Dundee Integration Joint Board Agrees Budget for year ahead

The Integration Joint Board (IJB), who oversee services delivered by Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership, approved its budget for the coming year at its meeting today (Wednesday 26 March). 

A total of £320.4 million will be spent delivering on health and social care services across the city. This includes £114.4m from Dundee City Council and £206.0m from NHS Tayside, subject to final confirmation.  

The biggest portion of this budget will be spent on hospital and community-based health services, as well as adult social care.  This includes additional funding from the Scottish Government to deliver an increased hourly wage payment to staff providing direct social care with effect from April 2025. 

The IJB has identified over £17.5 million in savings that were identified across a range of areas including a reduction in care home beds and funding for services provided by the third and independent sector.   

A number of services will be subject to further review and recommendations will be brought back to the IJB during the year for further consideration, including Community Meals, Palliative Care and Medicine for the Elderly services.   

As part of the budget process, the IJB launched its first budget consultation, gathering views on potential savings and their impact. Responses indicated that the greatest priority should be supporting people in crisis, helping people with the highest levels of need and enabling people to live independently at home.  

In addition, respondents were supportive of options to  improve efficiency and create a more dynamic Health and Social Care Partnership including by working with NHS Tayside to improve the use of digital technology across health and social care services, review and reduce their Senior Management structure and improve the way administrative resources are used to support the delivery of services. 

Chair of the IJB Councillor Ken Lynn said: “This year’s budget demonstrates the challenging financial position we are in. We are not alone, a recent Accounts Commission report set out the challenging context that IJBs across Scotland are operating in, including meeting increasing demand and complexity of health and social care needs, workforce difficulties and financial strains. 

“We have worked hard to ensure it is a budget that will care for the most vulnerable people across the city while also looking ahead by investing in digital transformation to create a more efficient way of working. 

“Several difficult decisions have had to be made to deliver this budget, and we fully recognise how important the services that the health and social care partnership provide are. This was made clear through the feedback we received during our budget consultation.  

“I want to thank everyone who took part in the consultation, it helped us set this budget.”  

The IJB oversees services delivered by the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership. These include adult and older people’s community social care services, residential care and care at home, community health services, palliative care, mental health and learning disability services.