By Stuart Sommerville

Copyright dailyrecord

West Lothian’s crisis in care funding has reached the point where the last of its cash reserves will run out this year, officials have warned. The Integration Joint Board, which oversees social care services, faces making more cuts or capping services to the most vulnerable in the community. The Board has had to rely on using its reserve funds to break even as health care budgets have soared in the last few years. Both the NHS and West Lothian Council have also had to pump extra funds into the Board’s ever-dwindling coffers. It has already cut spending on auxiliary staffing and funding in care homes, care at home packages for the elderly and in adult social care and transport. These services face further cutbacks incoming years board members, including councillors, heard. However services across the spectrum of health care, both mental and physical could be hit in the future. Some of the biggest pressures facing the IJB are in prescription costs, general medicine and minor injuries. Most of these wider costs are in staffing. The Board agreed to write to West Lothian Council and NHS Lothian, its co-funders, to highlight the crisis. Hamish Hamilton, the Board’s chief financial officer, told a meeting: “I’ll discuss options for breaking even with both directors of finance in November.” He added: “This isn’t sustainable and it’s very likely that our reserves will run out this financial year. Our financial challenges are unprecedented and to remain sustainable difficult choices will have to be made prioritisation of services and reductions or even caps to services may be required.” Delivering his financial forecast for the rest of the year Mr Hamilton told the Board on Wednesday: “It’s likely the board will need to rely on the use of one-off resources- IJB reserves or additional payments from the partners to break even this year. “Looking forward, even if we were to balance the budget this year we face a funding gap of £7.4 m next year and a further £6.7m in 27/28. “Any recurring overspend from this year will just add to that gap in the next few years.” New chair of the Board John Innes asked: “Are we flagging that to our co-sponsors the council and NHS Lothian? Mr Hamilton replied: “Both partners are very aware of our position. To put it in context I believe we are the only IJB in the Lothians that still has a general reserve fund, and across the country now more than half of IJBs are predicted to have no general reserves by the end of this year.” There are 31 IJBs across Scotland. Mr Hamilton stressed: “There cannot be any more cuts without impacting seriously on our services. Mr Innes said: “We as a board need to prepare a note to send back to our parent organisations, clearly identifying the position we find ourselves in, not just from the outrun but also from the current budget,” Chief Officer of the Board Alison White will work with others to prepare an outline of the Board finances to the NHS and the council. It’s likely any extra emergency funding would have to come from Holyrood. Don’t miss the latest news from the West Lothian Courier. Sign up to our free newsletter here .