Scottish Government focuses on early intervention and prevention in public sector reform
Royal College of Podiatry comments on the Scottish Government Budget 2023
On 15 December 2022, John Swinney, Deputy First Minister of Scotland, announced the Scottish Government’s Budget for 2023-24.
The Budget will see £13bn allocated to health boards for the implementation of the COVID recovery plan, £2bn for the reform of primary health care services in the community and £1.7bn for social care and integration to improve services.
Utilising available devolved powers, the Scottish Government increased the higher rate of tax from 41p to 42p and the top rate of tax from 46p to 47p. The tax threshold for this top rate of tax has been lowered from £150,000 to £125,000, in line with changes made in the Westminster Budget for England. Mr Swinney stated the money raised through this income tax rise will go directly to NHS Scotland and patient care, and enables £1bn increase in the health and social care budget for 2023-24. Business rates have been frozen.
In addition, the Deputy First Minister announced that the Public Sector Pay Policy will not be published until the new year.
The Royal College of Podiatry welcomes the Deputy First Minister’s remarks on the requirements for public sector reform and the Scottish Government’s “significant emphasis on early intervention and prevention as we work to create a person-centred service.” Nevertheless, we are concerned that the pay offer for NHS workers in Scotland remains significantly behind the rate of inflation resulting in real-terms pay cuts.
The Scottish Government had warned of the difficult fiscal climate it faces. In November, the Emergency Budget Review (EBR) highlighted the negative impact of high inflation on the value of the 2022-23 Scottish Budget. Consequently, the EBR reallocated £400m of the health and social care budget to fund a staff pay rise of around 7%. This resulted in seven areas of health receiving budget reductions for 2022-23, including mental health, primary care and population health. The current tabled pay offer represents a 7.5% rise.