Argyll and Bute Council leader's concerns over financial communication on health board

Councillor Aileen Morton was expressing frustration after the HSCP’s integration joint board (IJB) was asked to accept funding offers which it had already agreed to take on.

A report at last Wednesday’s meeting by the HSCP’s chief financial officer Lesley McLeod recommended that the partnership – which has a projected overspend of £4m – accept proposed funding from the council and NHS Highland.

But after Councillor Morton highlighted that a decision to accept had been taken at the last meeting in September, checks confirmed that was the case.

Councillor Morton said: “It is concerning to be sitting at such a high level at this point but what frustrates me is that this is a substantial decision which we have already picked up at the last meeting to be brought back today.

“As a relatively new board member, I can’t grasp where the scale of risk sits.

"I speak from a genuine sense of frustration that I don’t have a grasp on it, and as a board, we need to be clear on how this is progressing.”

Councillor Morton then distributed an amended list of recommendations, including that the IJB acknowledge that it is “extremely unlikely” that the HSCP will achieve a break-even position by April.

But IJB chairman Robin Creelman said: “I agree with an awful lot of what you say, but you have said it is extremely unlikely that the HSCP will achieve a break-even position.

“To take that point of view is a bit dramatic, although I understand why you have said it.”

There then followed lengthy debate, with a solution required before the meeting closed.

Subject to changing the words “extremely unlikely” to “challenging”, those decisions were agreed.

Councillor Morton said after the meeting: “While the reported scale of overspend for this year is concerning, it was good to hear officers say very clearly that substantial action is being taken to address this and the aim is still to achieve financial balance by the end of year.”