SNP councillor to lead health and social care board in Falkirk

SNP councillor Fiona Collie has been elected as the new chair of the board that oversees health and social care across Falkirk.

Falkirk’s Integration Joint Board (IJB) brings together social care services provided by Falkirk Council and health services provided by NHS Forth Valley. The board’s chairmanship alternates every two years between the two organisations, with Forth Valley NHS’s Michelle McClung currently in the role.

Cllr Collie, who represents Denny and Banknock, is the SNP spokesperson for Health & Social Care and currently the vice-chair of the IJB as well as the council’s representative on the health board.

Council leader Cecil Meiklejohn said that Fiona Collie was very experienced and would be a “pragmatic and inclusive” chair who “will do an excellent job”.

In a vote, Cllr Collie beat Labour’s nominee, Cllr Anne Hannah, by 16 votes to 10, with two abstentions.

Cllr Collie will take up the role from May 1 this year. Her appointment followed the resignation of another SNP councillor, Stacey Devine, who stood down from the board this month.

The SNP declined to put another member in her place and members agreed that having one member from each of the three main parties gave better political proportionality to the board.

Conservative councillor Jim Flynn, who represents Carse, Kinnaird and Tryst, will now take up the seat on the board.