Council / Concern raised over ‘static’ charitable trust funding for care homes
FUNDING from Shetland Charitable Trust (SCT) which goes towards running care homes has been at a “standstill” despite the cost of operating the facilities continuing to rise.
The issue was raised at a meeting of Shetland Islands Council’s (SIC) policy and resources committee last week by elected member Catherine Hughson, who asked if there had been any discussions on the topic with the SCT.
As part of a wider suite of grant pay-outs, the charitable trust provides annual funding to the council to support an enhanced level of community care in Shetland.
For 2025/26 the total grant was £1.82 million, and it is set to continue at this level through to 2031.
However in 2019/20, for example, the budget for the grant was £1.97 million.
Hughson raised concern that for the next five years the grant remains “absolutely stagnant”.
Speaking at the meeting, SIC finance manager Paul Fraser said between 2021/22 and the current day the SIC’s annual social care costs have risen by around £10 million.
But he said that the SCT grant has “effectively remained static during that time”.
“The current construct of the rural care model which I think originally had been intended to recognise the difference in cost between the model that we can afford and that model that we have, I think has somewhat fallen by the wayside.
“So to some extent it now just represents a contribution.”
Fraser added that the grant “has increasingly stopped doing what it was perhaps intended to do”.
In response, a spokesperson said the charitable trust has a “significant ongoing commitment” to supporting rural care services.
“The current funding package was discussed with the council and NHS Shetland as they adjust resources to focus more on caring for people at home rather than in care centres,” they said.
“Overall, the trust is committed to spending more than £2m a year on the social care sector, including support for the Shetland Care Attendants Scheme, Shetland Community Connections and Shetland Carers.”
A report to the SIC’s audit committee on Tuesday said the annual agency staff spend alone in community health and social care in 2024/25 was £3.34 million.
Meanwhile at quarter one of 2025/26 the council’s community health and social care directorate is projecting an overspend of £2.3 million at year-end.
This is around 6.5 per cent over budget.
There continues to be a significant demand for agency staff to fill gaps in the workforce, which is bumping up costs.Figures showed that in June there were a total of 57.7 agency full-time equivalent staff members in community health and social care.
There was also spend totalling £117,000 in overtime costs in the first quarter of 2025/26.
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