THE spending watchdog has raised concern over the ability of new authorities to have a significant impact on the care of elderly and vulnerable people after responsibility passed over to the bodies without final budgets being decided.

Across Scotland billions of pounds of public spending transferred to the new boards on Friday and they are now tasked with using it to improve community care and keep more people out of hospital.

However, while some of the new authorities, which will look after services including GP surgeries and care homes, know exactly how much money they have to spend, others face a two month wait for the NHS to finalise their funds.

This is because a significant element of their funding is coming from the NHS and health boards, unlike councils, do not have to agree their budgets until later in the year.

Gordon Neill, senior manager for Audit Scotland, said it raised questions over the authorities' ability to plan services and ensure they make an impact on care for elderly and vulnerable people.

Across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde the six new care boards are not expecting to have their final budgets confirmed until June.

Gordon Neill, senior manager for Audit Scotland, said: "We have got concerns that at this late stage there are still budgets which are not agreed which means they cannot plan meaningful strategies for the next year or the next three or four years. Which in turn raises the question of how they are going to make a significant impact.

"We will look at this in more detail in our next audit on health and social care integration, publishing next year."

In what the Scottish Government has called the single biggest health and care reform since the creation of the NHS, 31 new care boards bringing together £8 billion of NHS and social care resources have been created across the country.

They are responsible both for community NHS services – such as GPs and district nursing – and social care services such as care homes and home care.

Projections show the number of over-75s living in Scotland rising by 16,000 ever year and the new care boards are being expected to reform services to ensure the frail are well looked after at home and swiftly discharged if they do need hospital treatment.

Many of the boards, known as Health and Social Care partnerships have been working in shadow form during 2015/16 and the Scottish Government claims they have already started to deliver results – including a drop in patients waiting over three days to be discharged from hospital.

Ian Welsh, chief executive of the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, said of the delay in finalising budgets: "Whilst this news is disappointing, we remain optimistic that budgets are being developed with transformative thinking in mind and with consideration of how new models of health and social care can deliver better outcomes for people who use support and services across the country.”

Some of the Greater Glasgow and Clyde care authorities have indicated they are working smoothly with indicative budgets from the NHS

Karen Murray, chief officer of the East Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said: "Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS board will not formally sign off its financial plan until its board meeting in June. However, all health boards have been written to by the Scottish Government telling them to set allocations for the HSCP health delegated functions for 16/17 so that HSCPs can set budgets for 16/17, subject to subsequent final confirmation of the Health board allocation in June."

In a statement NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "There is no delay with the budgets for the Integrated Joint Boards.

"The process for finalising the financial plan for 2016/17 is in line with timescales for previous years and in accordance with Scottish Government guidance."

The Herald has already revealed that 19 of the new boards are taking over services which went into the red during the 2015-16 financial year. Cuts to services which are thought to help people avoid crisis – such as respite care – took place during 2015-16 to try to curb spending.