COUNCIL chiefs have warned SNP ministers that more priority and funding must be focused on preventing extra strain on health services instead of continuing to pump “reactive” money into the NHS.

Cosla, the umbrella organisation for Scottish local authorities, has told the Scottish Government that efforts should be made to “reduce demand on health and social care services” instead of “just funding the NHS and continue to be reactive”.

The organisation was responding to a consultation launched by the Scottish Government ahead of the first multi-year resource spending review since 2011.

SNP ministers hope to publish multi-year plans for day-to-day spending in May to help provide organisations more medium-term certainty.

But Cosla has warned that without “meaningful long-rerm , sustainable investment in local government”, the Scottish Government’s priorities in reducing child poverty, supporting the economy and tackling the climate crisis will be “impossible” to achieve.

The organisation has long warned that local government has seen a real-terms cut in funding over the last few years, insisting that “the gap cannot continue be met by local government through further efficiencies”.

The proportion of the Scottish Government budget that local councils receive has fallen from 34 per cent in 2013/14 to 28% this year while over the same period, spending on health has increased to account for around 41%.

Cosla said that “local government has been making efficiency savings for over a decade and the cracks are now starting to show”.

The organisation added that “any suggestion that this funding gap be met by local government through further efficiencies is false”.

Despite acknowledging that “there are clear signs that health inequalities are worsening”, Cosla has told ministers that “funding to address this must be sustainable and not at the expense of core local government funding”.

The local government organisation has called for a renewed look at what is sees as protecting spending on the NHS as the expense of local government and other areas of prevention work.

In its submission Colsa said that “recent Scottish budgets have seen a significant increase in funding going to health whilst local government, as key part of the wider health system, has not been passed its fair share of the real terms increase that Scottish Government has seen”.

It added: “Simply putting more resource into health is not the answer – key indicators are not showing improvement.

“The RSR (resource spending review) should recognise that health and wellbeing are interrelated, and that investment is needed in the whole system – improving these outcomes depends on the building blocks being in place - housing, education, employment to name a few.”

Cosla has claimed that placing focus on “demand for health and social care services as a driver of public spending” is a “potentially distorted way of viewing the issue”.

It added: “There is a more compelling need to drive a focus on greater investment upstream to reduce demand on health and social care services, rather than simply accepting that spend must be focused on only the NHS and continue to be reactive, when prevention is the key.

“Increased demand for health services in particular is an indication of failure demand, whereas investment on preventing people getting ill and reversing the downward trend in healthy life expectancy should be the key.

“Sustainable investment in local government into social care, preventative services and critically those services which contribute to the wider determinants of health is required.”

In setting out her draft Budget, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes stressed her government's "record funding of £18 billion for health and social care".

She added: "As we set out in our manifesto, we are delivering on our commitment to pass on all health and social care consequentials in full, with additional spend in excess of £1 billion in health and social care."

The Scottish Conservatives have previously argued for a proportion of the Scottish budget to be ringfenced for local councils - but SNP minsiters have rejecte the plans, claiming it would put NHS funding at risk. 

Scottish Tory shadow local government secretary, Miles Briggs, said: “Services under the control of local authorities have been hit with savage cuts year after year by the SNP Government.

“No one denies the extra investment needed for our NHS but that won’t work successfully without joined up-thinking.

“Very often it is local services, including social care, that provide what patients require.

“It is time for SNP ministers to finally deliver a fair funding deal for our cash-strapped councils to give them the resources they need to support our people and communities.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The independent Scottish Fiscal Commission highlighted that the overall Scottish Budget in 2022-23 is 2.6% lower than in 2021-22 – a real terms cut of 5.2%.

"Despite this reduction, the overall local government funding package of almost £12.7 billion represents an increase of almost £1.1 billion or 9.2% in cash terms, or 6.3% in real terms compared with 2021-22.

“We welcome Cosla’s response to the resource spending review consultation and will closely study the detail, whilst continuing to engage directly with Cosla throughout the process.”