Plans to cut funding by £4.5m for Edinburgh charities rejected amid backlash

Edinburgh charities will not see an immediate cut in their funding but still face the long-term prospect of losing millions.

Dozens of the city’s charities receive support from the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board, which oversees the capital’s health and social services, but is currently facing its own financial crisis.

The health body voted on Friday plans to cut funding for 64 organisations, which provide services from mental health support to promoting healthy eating.

Protesters gathered outside the City Chambers ahead of the meeting. Chants of “cuts will kill” rang out from the committee room, where attendees filled the gallery and spilled into another room where proceedings were shown on television.

There was almost unanimous agreement that the proposal to immediately stop this year’s current funding, which would have saved £750,000 but given charities just 90 days to fund alternative funding, should not go ahead.

However, the council was divided over whether to accept the recommendation not to offer a grant scheme in the year from March to save a further £4.5m.

Members voted 6-4 to reject both proposals and instead agreed to “hold discussions” with NHS Lothian board, which jointly funds the funding body, to “consider alternative proposals for the long-term future of financing of the third sector”.

They have been urged to ensure that the extra money for Scotland announced in the UK Government’s budget is used to address funding gaps.

Third sector leaders said the cuts would put 150 jobs and vital services accessed by tens of thousands of vulnerable residents at risk.

Councilor Vicky Nicolson said she had been emailed by “hundreds” of local doctors in the past week warning of the huge extra pressures the cuts would put on doctors, carers and nurses.

But the service’s director Andrew Hall said a “forensic analysis” of every aspect of operations found the proposals in the report were “the best option” because without a “significant injection of additional funding” the EIJB would not be able to meet its statutory obligations to provide care to the sickest.

This was met with repeated claims that the plans would save nothing in the long term for the Health and Social Care Partnership, as those currently accessing services provided by the 64 charities would flock to GPs and A and E.

Rachel Green, director of the Ripple Project at Restalrig, which runs lunch clubs and day services for over-65s, including people with dementia and learning disabilities, said officials were “exaggerating the benefits and minimizing the risks” of the cuts.

She said the charities had been “advised” there would be an extension to the grants program in 2025-26 and “have no reason to believe this will not happen”. However, Mr Hall disputed this.

Ms Green added that if the cuts go ahead, she will have to refer 87 people “immediately” to social care services for care packages.

Catriona Windell, from the Edinburgh Community Health Forum and Health All Round, was appalled that there was no consultation with affected organizations before the meeting, adding: “I don’t think we’ve ever been treated with such disrespect.

“I think we could save a lot of money if we put our heads together.”

Representatives of other projects at risk, including healthy cooking classes, citizen counseling services and homelessness support services, said the cuts would put lives at risk and “destroy what took years to build – and it will take years to rebuild”. .

Speaking at his last meeting as chief executive of the EIJB, Pat Togher pointed out that the NHS-council partnership was set up in 2016 with a “structural deficit” of £32m and this “accumulates all the troubles our finances”.

Over the past two years, £50m of cuts have been made to council-run services, with a shortfall of £26m this year and a further gap of £50m next year financial.

He said this meant the focus needed to shift to “core business and core statutory responsibilities”, as the requirement to comply with statutory obligations was “much more important than anything else”.

He said: “This is the worst it has been and we are projecting another £50m next year. It is completely unsustainable.”

He added: “We are concerned as IJB, as a health and social care partnership. . . There is a risk that we will retreat to only basic, statutory services.

“What came through loud and clear from MPs this morning is that this will require a collective effort going forward.

“We also have to recognize that in order to move forward, there is a requirement to produce work collaboratively.”

Mr Togher said the decision not to accept the recommendations would result in a “refocus on where we get all the savings from the health and social care partnership” and urged the council to look carefully at the impact on the wider workforce, which will face further reductions. .

Speaking after the meeting, Katharina Kasper, chair of the joint board, said: “The EIJB has listened to the voices in Edinburgh and voted not to proceed with in-year savings on third sector grants at this time.

“We also agreed that the long-term underfunding of the EIJB cannot continue.

“We are committed to working with third sector partners and our partners in City of Edinburgh Council and NHS Lothian to find a way forward that supports charities in the city.

“The EIJB’s budget deficit, which was inherited from its partners in 2016, remains, with savings of £60m needed this year and £50m next year. The EIJB has a legal duty to protect essential services such as care homes and drug death prevention services. If no solution can be found, we will have to come back with a recovery plan to make these savings.”