Worries over potential cuts to health and social care

Some health and social care schemes could be cut as council worries that the funding is under threat.

Blaenau Gwent’s social services scrutiny committee will consider an update on the Integrated Care Fund.

The Integrated Care Fund (ICF) was set up by the Welsh Government to help regional partnership boards to develop new trials for delivering health and social care.

The ICF is split up into two streams, the capital funding which is protected by the Welsh Government, and the revenue funding which could be under threat by 2020-21.

The Welsh Government had committed to the three-year plan, which covers Welsh organisations until 2021.

Plans have been put in place by Blaenau Gwent to create an exit strategy in case the revenue funding isn’t extended.

The report for the committee said: “In relation to revenue funding there has been no commitment from Welsh Government to continue the funding after April 2021 and therefore, exit strategies are being developed to identify the potential to sustain the services from core or alternative budgets.

“In some instances, this will mean that some services may be withdrawn and during 2020-21 assessments will need to be developed to ascertain the impact for our citizens.”

Funding for dementia is one of the ICF revenue funds under threat. It supports priorities of the All Wales Dementia Action Plan, which includes raising awareness and understanding, reduce the risks, increased support and living well as possible for as long as possible.

The other two are the Wales health and social care IT systems whose allocation for Gwent in 2018-19 was £292k and the autism funding which received £458k.

A Welsh Government spokesperson: “The Integrated Care Fund was created to develop and trial innovative new approaches to meeting people’s health and care needs.

“We are working with partners to mainstream the most successful projects, which have been supported by the fund.

“The Welsh Government is preparing to publish its draft Budget for 2020-21 next month.

“Last month, the UK Government provided, for the first time, details of our revenue budget.

“Along with a modest increase in our capital budget this only provides us with a one-year settlement for 2020-21.”