A leading charity and other care providers are at “breaking point” and urgently need an injection of cash to ensure their future.
It follows a report outlining major challenges facing the care sector in the Highlands.
Centred Scotland, a registered charity provides support to people with mental ill-health, including the Inverness-based Discovery College, the first of its kind in the Highlands.
The charity’s Recovery Centre provides residential support to 23 people in Inverness.
The charity also operates support services in Inverness, Invergordon, Fort William and Wick, which help thousands of people in their own homes every year, in some of the most rural and isolated communities.
Highland region’s chief social work officer Fiona Duncan recently highlighted significant problems with funding and recruitment in children’s care, care homes and care at home.
Centred chief executive officer David Brookfield welcomed Ms Duncan’s report as highlighting serious funding deficiencies in the sector.
He said Centred plays its part in providing services in areas where others find delivery unsustainable, such as Caithness, as well as through the provision of the Recovery Centre residential support facility.
“We do this by working efficiently and effectively by driving down our overhead cost, however we are now struggling to reduce our costs any further whilst the margins we are working with are no longer sufficient.
“We are a not-for-profit organisation and still the rates we currently receive simply do not meet the cost of service delivery in rural areas.
“Centred, and many like us who delivery essential statutory services for the NHS, are at breaking point and urgently need an injection of funding to ensure our sustainability.
“Furthermore, with future changes to the thresholds of support offered by the NHS, there’s a real danger that too many people who will slip through the net and get no support at all.
“However, we are blessed to have a strong and loyal team of staff throughout the Highland region, and we don’t experience the same recruitment issues elsewhere in the sector.
“Our aim is to help more and more people who badly need our support, but without financial help we’ll struggle to achieve this.”
