Issue - meetings

(i)            to note the 2024/25 IJB draft outturn position before partner contribution of an overspend of £10.490m;

(ii)          to note additional in year funding of £10.490m had been provided by the partners, with Aberdeen City Council providing £4.043m and NHS Grampian providing £6.447m, in order to allow the IJB to balance the 2024/25 budget;

(iii)         to note the progress on the 2025/26 budget savings work;

(iv)         to note NHS Grampian Health Board considered the NHS Grampian 2025/26 budget on the 10th of April 2025 which included provision for IJB overspends; and

(v)          to approve the transfer of £5.931m from the 2025/26 Prescribing budget to the Adult Social Care budget. The overall budget of the IJB is unchanged.

The Board had before it the 2024/25 revenue budget draft outcome, prior to audit, for the delivery of the IJB responsibilities; and an update on the 2025/26 year budget savings, prepared by the Chief Finance Officer.

The Chief Finance Officer presented the report and responded to questions from Members.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          note the 2024/25 IJB draft outturn position before partner contribution of an overspend of £10.490m;

(b)          note additional in year funding of £10.490m had been provided by the partners, with Aberdeen City Council providing £4.043m and NHS Grampian providing £6.447m, in order to allow the IJB to balance the 2024/25 budget;

(c)          note the progress on the 2025/26 budget savings work;

(d)          note NHS Grampian Health Board considered the NHS Grampian 2025/26 budget on 10 April 2025 which included provision for IJB overspends; and

(e)          approve the transfer of £5.931m from the 2025/26 Prescribing budget to the Adult Social Care budget. The overall budget of the IJB is unchanged.

The Board had before it an amendment from Councillor Malik:-

that the Board –

(1)          Notes the recommendations contained within the report;

(2)         Notes that the Scottish Government has bailed out NHS Grampian with a £67m loan to tackle one of the largest overspends of any NHS Board in Scotland;

(3)         Notes that Aberdeen City Council received no loan from the Scottish Government;

(4)         Notes the membership of this Board is made up of NHS Grampian Board members and Elected City Councillors;

(5)         Agrees that given the financial position of NHS Grampian and the Financial incompetence of the IJB which has recorded an overspend of £17.035m it really is time for this Board to reflect on the year end 2024/25; and

(6)         Agrees that the public want to see scrutiny and debate and for this Board to test ideas therefore the end of year report should recognise that bringing forward amendments to recommendations is designed to challenge the status quo which has resulted in the IJB having no reserves and being in a challenging financial position as set out  within the report.

Councillor Malik’s amendment failed to attract a seconder and was therefore not put to the vote, in accordance with Standing Order 23.9.

The Board resolved:-

to agree the recommendations.

At this juncture, Councillor Malik intimated that he did not agree with the recommendations and would not support them, and asked for this to be recorded in the minute.

(i)            to note the financial position as at 31 December 2024 for the 2024/25 integrated budgets;

(ii)          to note the challenging factors that had caused the Chief Finance Officer to re-evaluate the financial implications for the deliverability of the November 2024 Recovery Plan, that meant a substantial overspend for the year was now forecast;

(iii)         to approve the use of IJB uncommitted reserves, up to the value of £6.119m, utilising all available and uncommitted reserves thus leaving no contingency to manage budget fluctuations in future years;

(iv)         to note the forecast 2024/25 deficit position of £10.454m after the use of £6.119m from reserves;

(v)          to note the Chief Finance Officer has notified the partners that a deficit is now forecast for the year, and understands that the deficit, in accordance with the IJB’s Integration Scheme, will require NHS Grampian to contribute c.£6m and Aberdeen City Council c.£4m;

(vi)         to note the opportunity for a special meeting of the Board prior to the next scheduled meeting of 18 March 2025, should the Chief Officer and Chief Finance Officer deem it necessary;

(vii)        in light of the latest forecast for the current financial year, note that significant work has also been undertaken to refresh the draft forecast budget position for 2025/26, that indicated an emerging gap in funding of circa £21.4m;

(viii)       to note, that at this stage, similar to the November 2024 recovery plan, there were key areas of the budget that would have to be tackled to bring costs in line with total funding.  Indicative areas and changes which could be made, are: 

1)    Changes to eligibility criteria for service users;

2)    Deliver services to meet statutory requirements;

3)    To consider sustainability of additional services currently provided to service users;

(ix)         to work to bring efficiencies to the partnership which would bring financial sustainability in future years;

(x)          to consider and mitigate the risk associated with all budget savings plans changing services levels to meet financial expenditure limits; and

(xi)         to acknowledge a significant effort would be required to deliver in-year savings of over £20m in 2025/26, that these would not be without a wide range of implications and therefore there remained a risk that a deficit in 2025/26 may emerge.

The Board had before it the Budget Monitoring report prepared by the Chief Finance Officer, which provided  detail of the 2024/25 quarter 3 financial position, the forecast year end outturn; and the draft outline budget for 2025/26.

The Chief Finance Officer presented the report and responded to questions from Members.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          note the financial position as at 31 December 2024 for the 2024/25 integrated budgets;

(b)          note the challenging factors that had caused the Chief Finance Officer to re-evaluate the financial implications for the deliverability of the November 2024 Recovery Plan, that meant a substantial overspend for the year was now forecast;

(c)          approve the use of IJB uncommitted reserves, up to the value of £6.119m, utilising all available and uncommitted reserves thus leaving no contingency to manage budget fluctuations in future years;

(d)          note the forecast 2024/25 deficit position of £10.454m after the use of £6.119m from reserves;

(e)          note the Chief Finance Officer had notified the partners that a deficit was now forecast for the year, and understand that the deficit, in accordance with the IJB’s Integration Scheme, will require NHS Grampian to contribute c.£6m and Aberdeen City Council c.£4m;

(f)           note the opportunity for a special meeting of the Board prior to the next scheduled meeting of 18 March 2025, should the Chief Officer and Chief Finance Officer deem it necessary;

(g)          in light of the latest forecast for the current financial year, note that significant work has also been undertaken to refresh the draft forecast budget position for 2025/26, that indicated an emerging gap in funding of circa £21.4m;

(h)          note, that at this stage, similar to the November 2024 recovery plan, there were key areas of the budget that would have to be tackled to bring costs in line with total funding.  Indicative areas and changes which could be made, were:          

1)    changes to eligibility criteria for service users;

2)    deliver services to meet statutory requirements;

3)    consider sustainability of additional services currently provided to service users;

4)    work to bring efficiencies to the partnership which would bring financial sustainability in future years; and

5)    consider and mitigate the risk associated with all budget savings plans changing services levels to meet financial expenditure limits; and

(i)            acknowledge a significant effort would be required to deliver in-year savings of over £20m in 2025/26, that these would not be without a wide range of implications and therefore there remained a risk that a deficit in 2025/26 may emerge.

The Board resolved:-

to agree the recommendations.