Renfrewshire carers have warned that more pressure will be placed on their shoulders following the approval of contentious cost-cutting proposals. The measures, designed to help close a £14 million budget black hole facing Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), were agreed at a meeting of the integration joint board (IJB).
Details of the approved cuts
The approved proposals include the reduction of health visiting; redesign of older adults and learning and physical disability day service models; review of respite provision; closures of Flexicare and Autism Connections; and removal of the assertive outreach model. These changes are expected to generate savings of just under £2.6 million.
The decision has come as a bitter blow to those closest to some of the area's most vulnerable individuals. Willie Paton, a carer representative, expressed strong opposition at the meeting, stating: "This whole document here is about slash and burn. Again, it's about putting more pressure on to the carers' shoulders. This isn't just about money, this is about real life. People are dying ... The stress and the strain that you place with your decisions in these chambers are killing people."
Financial recovery threat looms
The outcome, supported by all voting members except one, followed consideration of a report warning of repercussions if the IJB cannot close its funding gap. As reserves diminish and the risk of being unable to balance the books grows, the threat of entering a 'last-resort position' known as 'financial recovery' has intensified. Billy McClean, chief officer of the HSCP, noted: "We, as officers, have looked at other options and we brought forward other options to discuss with the IJB back very soon after September. But I think all of us recognised, both officers and IJB members, that actually the alternative proposals were even worse than what has been proposed."
McClean added that the proposals aim to protect services, and the alternative would be entering financial recovery quicker, which "becomes unpredictable and potentially unsafe and certainly will have an impact on unpaid carers and others across the system."
Opposition and concerns over isolation
Labour councillor Iain McMillan, who opposed the measures, argued they will increase isolation and financial pressure on service users' relatives. He relayed the words of the late Helen McAleer – a carer, campaigner and advocate for the learning disabled community who died in April. Her open letter, shared before a previous meeting in September when a 4-4 stalemate occurred, urged: "Before we start to take votes on the salami slicing of services, which Renfrewshire has been so proud to have, take a moment and think about what society we want Renfrewshire to have. Do we want the most vulnerable to lose services, cast them to the wind and ask carers to shoulder a heavier task for their loved ones?"
McMillan concluded: "It doesn't have to be this way." If financial recovery becomes a reality, it would involve immediate cost containment and a shift from service improvement to short-term financial control, potentially leading to longer waiting times, reduced access to services, service prioritisation, and increased pressure on staff and carers.
Planned approach vs. financial recovery
SNP councillor Jacqueline Cameron supported the planned approach, stating: "The financial recovery paper was so important because what we need to understand is that the people who are here today wanting to protect their services, if we go into financial recovery we can't guarantee that those services are going to be protected. But in this manner we can look at it in a planned way, we can have dialogue, we can think about the future and shape it in the way that we want."
