Questions are being raised about how much of the £100m of emergency funding for social care during covid-19 pledged by the Scottish government has reached the frontline.

A body representing non-profit care providers says three months on from the first £50m tranche in May its members have seen “virtually nothing of it” and is asking what the money has been spent on.

The cash was to be used on extra costs related to covid-19, such as more staff sick pay, PPE and the costs of tougher infection control measures.

A further £50m was promised to Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) that are in charge of health and social care partnerships on the 3^rd August, ‘to help ensure the sustainability of the social care sector’.

These organisations were asked to distribute some of the funding on to social care employers that are facing higher costs due to covid.

But Annie Gunner Logan, head of the Coalition of Care & Support Providers in Scotland, told healthandcare.scot that three months after the first £50m was pledged her organisation’s members “have seen virtually nothing of it”.

Now she is concerned that there might not be any left despite it not having appeared in the pockets of those delivering care.

Local government representative body COSLA admits there have been “challenges” in distributing the funds.

“This isn’t a finger-pointing exercise,” Ms Gunner Logan says. “Officials from Scottish government, COSLA, the Chief Officers Group and SOLACE [a UK network for public sector professionals] are working with us quite hard to try to unblock some of this.

She adds that what this shows “is a real lack of transparency, accountability and assurance in the system as a whole”.

“We asked our members at the end of June, who’s seen any of this? We had 54 responses and only three of them had seen any of it. Just last week, we asked for an update on this, and again very, very small amounts are starting to come through.

“This is just from the first [funding], that was announced in the middle of May.”

“The question that I am asking is what’s this being spent on?

“Because if you consider that somewhere between 70-80% of social care is delivered outside the public sector, you might imagine, just as a wild extrapolation, that 70-80% of that £50m might actually find its way to those organisations.”

Ms Gunner Logan describes a “mindboggling” level of complexity when it comes to how funding is distributed:

“Money comes out from Scottish Government into partnerships, into local authorities and then partnerships, or into the NHS and then partnerships, and then where it goes we have no idea.”

In response, Councillor Stuart Currie, COSLA’s Health and Social Care Spokesperson says: “Local government have been working extremely hard to put systems and processes in place to ensure that the money can flow to frontline social care providers who submit the required information through this process. 

“There have been challenges with this and COSLA has been working with the health and social care partnerships and provider representative organisations to support the processes. 

“COSLA and Scottish government are in active discussions to ensure adequate support to the sector continues.”

A Scottish government spokesperson said the £100m commitment was a “practical commitment to continuing to support the sustainability and resilience of the sector.”

“We continue to work with IJBs and COSLA on how the second tranche of this additional funding will be allocated and to ensure claims are received and payments for services are made in good time to social care providers.

“Where individual providers or bodies have concerns they should raise these directly with us.”

 

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