A political row has broken out over accusations a social work document was “buried”.
SNP social work spokesperson Alistair Hunter, a member of Fife Council’s Education, Social Work and Communities scrutiny group, has called for “full disclosure” after he claimed the council’s Labour administration went to “excessive lengths” to keep a budgeting report hidden from scrutiny.
It comes as Fife Council continues looking at ways to tackle a £10 million overspend in its social work budget as part of a wider £100 million black hole.
Mr Hunter said: “I am very disappointed the Labour administration have chosen to bury this report and keep it from proper scrutiny until the very last moment possible.
“The report was originally due to be published in November 2013 but has been delayed and won’t now be considered by councillors until a few days before we have to set the budget.
“This also means it is conveniently scheduled to be published after the Cowdenbeath by-election and at the very last minute before Fife Council makes its budget decisions next month, allowing no time for proper scrutiny.
“We have to wonder what Labour want to hide. We know, for example, that officers have previously suggested the privatisation of the home care service.
“This was rejected by the SNP when we led the council but is it going to come up again? These are big decisions and Labour have created a situation where these decisions will be taken in a rush.”
Mr Hunter called for immediate publication of the consultant’s report on the future of social work care.
However, deputy council leader David Ross replied: “The question of the social work priority based budget exercise was raised at the last council meeting and it was explained that a report would be drawn up by council officers in January and be presented to the executive meeting of the council in February.
“This exercise is designed to get a thorough analysis of what we spend in social work services and is something Labour called for when the SNP ran the council but they failed to deliver.
“It is also worth noting that the main origin of the current overspend in social work is the last SNP budget, which was based more on wishful thinking than any hard evidence of the growing demands which continue to grow in this area of the council services.
“We have made clear that there are no quick fixes but we have begun to take action on a number of fronts to address many of the issues.
“What is disappointing is the language used by the SNP when they know we have a serious underfunding issue whilst demand continues to grow.
“To threaten staff with privatisation and make wild accusations of burying reports in search of headlines is completely irresponsible and the people of Fife deserve better.
“We published our draft budget back in November and asked all political groups to engage with us with their views and thoughts.
“To date the only group not to do so is the SNP in Fife and I think that says more about their motives than I can.”