Welsh Conservatives have raised concerns about the potential effect on voluntary groups of the discontinuation of the Joint Working Grant (JWG) scheme and the Promoting Independence Grant in April 2011.
Commenting on the decision, Shadow Health Minister Andrew RT Davies AM said:
“Many local volunteer organisations face significant cuts that will undoubtedly compromise their ability to continue operating as full a service as they currently do when these grants cease to exist.
“Under the current scheme, organisations accessing these grants receive matched funding from local authorities and local health boards. Clearly they face a massive shortfall in the monies they use to support patients in the community when this funding ceases to exist.
“The Health Minister has said that the monies from these two schemes will be channelled into the Assembly Government’s Measure on non residential social services charging.
“It seems that the Minister is happy to implement measures that see vulnerable groups attacked while executives who are surplus to requirement in the NHS have their jobs and pay protected.
“This move is another example of the Minister taking vital voluntary services for granted and I called yesterday on the Minister in the Assembly chamber to bring forward a statement to clarify her reasons to Members.”
