SNP ministers have been warned to stop “bleeding councils dry” after Perth and Kinross and East Renfrewshire became the first local authorities in Scotland to declare social care emergencies.
Motions proposed by Scottish Conservative councillors in both authorities were passed at meetings yesterday (Wednesday).
Councillors in East Renfrewshire said the declaration was in response to a projected £27million social care funding gap over four years.
Group leader Gordon Wallace said the SNP Government’s funding model for councils was “unsustainable” and leaving local authorities unable to provide core services.
In Perth and Kinross, group leader John Duff said the authority had been forced to plough money from elsewhere in its budget this year, including raiding £4.8 million from its reserves, as well as raising council tax by 9.5 per cent, to mitigate its social care funding gap.
Councillor Gordon Wallace, leader of the Scottish Conservative group in East Renfrewshire, said: “Enough is enough. The crisis in delivering social care in East Renfrewshire is so acute that the SNP Government must sit up and listen.
“Nationalist ministers have been bleeding Scotland’s councils dry for years and it’s got to the point where we simply cannot meet the social care needs of residents.
“The SNP’s funding model is completely unsustainable. East Renfrewshire Council has been forced to introduce charges for non-residential social care but even that will make little impact on a £27 million shortfall.
“This problem has a knock-on effect on our NHS, because if councils can’t provide the care packages needed by local patients, they remain stuck in hospital, adding to the bed-blocking crisis.
“As well as declaring an emergency, we’ve sought an urgent meeting with Neil Gray to plead for the long-term funding essential to delivering integrated care.
John Duff, leader of the Scottish Conservative group in Perth and Kinross, said: “These declarations must be a wake-up call to the SNP government to finally accept the scale of the crisis their underfunding is causing in social care in Perth and Kinross and across Scotland.
“We can’t continue to raid our reserves and hit residents with eye-watering council tax increases to fund day-to-day social care provision.
“Nationalist ministers have squandered £30m on plans for a National Care Service that nobody wanted, while slashing the funding councils need to deliver frontline care.
“Scotland’s councils need a fair funding deal from central government, multi-year certainty and less ring-fencing, all of which the Scottish Conservatives called for in our recent local government policy paper.
“We and East Renfrewshire may be the first two councils to declare social care emergencies but, unless the SNP government dramatically rethinks its approach, we won’t be the last.”