Quarter of Scottish care staff leave their jobs within three months
The Accounts Commission have warned of ‘unprecedented pressures’ on Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) amid surging demands for services and decaying funds.
In Scotland IJBs play a crucial role in commissioning essential community-based health and care services. They assist with supporting disabled adults, care for the elderly, GPs, pharmacists, mental health care and drug and alcohol services. Currently, IBJs are grappling with a projected funding gap that has increased by 187%.
As a result, a report from the Accounts Commission – a watchdog – has outlined there is ‘unsustainable’ dependence on unpaid carers. There is an estimated 800,000 of them in the country.
Colin Poolman, Scotland director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: ‘This damning report sets out the challenges facing community health and social care services. Too often, the focus is on the crisis in acute hospitals, but hospital overcrowding is a symptom of the lack of investment and prioritisation of community services. The whole system is at breaking point.’
During 2023-24 the watchdog found the projected funding gap for IJBs had risen to £357m – up from £124m in the previous year.
Tess White, the Scottish Conservatives’ health spokeswoman, has blamed the SNP’s budget cuts for causing the problem.
‘The nationalists’ swingeing cuts to IJB budgets are having a devastating impact on some of our most vulnerable people, by exacerbating the desperate shortage of care home places and staff,’ she said.
In response to the news, a Scottish government spokesman said: ‘We have invested a record £19.5bn in health and social care in 2024-25. This includes an allocation of over £2bn for social care.
‘We remain committed to supporting the delivery of improved, sustainable health and social services across Scotland.’
Image: Garvit Nama
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