Highland Council faces crisis over social work funding

HIGHLAND Council’s social work department is facing a financial crisis because of increased demand for services. Now staffing levels are to be reviewed and there are fears there could be cuts to services to balance the books.

A report to be discussed by councillors tomorrow reveals the department is facing an “extremely serious financial outlook” and is forecast to have overspent by £3.437million by the end of the year.

Part of a planned package of remedial measures will include a review of staffing levels in care homes.

Director of social work Harriet Dempster said her department has faced budget pressures in the first three months of the financial year but managers were working to recover the overspend.

Other measures will include reviewing rotas, staffing levels and structure in care homes and improving sickness and absence rates.

Ms Dempster said the most acute pressures were being felt in community care, which is “experiencing greater levels of need and demand across mental health, learning disability and older people’s services, due to demographic change”.

She said a “significant” amount of pressure stems from the impact of a job evaluation exercise, which has been calculated at £1.141million, while there is a predicted shortfall of £1.15million relating to overtime.

In relation to staffing levels, the report stressed that “significant upward pressure” had come from Care Commission reports to review staffing in some units.

Ms Dempster said: “The social work service budget continues to face an extremely challenging situation with underlying pressures being driven by rising levels of need and expectation for service.”
Trends

Yesterday, Councillor Margaret Davidson, chairwoman of the council’s housing and social work committee, said: “Our projections show significant increase in demand across services for older people, learning disability, mental health services and people with physical disabilities.

“We have picked these trends up early in the year and I will be asking the director and her managers to bring back a robust action plan for recovering budget.”

Highlands and Islands MSP Mary Scanlon, the Tory health spokeswoman, said the figures were “worrying”.

Mrs Davidson said: “I certainly hope this will not mean sacking staff but it may mean not filling some staff vacancies.”