Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

The Chair extended a warm welcome to everyone and expressed his thanks to the Chief Officer, Chief Finance Officer and all the officers involved in the preparation of the Budget.

The Chair welcomed Councillor Malik to his first meeting of the IJB and thanked  Councillor Bonsell for her contributions over the past year and a half.  He paid tribute to the Chief Operating Officer who was attending his last IJB before moving to new role at the University of Aberdeen.

Finally, the Chair noted that this was his last meeting as Chair of the IJB as his two year term was coming to an end.  He stated that it had been a privilege and pleasure.

The Board resolved:-

to note the Chair’s remarks.

Members are requested to intimate any Declarations of Interest or Transparency Statements

Members were requested to intimate any Declarations of Interest or Transparency Statements in respect of items on the agenda.

The Board resolved:-

(i)            to note that the Vice Chair advised that he had a connection in relation to all items on the agenda by virtue of being (1) a Member of the Diverse Experiences Advisory Panel, a named partner in the Scottish Government’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Delivery Plan; (2) the Depute Representative of said Group to the Scottish Government Mental Health and Wellbeing Leadership Board; (3) a Lived Experience representative on the Scottish Government’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Leadership Board; (4) Co-Chair of the Scottish National Action Plan Leadership Board on Human Rights; and (5) Alternate Designate on the Human Rights Incorporation Oversight Board, however having applied the objective test, he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting;

(ii)          to note that the Vice Chair advised that he had a connection in relation to agenda item 4.5 (Draft Strategic Plan) due to his participation on a project with Dundee University investigating quantifying the prevalence of people living with chronic pain, however having applied the objective test, he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting for that item; and

(iii)         to note that Maggie Hepburn declared an interest in relation to agenda item 4.4 (Grant Funding for Voluntary Organisations) by reason of her employment as Chief Executive of ACVO and advised that she would therefore withdraw from the meeting for the duration of that item.

The Board had before it a report advising of a recent change to its voting Membership and seeking agreement to appoint a new Member of the Clinical and Care Governance Committee .

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          note the appointment, by Aberdeen City Council, of Councillor Malik as voting member of the Integration Joint Board; and

(b)          appoint Councillor Malik to the Clinical and Care Governance Committee.

The Board resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Board had before it a report prepared by the Chief Finance Officer outlining the 2025/26 revenue budget for the delivery of the IJB’s responsibilities and the financial allocations proposed to be made from Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian to fund the IJB for the 2025/26 year.

The Chief Finance Officer introduced the report and responded to questions from members.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          note that the IJB had requested additional in year funding of £10.909m from Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian to allow the IJB to balance the 2025/26 budget;

(b)          note that Aberdeen City Council agreed its General Fund budget for 2025/26 on 5 March 2025, with an increase of £9.536m of funding for the IJB, which included £4.2m towards the request noted at 2.1.1, and approved revised charges that would increase income for the IJB by £0.381m;

(c)          note that NHS Grampian met to agree their 2025/26 budget on 10 April 2025. This would include consideration of £12.647m of additional funding for the IJB which if approved would include £6.7m towards the request noted at 2.1.1;

(d)          approve the proposed Revenue Budget for the 2025/26 financial year subject to the decision of NHS Grampian on 10 April 2025;

(e)          approve the savings proposed of £14.354m to balance the budget for 2025/26;

(f)           make the Directions at Appendix 1B to Aberdeen City Council and Appendix 1A to NHS Grampian and instruct the Chief Officer to issue the Directions to Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian respectively; and

(g)          note that should the budget assumptions not be approved by NHS Grampian the IJB would convene an urgent meeting to reconsider its budget.

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

that the Board –

(1)          agree that Integrated Joint Boards throughout Scotland and in particular Aberdeen continue to be underfunded by the Scottish Government;

(2)          agree the Scottish government has wasted a huge amount of money and effort in bringing forward a National Care Service only for it to be scrapped at the eleventh hour;

(3)          agree that the Aberdeen IJB is living beyond its means and therefore requires to make difficult decisions about service provision before asking its partners for more and more money;

(4)          agree having no reserves reflects badly on the Board accepting that reserves were probably used to cover chronic underfunding by the Scottish Government over the last three years; and

(5)          agree not to adopt the budget, noting NHS Grampian has not yet agreed to our request for a contribution, noting they will not do so until 7 April which is outwith our timescale for approving our budget therefore agree instead to re-look at the budget to reduce costs and live within our means rather than simply asking partners to bail out the Aberdeen IJB by asking officers to bring forward a balanced budget on or before 31 March 2025.

Councillor Malik’s amendment failed to attract a seconder and was therefore not put to the vote, in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Board had before it the Medium Term Financial Forecast, prepared by the Chief Finance Officer who introduced the report and responded to questions from members.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          approve the draft Medium Term Financial Forecast; and

(b)          instruct the IJB Chief Finance Officer to refresh the Medium Term Financial Forecast following approval of the IJB Strategic Plan (2025-2029).

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

that the Board –

(1)         does not approve the draft Medium-Term Financial Forecast; and

(2)         instruct the IJB Chief Finance Officer to refresh the Medium-Term Financial Forecast following approval of the IJB Strategic Plan (2025-2029) to ensure the forecast budget is based on the amount of money it receives rather than on money it may require from funding partners, thus living within its means.

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 approve the recommendations.

At this juncture, Councillor Malik intimated that he did not agree with the recommendations and would not support them.

At this juncture, and in accordance with article 2(iii) of this minute, Maggie Hepburn withdrew from the meeting.

The Board had before it a report prepared by the Commissioning Lead in respect of grant funding for voluntary organisations.  The Commissiong Lead introduced the report and responded to questions from members.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          approve the expenditure for the funding of voluntary organisations as detailed in the business case in Appendix A of the report;

(b)          agree to no longer provide grant funding to Scottish Care; and

(c)          make the direction in Appendix B of the report to Aberdeen City Council and instruct the Chief Officer to issue that Direction to Aberdeen City Council.

The Board resolved:-

(i)            to note the business case in Appendix A of the report;

(ii)          to approve the expenditure for the funding of voluntary organisations detailed at Appendix A of the report for a period of 12 months to 31 March 2026;

(iii)         to agree to no longer provide grant funding to Scottish Care;

(iv)         to amend the timescale of the Direction to Aberdeen City Council in Appendix B to an end date of 31 March 2026;

(v)          to make the amended Direction and instruct the Chief Officer to issue that amended Direction to Aberdeen City Council;

(vi)         to instruct the Chief Officer to bring back a report on the future funding of grant funded services beyond 31 March 2026 to the meeting of the IJB on 2 December 2025;

(vii)        to instruct the Commissioning Lead to include qualitative feedback from service users as part of participant reviews in the Service Review at Appendix D of report HSCP.25.021 and to bring this back to the meeting of the IJB on 2 December 2025; and

(viii)       to instruct the Commissioning Lead to issue a Service Update no later than 31 July 2025 in respect of provision of all Counselling Services.

The Board had before it the draft ACHSCP Strategic Plan for the period 2025-2029, prepared by the Strategy and Transformation Lead.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          approve the draft ACHSCP Strategic Plan 2025-2029, the Evidence Document, and the Consultation and Engagement Plan as detailed in appendices A to C of the report;

(b)          instruct the Chief Officer to consult with the public including academics linked to the Health Determinants Research Collaboration, on the draft commencing 24 March 2025 and ending 14 May 2025 (in time for report preparation for the IJB meeting on 1 July 2025);

(c)          note that the consultation would be undertaken jointly with Aberdeen City Council’s Local Housing Strategy, Community Learning and Development Plan and Local Development Plan;

(d)          instruct the Chief Officer to update the draft IJB Strategic Plan 2025-2029 following feedback and comments received from the consultation process and present the proposed final version to the IJB meeting on 1 July 2025 for approval;

(e)          instruct the Chief Officer to also present the first Annual Delivery Plan of the Strategic Plan 2025-2029 to the IJB meeting on 1 July 2025 for approval; and

(f)           note that the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) was underway, was being informed by engagement and consultation, and would be presented along with the final Strategic Plan.

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

that the Board -

(1)          note the recommendations within the Report;

(2)          agree that any Strategic Plan is just words without actions or finance to carry out those actions; and

(3)          agree any Strategic Plan should be based on what we can do not what we cannot do, therefore instruct the Chief Officer to present the Annual Delivery Plan alongside the Draft Strategic Plan 2025-2029 to the IJB meeting on 1 July 2025 for approval based on what the IJB can do rather than what it cannot do, due to financial restraints.

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:-

(i)            to instruct the Strategy and Transformation Lead to incorporate amendments to the consultation and engagement around (1) BSL users and recognising the needs of that community; and (2) enhancement of closing the feedback loop in respect of signposting to services; and

(ii)          to otherwise approve the recommendations.

At this juncture, Councillor Malik intimated that he did not agree with the recommendations and would not support them, however he thanked all officers, Councillor Bonsell for her time on the IJB, and the outgoing Chief Operating Officer but expressed his concern that the Board was not sufficiently robust in debating crucial issues.

The Board had before them the first draft of the Housing Contribution Statement and Local Housing Strategy, prepared by the Strategy and Transformation Lead.

The report recommended:-

that the Board:

(a)          note the content of both the draft Housing Contribution Statement and draft Local Housing Strategy and the links between those and the IJB Strategic Plan;

(b)          note that the final Housing Contribution Statement would be informed by feedback from the consultation on both the IJB Strategic Plan and the Local Housing Strategy; and

(c)          instruct the Chief Officer to update the draft Housing Contribution Statement following feedback and comments received from the consultation on both the IJB Strategic Plan and the Local housing Strategy and present the proposed final version to the IJB meeting on 1 July 2025 for approval.

The Board resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Vice Chair advised that as this was Councillor Cooke’s last meeting as Chair of the IJB, he wished to formally record his thanks to the Chair for his tenure.

The Board resolved:-

to note the Vice Chair’s remarks.

The Board had before it the date of the next Integration Joint Board meeting as

13 May 2025.

The Board resolved:-

to note the date of the next meeting.

-           COUNCILLOR JOHN COOKE, Chair.