Briefing Note - 04.10.11

Sent on behalf of Howard Cooper, Interim Director of Adult Social Services: -

DEPARTMENT OF ADULT SOCIAL SERVICES (DASS) - WEEKLY BRIEFING NOTE

Date: 4 October 2011

Dear Councillors and Colleagues,

Main Developments

Corporate Governance

Following the recent critical report on Corporate Governance at Wirral Council, Wirral’s Cabinet has now agreed to:

  • Set up a specific Cabinet committee to drive forward changes and appoint an external advisor to support this committee.
  • Set up a Peer Review, bringing in Councillors and officers from other authorities.
  • Strengthen the senior management team, Internal Audit and Legal and Member Services to deliver the changes.
  • Set up a presentation by the report authors for all Members on the content and implications of the report.

The report and full responses from the Council Leader and Chief Executive are available on the Intranet and Internet home page:

The Chief Executive’s new Interim Management Arrangements were agreed last week by the Employment and Appointments Committee in response to the Corporate Governance report and organisational changes over the past year. The full report is available at: http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=197&MId=3518 (item 15).

The changes as they affect DASS were reflected in a further report to the Employment and Appointments Committee, which you can view using the link:

http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/ieAgenda.aspx?M=3518&AI=14530 (Item 16) and can be summarised as follows:

  • Cabinet agreed to an extra £900,000 of investment in DASS to support a restructure to address the fact that we have reduced the extent to which we directly provide services and increased those commissioned from external providers.
  • In summary the extra funding is provided to:
  • Strengthen our frontline work in locality teams
  • Strengthen our quality assurance of independent providers
  • Strengthen our safeguarding work

We will be implementing the recruitment process shortly.

Blue Badge changes

From 1 January 2012 each local authority in England, including Wirral - will be required to adopt new regulations and a new process for the distribution of Blue Badges. We will have more information for you after Cabinet on 13 October.

Diary Dates

We would like to include important diary dates in future editions of this briefing note; if you have any you would like to see included please email them or ring

Further information about individual facilities or services can be obtained from:

  • Head of Service Provision
  • Principal Manager, Care Services
  • Service Manager, Care Services

Howard Cooper CBE