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Charities ‘at risk of closure’ following £4.5m funding cut in Edinburgh

Pabio October 29, 2024

Charities supporting Edinburgh’s most vulnerable people will lose millions of pounds in funding, it has been revealed.

The Edinburgh Integration Joint Board (EIJB), which oversees the city’s health and social care services, is set to cut £4.5 million from grants currently shared between 64 organisations.

The funding supports organizations that carry out prevention and early intervention work with vulnerable residents, including people with dementia, young people with disabilities, rape survivors, people on low incomes and new parents.

Funding for the grant was expected to continue until at least March next year, with the possibility of a further extension.

However, health and social care officials are proposing to bring forward the decision to the end of January in a bid to reduce a “significant financial gap” – giving charities just 90 days to find alternative funding and threatening future viability many projects.

Charities set to have their grants cut told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the move would cost city authorities more in the long term and risk removing the only support available to some of the poorest people in the city. the city.

One compared it to “a sinking ship deciding it needs to be lighter and cutting off its life rafts”, adding that he felt “devalued” by the proposals.

Outgoing EIJB chief executive Pat Togher said in a report that the organisation, a partnership between Edinburgh Council and NHS Lothian, was at risk of being “unable to carry out its core responsibilities”.

In March, a budget deficit of £60 million was reported and, despite making “substantial savings” since then, significant deficits remain. And with a further £50 million in cuts needed to balance the books in 2025-26, Mr Togher said the gaps “will not be closed through efficiency savings or better grip and control alone” and that the cash currently invested in the grant program “would be better”. devoted to other priorities.

He wrote: “The scale of the deficit is such that without decisive action, the EIJB will be unable to meet its statutory obligations and unable to protect our most vulnerable. In the absence of a substantial (and recurring) increase in revenue, the EIJB must reduce the scale of the services it provides.”

He said there would be “likely to have negative consequences for some people”, but added that this disadvantage was “outweighed by the benefits which would be experienced by the most vulnerable members of society for whom there is a legal duty to provide services”.

An impact evaluation found that the services provided by the 64 charities are used by around 55,500 people in Edinburgh.

He said the reduction could mean organizations “will close or specific services will be disrupted due to loss of funding”, alongside an increase in referrals for health and social care assessments and at higher levels loneliness and social isolation.

With many charities relying on core grants to attract additional funding from other sources, they warned the decision to make the cut would be “devastating”.

Marjorie Mitchell, who runs a Monday nursery in Portobello for people with dementia and is entirely dependent on a £4,000 annual grant from the EIJB, said: “The problem is that everything else is increasing; transportation (costs) increased by 50%, rent increased.

“We have 10 to 12 members who all have dementia, many of them are socially isolated, some of them don’t go anywhere other than here and that’s very important to them and their families, who have a little respite during a trip. Monday.

“I think they will be very upset.”

She added: “We could do a fundraiser, but to make £4,000 on top of the other things that have gone up, we would have to do a mammoth fundraiser and I don’t think we can do that. »

Portobello Monday Center organizes group activities, such as singing, and offers users a hot lunch and the opportunity to interact with others. “Some of them don’t go anywhere else,” says Marjorie, “that makes a big difference to them.”

Rachel Green, director of the Ripple Project which tackles poverty and inequality in Restalrig, Lochend and Craigentinny, told LDRS: “Last I heard we were going to get a one-year extension, which would give us 15 months to try branch that.

She said that although EIBJ’s annual funding was £87,000, the cut would result in disinvestment in the region of “half a million pounds”, as the grant “enables me and other people, to obtain other funds.

She added: “They’re trying to have a balanced budget, they haven’t had a balanced budget in two years and they’ve made do.

“It’s like a sinking ship decided it needed to be lighter and cut off its life rafts.

“That doesn’t make any sense. It will simply result in additional costs in the long run for another part of the organization.

“For this region, losing a resource like this is incredibly devastating. We are the only place they go. Not only do they come to the dining club, but they tell us that their electricity meter is not working properly, that they need a blue badge or that their prescriptions are not being respected. We also do all of this under the radar. We know the people, we know if they’re not there. If there were people dying, no one would know they died. »

Rachel said the proposal was causing her “an existential crisis about the type of society we are”, adding that the message it sent was that “older people are replaceable”.

She called on the EIBJ to “find a way to give us enough time to work with them to meet the needs of our most vulnerable people”.

The reduction is also expected to hit the Community Renewal Trust’s health case management service, based in Craigmillar, which helps residents access appropriate healthcare.

CEO John Halliday said it was a “vital service” based in Edinburgh’s poorest area, helping people facing mental health and chronic pain crises.

He said: “In our case our extensive charity will survive intact, although the same cannot be guaranteed for all the local residents we may have supported. Much more than our own organization and our own local community, we are above all concerned by the scale of these brutal and radical budget cuts for residents with the lowest life expectancies in all areas of the city.

While the East Synergy Group, a partnership of third sector organizations operating in the greater Craigmillar area, estimated the cuts could “cause around 100 job losses and remove services to around 40,000 Edinburgh residents “.

In a statement, Group Chairman Scott Neill said: “While we recognize the significant funding challenges facing EIBJ, divestment from the third sector to achieve short-term savings appears to be a mistake.

“Such actions are likely to increase pressure on NHS and council services, contradicting the Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland and the Audit Commission’s strong advocacy for improved prevention and early intervention strategies , which are known to be time consuming and require investment.

“Data consistently demonstrates that investing in prevention is one of the most cost-effective methods to improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities, thereby promoting greater sustainability with economic, social and environmental benefits. »

SNP councilors said they would oppose the in-year cut and seek a solution to continue funding in future years.

EIJB spokesperson Vicky Nicolson said that, in the face of the “urgent risk of closure facing many valuable third sector organisations”, she would ask the Board to postpone the report, which must be considered this Friday, November 1, to allow for consultation with a council committee to gather feedback.

“At this point,” she said, “we will recommend that the board consider using reserves to cover in-year funding, ensuring that these essential organizations can continue their work.”

Council leader Cammy Day said the Labor administration would try to “stop in-year cuts wherever we can”.

In an article on X on Monday evening, he blamed a “decade of SNP cuts” and said he would “propose a way forward” for engaging with the third sector.

Mr Togher recently announced his resignation as Chief Executive of the EIJB and will soon leave the organization to take up an equivalent role in Glasgow.

Commenting, he said the proposed changes to grants “represent less than 3% of our overall EIJB spending on the third sector, with the remainder of the savings consumed by the Health and Social Care Partnership”.

He said: “The projects received funding for three years in 2019, which was then extended into 2022 due to continued disruption due to Covid and is expected to conclude in March 2025.

“The EIJB has had to close a £60m financial gap this year and is currently preparing for similar savings 25/26.

“We must make the decisions necessary to meet our fundamental legal obligations and protect our most vulnerable – such as providing care homes, enforcing adult safeguarding and mental health legislation and preventing further drug-related deaths in the city .

“It is in this context that we must decide how we will now prioritize spending in the face of the severity of the savings imposed and ensure long-term sustainability.

“We have a duty to spend public money carefully and so we will bring forward proposals aimed at achieving the best for the citizens of Edinburgh by working with our third sector partners to ensure clear and measurable outcomes that improve health and social services in Edinburgh.”