South Lanarkshire Integration Joint Board - Financial Plan 2024/2025
| Title | South Lanarkshire Integration Joint Board - Financial Plan 2024/2025 |
|---|---|
| Resource | Social Work |
| Aims and objectives | To fulfil their obligations under the duty, public bodies must be able to meet what the Act calls the key requirement in each case: to actively consider how they could reduce inequalities of outcome in any major strategic decision they make; and to publish a written assessment, showing how this has been done. The IJB Financial Plan 2024/2025 may impact on adults and older people in South Lanarkshire who have a learning or physical disability, mobility challenges, frailty or dementia, mental health or a visual or hearing impairment. This will include people across all the protected characteristic groups as defined by the Equality Act 2010. Statistics for each of the characteristics are provided below where these are available. The population trends for South Lanarkshire have been collated from the Office of National Statistics, the Scottish Government and the census. Uptake of health and social care services and performance outcomes are regularly monitored. In addition, account is being taken of the potential for socio-economic inequality as a result of implementing the IJB Financial Plan 2024/2025. The IJB continues to be committed to consulting on those proposals which are approved. |
| Conclusion | One of the responsibilities placed on local authorities by the Fairer Scotland Duty is to consider methods of how to assess the impact of council plans and policies on minority groups where equality is an issue. In this respect the scope of the FSD would therefore include trying to assess the impact of council policies or strategies on groups more susceptible to economic disadvantage or lack of opportunities for economic advancement due to their social background/age/marital status or ethnic group. One of the problems facing local authorities is how to accurately measure the impact of any strategy or policies on these groups. At the moment there is a significant lack of data available from national surveys on the effects of poverty and inequality at the local authority level on minority groups. One example of this is the results from one of the main surveys designed to measure the impact of poverty and material deprivation, the Family Resources Survey (FRS). The FRS contains a wealth of useful data on poverty and material deprivation levels on different types of household, but the majority of the results are only available at a national level. The results from the FRS confirms that characteristics such as gender/ ethnic group/ disability/ marital status/ age etc. does have a bearing on life chances and influence poverty levels. Starting with gender, the last figures for the FRS (2017-20) suggests that relative poverty is highest for single women with children (38%). The poverty rate for single women without children by contrast was only 27%. For single men without children the rate of poverty was 34%. Estimates for single fathers are not available due to small sample sizes. Until 2010-13, the gap in poverty rates between these groups had been narrowed, but since 2013 the trends suggest that rates of poverty have been widened based on these household types. The difference in poverty rates between households from different ethnic backgrounds is also stark. The latest FRS data for 2015-20, confirms that people from non-white minority ethnic groups (both UK and non-UK born) are much more likely to be in relative poverty (after housing costs) compared to those from the ‘White - British’ and ‘White - Other’ backgrounds. More than two fifths of ‘Asian or Asian British’ ethnic households (41%), and ‘Mixed, Black or Black British and Other’ ethnic households (43%) were living in poverty according to the FRS 2015-20. By contrast only around a quarter of households (24%) from the ‘White - Other’ group (inc Eastern European) are recorded as living in poverty. Levels of poverty among households from a ‘White - British’ background are even lower (just 18%), less than half the rate for Asian or Asian British’ and the ‘Mixed, Black or Black British and Other’ ethnic groups. Poverty rates remain higher for households where a family member is disabled (both adult and/ or child) compared to a household where no-one is disabled. The FRS 2017-20, indicates that the poverty rate (after housing costs) for households with a disabled person is 23%. This compares with an average poverty rate of 17% of households without disabled members. In terms of the influence of marital status, the 2017-20 FRS data implies that the relative poverty rate (after housing costs) is highest for single adult and divorced (or separated) adult households (both 27%). Married couple households are the least likely to be in poverty (13%), while widowed and cohabiting adult households are slightly more likely to experience poverty (19%). Poverty among widowed and divorced/separated adults has largely decreased over the past 15 years, whereas the trend for singles, cohabiting and married adults has tended to remain unchanged. The FRS also confirms that poverty levels differ according to the age of the household head. Over the last 15 years, households headed by those under 24 have been consistently more likely to be in relative poverty compared to older adult households. In 2017-20, while 28% of adults aged 16-24 were recorded to be in relative poverty (after housing costs), only 15% of households headed by an adult aged 65 or older lived in poverty. Included within the IJB Financial Plan 2024/2025Click here to enter text. is the commitment to ensuring those most vulnerable within society, who may also be experiencing income poverty or socio-economic disadvantage, continue to receive the care and support they require. This includes consistent and fair application of Self-Directed Support (SDS) and the South Lanarkshire Eligibility Framework, ensuring assessed need and risk continue to be considered and addressed for each individual. The IJB Financial Plan 2024/2025Click here to enter text. will focus on early intervention and prevention and addressing substantial, critical and urgent health and social care needs. As an example, based on national policy towards offering people who are assessed as needing care, more personalised, individual support to meet their needs, Self-directed Support (SDS) will ultimately lead to people achieving the outcomes they want in their day-to-day lives. This assessment process will identify any socio-economic disadvantage and address this within the individual’s support plan. The overarching SDS Review team is working to ensure equity in the allocation of finite carers’ support funding and is working in partnership with Lanarkshire Carers to ensure continued effective and efficient support is given to unpaid carers. The Community Planning Partnership and the Tackling Poverty Team will have a particular focus on improving neighbourhood level outcomes and reducing the inequality gap, and funding allows service provision dedicated to providing support (for example the Rent Income Support Team, and Money Matters Team). The Child Poverty Action Plan, produced in partnership with a range of local organisations, sets out how we will work together to reduce child poverty in South Lanarkshire. The plan aims to make sure that what we do will make a real difference to families struggling every day to make ends meet and includes measurable targets that progress will be monitored against. South Lanarkshire Council has refocussed employability activity to target those who may be disadvantaged by in-work poverty, and continue to work with employers in our area to encourage Fair Work practices, and payment of the Living Wage. Each partner’s workforce strategies highlight recruitment challenges. The Care Academy has been established to ‘grow our own’ workforce and to support people in society to enter the health and social care profession. The IJB Financial Plan 2024/2025 proposes savings options for approval by the IJB and also management and operational actions for noting which are currently being progressed at pace across health and social care services. |
| Completed date | March 2024 |
| Contact email | equalities@southlanarkshire.gov.uk |