IJBs, the bodies that oversee health and social care services, are facing significant financial challenges across the country.
This was recently highlighted in a report from the Accounts Commission, which stated that: "The financial position for all IJBs is set to worsen with a projected funding gap of £457 million in 2024 / 25."
This is no different in Renfrewshire, where we continue to look at safe ways to deliver a balanced budget. We have called this work our 'Sustainable Futures Programme'.
We appreciate that this will mean the next few years will be challenging, and many people will feel some level of uncertainty. But it is clear that the IJB will have to make some difficult decisions to balance its budget.
Despite the financial position, Renfrewshire IJB still has a very significant budget of around £400 million. In this context, we recognise that our primary focus must be to deliver the best services possible with the resources we have available. We can, and will, still be able to have a positive impact with the funding we have available - and we want to focus on continuing to provide the most effective services we can with that money, in a sustainable way.
Sustainable Futures Progress
Where we need to make budget savings in the short term to maintain financial balance, the IJB agreed that we should follow an equitable approach to identify potential savings. In line with this approach, in December 2024, the IJB agreed it would aim to deliver savings to the value of £19.133 million. The breakdown of where these savings could be taken or further explored is summarised in the following table:
It should also be noted that in March 2025, Renfrewshire Council's Leadership Board approved implementation of a revised non-residential charging policy. The potential increase in income from this policy was included in the £19.1m figure noted above.
Engagement Process
As part of our ongoing engagement approach, in 2024, the HSCP undertook a series of focus groups across all service areas, to explore ideas for possible savings and changes the HSCP could make to how services are provided.
Further engagement through the programme will now involve two distinct pieces of work:
- Early engagement through targeted focus groups to inform the development of the 'review of all care group day services' proposal. This is a complex area, and the focus group feedback will be used to inform the associated proposal. This will build upon the exploratory engagement that took place in late 2024. These are scheduled to take place in early April with targeted groups. This activity is happening alongside work we are doing to develop impact assessments for the other savings proposals highlighted.
- Public engagement to test the impact assessments and gather further feedback on all saving ideas that are outlined in category 2 in the table above.
Public Engagement
Our teams are working hard to arrange the details of this activity. The current schedule is for initial proposals to be published in early June. This is designed to give people time to digest and consider the proposals, with the ability to feedback through a variety of ways, if they choose to do so.
Later in June, we will invite people to join one of a series of Town Hall events, either in-person at various locations across Renfrewshire, or at an online event if they prefer. We will share more details on these events at the earliest possible opportunity.
Looking Ahead
The next IJB meeting will take place on Friday 27 June 2025, when we will share details of further progress and developments on the programme. The savings proposals outlined in this message will not be considered by the IJB until September 2025.
You can find more information from the most recent IJB report: Sustainable Futures: Update on Programme Activity.
For previous reports, please visit: Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership - IJB Meetings.
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