Council chiefs say costs and impact of welcoming Ukrainian refugees are unknown

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Financial and resource impacts of welcoming Ukrainian refugees to Stirling are still unclear, say senior Stirling Council officials.At a special meeting last Thursday, councillors were told it was too early to say how much expense would be covered by government funding and also how existing services such health and social care and housing might be affected.But officers gave assurances Stirling was on the “front foot” when it came to various aspects of managing the refugee situation, with councillors unanimously giving their backing for senior officials to sanction immediate expenditure needed to help those fleeing the crisis.There were said to be 39 sponsors locally and 85 guests so far - 18 of whom had arrived in Stirling.In a report for the meeting, council officials said: “The information only covers the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

There have been no arrivals in Scotland through the Super Sponsor Scheme/Warm Scottish Welcome at this time although it is expected that there will be a dramatic increase across the country in the coming weeks.”The officials said the “unplanned nature” of the arrival of refugees from Ukraine made forecasting resource implications “very challenging”.Staff resources, however, were said to have already been reprioritised and reallocated to coordinate and ensure that services “are able to respond appropriately”.Click here for more news and sport from the Stirling area.“There is significant officer resource involved,” said the report. “There are also implications for our partner organisations such as the NHS Forth Valley and we are in dialogue with appropriate colleagues.”The council has received a “grant offer” of £238,000 as its share of the £11.2million government funding.