Efficiency savings mean cuts in health funding

NICVA has written to Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey, to complain that in one Trust area, groups receiving funding have been told that, at very short notice, they must agree to funding which decreases by 3% each year. This is without any work to establish whether there are actually any efficiencies there to be found and on top of the fact that the services are unlikely to be funded to 100% of their actual cost anyway.

NICVA has told the Minister: “Since no assessment of the efficiency of the services being provided by voluntary organisations has been carried out, this translates in effect into an arbitrary cut to the funding of the service.

“This is exacerbated by the fact that the existing contracts do not even cover 100% of the costs of the service provision, meaning that the voluntary sector is already subsidising the public sector to varying extents.

“NICVA has been concerned for some time that efficiency savings are passed on as cuts to our sector. We raised this issue with DFP over four years ago and have stressed it every year when the budget is announced.”

NICVA has also asked the Minister what role the new Performance and Efficiency Delivery Unit is playing in calculating where efficiencies are to be found in contracted organisations and whether a process been planned for this.