to an overspend of 5.6m by the previous Labour administration in 2006-7.

Labour's health and social care spokeswoman for Edinburgh, Lesley Hinds, said today: "Cllr Paul Edie has written in a departmental magazine, saying that he is starting 2008-9 with a 'clean sheet'. He's actually starting with a 5m overspend that he was in charge of.

"I don't see how this won't have an effect on frontline services. This money has to be found from somewhere."

John Stevenson, spokesman for Unison's Edinburgh branch, said: "This wasn't an overspend, it was an under-budget.

"More and more people need these services, but the money isn't there."