OLDER people's day care could soar from £3.75 per day to £10 a day.

The sick and elderly look set to pay more to plug a £12.1 million hole in Fife Health and Social Care Partnership's budget.

Measures from a financial recovery plan were agreed on Thursday and include increasing charges for community alarms, meals on wheels and day care services for older people.

Adults and the elderly with exceptional needs who qualify for funded transport may also be asked to pay a new charge of £15 a week, with a further report to come before any decisions are made.

The partnership between Fife Council and NHS Fife has been beset by money worries since it began last year and the Fife Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board said it "continues to face significant financial challenge."

Michael Kellet, director of Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “The budget shortfall discussed at the integration joint board remains an early estimate and whilst that figure may yet change, it is right that we are open and honest about the financial and social challenges that we face.

“Whilst we recognise the challenges, there are also opportunities to look at new and progressive ways of working, developing the services we deliver and improving the experience of our service users."

If it goes through, the cost of community alarms will jump from £2 per week to £3.97 per week, meals on wheels from £3.75 per day to £5.62 per day and older people's day care from £3.75 per day to £10 a day.

The increase in social care charges were "agreed in principle" subject to further reports going to council committees for approval.

A report to last week's joint board, which was was also responsible for the controversial decision to close Rosyth Resource Centre, said it would move the services onto a "full cost recovery basis, meaning that charges will cover all costs of delivering the service and admin costs".

It added that the increases for day care "compares with voluntary sector charges".

Also on the cards, but still to be determined, are proposals to introduce £5-a-day charges for adults who use community care and support/ day services and £5-per-week charges for adults who receive an external care package.

At the board meeting on Thursday, councillors were told there is a £506m budget for 2017/18 but an outturn of more than £518m is being forecast.

The overspend of more than £12m is blamed on an increase in demand for services and cost pressures relating to primary care prescribing.

Measures from the recovery plan that were agreed include reducing spending on overtime, agency and bank staff; full scale reviews of all adults and older people community care packages with "reference to eligibility and targeting finite resources"; and maximum budget allocations for short breaks/respite and adult community care;

Also agreed were the introduction of technology, namely an electronic monitoring system for externally provided care at home for adults, for financial management; reducing the number of community support services buildings from six to three; a review of management structures and corporate change programmes at both NHS Fife and Fife Council.