Tag Archives: Cllr Steve Foulkes

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Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 30th April 2013 | Revisions to the Constitution | Cllr Foulkes “it was the committee system that actually put in the policies that led to the overcharging within the Klonowski report”


Continued from Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 30th April 2013 | Revisions to the Constitution | Cllr Blakeley “Where will it end, what next? Will Wirral be twinned with Pyongyang?”

Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 30th April 2013 | Revisions to the Constitution | Cllr Foulkes “it was the committee system that actually put in the policies that led to the overcharging within the Klonowski report”

Cllr Foulkes thanked the Mayor for his introduction. He said “This is actually one of the times we’ll have a proper debate”. He said that the other two parties (Conservative and the Lib Dems) wanted effectively no change to the constitution. Cllr Foulkes said if they’d genuinely wanted to change the constitution they could’ve sat down with their mentors and brought forward proposals. He said the only person who’d done any work on it was the Council Leader [Cllr Phil Davies].

He said that Cllr Green had the audacity to talk about the brown bin tax, he [Cllr Green] had had the opportunity to move an objection at Budget Council but hadn’t do so. Cllr Foulkes said that Cllr Green had been in power along with Cllr Harney and he asked did they take the Council to Shrangri-La? He answered, “No they didn’t. They had their chance at the time, they had the opportunity, but did not do so.”

Cllr Foulkes said, “I’m going to get lectures tonight about getting rid of two committees, one of them is around Adult Social Services and adult safeguarding. We had a training session on Monday night on adult safeguarding, a very informative one, all about how the restructures, how the Council’s delivering it, the staff, the people, one event. Who turned up? How many Conservative Members [councillors] turned up to that training session? How many? Not one, not one, sadly I don’t know what’s going on within the Liberal Democrat Group, we’ve read the headlines about it, I don’t know what was going on there, but none of those turned up and sadly I have to say only five Members [councillors] turned up and well, gladly they were all Labour Members [councillors] who bothered to turn up. If that’s the measure of the all party contribution to learning about safeguarding then we still have some way to go.”

He continued, “It can be enshrined in the year’s work or the work program of the new committee that will take over that and there are lessons to be learnt for combining looking at children’s safeguarding and adult safeguarding. That is a lesson that was learnt from the past.”

Cllr Foulkes also said, “I will remind this Council though, it was the committee system that actually put in the policies that led to the overcharging within the Klonowski report. It was the committee system that made that decision. If you think the committee system is foolproof it ain’t. If you think the Cabinet system is foolproof it isn’t.”

He said, “What I am shocked at is the lack of engagement by certain senior Members [councillors] in the process we have gone through. We’ve been to the Floral Pavillion and the atmosphere is better than in this Chamber.” … “We have a training mafia who are apparently monitoring us and making criticisms of us going to training sessions.” … “It maybe that we can have localised planning decisions, it maybe that we can have localised licensing decisions…”.

Continues at Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 30th April 2013 | Revisions to the Constitution | Cllr John Hale “these proposals should be consigned to the dustbin where they belong”.

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Standards Committee (Wirral Council) 19th November 2012 Part 1 Councillors debate the complaints system


Present
Standards Committee
Independent
Mr Brian Cummings MBE
Mr David Robert Burgess-Joyce
Mr Chris Jones
Prof Ronald Samuel Jones
Labour
Cllr Denise Roberts
Cllr Bill Davies
Cllr John Salter
Cllr Steve Foulkes deputy for Cllr Moira McLaughlin
Cllr Chris Meaden deputy for Cllr Ron Abbey
Conservative
Cllr Chris Blakeley
Cllr Les Rowlands
Cllr Leah Fraser

Wirral Council Officers
Surjit Tour
Shirley Hudspeth
Geoff Paterson

Apologies for the ~19 minutes missing from the start of the meeting. No declarations of interest were made and the minutes of the meeting held on the 3rd July 2012 were agreed. In item 3, it was agreed that one of the independent persons sit on the Standards Working Group.

Surjit Tour introduced his report on whether reports made in response to complaints about councillors between 2008 and 2012 could be made public and the legal framework.

Cllr Foulkes declared asked if as a person who had made a complaint or had had a complaint made against them, did this mean he had to declare a conflict of interest?

Surjit Tour answered that it wasn’t a prejudicial interest, but it didn’t prevent him declaring a personal interest.

Cllr Foulkes declared a personal interest, so did Cllr Blakeley, Cllr Roberts, Cllr Salter and Cllr Rowlands (who then asked for a blanket personal interest to be recorded for everyone that fell into this category).

Surjit Tour continued summarising his report, detailing the legislation and the consequences he felt would arise from publishing reports (as outlined in 2.f(i) of his report), ranging from “unwanted media attention”, discouraging legitimate complaints and other reasons.

Cllr Blakeley asked about the obligation to publish in the local press the findings unless the councillor stated they didn’t want this to happen, he asked if the person who was the subject of the complaint consented to disclosure could the report be published?

Surjit Tour stated this would require the consent of the other parties. This is the point at which the video of the meeting starts.

Cllr Blakeley said, “It is very easy for people to make complaints, and just get away with it because they’ve submitted a complaint and there’s no case to answer, the person complained against is subject to an investigation, been put through that stress and turmoil and the complainant just walks away with a smile on their face, so I think the complainant should have to take some flak if there is no case to answer.”

Surjit Tour responded to Cllr Blakeley’s comments.

Cllr Foulkes said, “… I think the Council’s reputation is bad enough at the moment, with more difficult things at hand, do we want to invent another mechanism for dredging up stuff that’s gone on many, many years previous to that? … Imagine the position where picking out where we have someone who is a persistent complainant or someone who may have a different view of the world, and continually complains, with the knowledge that whatever they say would find the light of day?

We all know that subsequently we have a press that report things, they don’t report things to make it you know uninteresting, they will use any lurid issues or any lurid accusations that the complainant makes during the complaint process and a little paragraph at the end reading “no case to answer” so, so we have all the public glare of something that might have been … not to say the complaint was vexatious, but there was no case to answer and you have the whole story of the whole complaint aired in public, and we all know how the press … and if we all know what the rules are from now on, that there is an extreme likelihood, a high percentage that the findings and the report itself may find in the public gaze, then that’s how we’re all entering the whole system of complainants and those who’ve been complained against but I think it’s a little bit unfair to retrospectively to publish past reports…”

Surjit Tour pointed out that s.63 of the Local Government Act 2000 c.22 still applies to information obtained during an investigation and that confidentiality still applies.

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Bidston & Claughton Area Forum 3rd October 2012 Part 5


Continued from Part 4.

Donnie said that was an interesting point and that the ten-year life of houses on Bidston Rise had been increased to thirty years. He wondered if there would be arguments for one or two bedroom bungalows.

Cllr Foulkes said that an important point was the ability of the registered social landlords to borrow money as there would be much less money coming in and they would have difficulty collecting the rent, which would terrify the banks. He said that they were a worse bet than they had ever been in history as a developer, but he had been told by some politicians that this change had been popular in the South-East.

A person introducing herself as Jill Smith, a project support officer with the Women’s Centre said that they were a small charity, but women were coming in were in an absolute crisis over fear of what was going on. She said it would have a big impact, that they received no statutory funding, but that the problem was only going to get bigger. Jill Smith said that they worked with women with mental health or emotional problems.

Cllr Foulkes said they were seeing more people in their surgeries.

Cllr Harry Smith referred to the lady who runs the food bank.

Jill Smith said that all charities would be put under pressure.

Reverend Jenny Gillies from St. Oswalds said that they should be creative over letting people know. She said they never used to have people wander off the streets, but there was confusion over Housing Benefit. Jenny said that Area Forums needed to think creatively over inviting the voluntary sector.

Cllr Foulkes said the demand on the third sector, was going to turn into a flood. They were asking people who had the opportunity in the consultation as to what services they should or could provide. However he wasn’t in Paddy’s camp as he didn’t like protests and leading people down cul-de-sacs.

Paddy said they should campaign to educate people to make rational decisions.

Cllr Foulkes withdrew his remark about Paddy.

Paddy accepted the apology.

Cllr Roberts asked for presentations from the partners.

Jim Thompson (Community Safety) said that Wirral was a safe borough, crime was falling, but despite the recession, crime hadn’t shot up due to vigilance. He said that people shouldn’t leave their houses in darkness when they go out or their windows open, he encouraging people to lock their doors and if they got people knocking on doors asking people to give them £200 for insulation, they were to ignore them and ring Trading Standards or the police on 101.

Leonora told the Area Forum of her experience of this.

Jim Thompson said that if it sounds too good to be true, it normally is. He said that nobody comes from Wirral Council and says they’ll take you to the cashpoint, well not yet (he joked) and that if people were concerned to ring the 101 number. They had a multi agency team looking at crime and disorder and information was shared so they could identify hotspots from the calls and prioritise.

A member of the public said they had called 101 when cars had been spray painted and that the police had been helpful and that they had been given the number for crime prevention, but after three days they hadn’t had an answer.

Jim Thompson said that the four crime prevention officers no longer existed, but if she wanted advice to ring 666 5443 and they would find somebody who could answer her query.

The member of the public said that if someone called from the police would the number be withheld?

Jim Thompson said the police and Council did call from withheld numbers and suggested that people don’t leave their house in darkness. He said the burglary rate was now less than twenty per a thousand whereas when he’d started it was forty-five.

Steve Preston said that 80% of burglaries were opportunistic, but this was no consolation for the 20% that weren’t.

Jim Thompson said that if it looks occupied they’d just walk past.

Paul Murphy, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service said they were looking at a £9.2 million cut, but that the Chair was on the Fire Authority. Their target of 13,000 Home Fire Safety Checks (which would still be free) and he was asking if people knew of any vulnerable households to tell them, but that they were working with the Safeguarding Adults Board to identify people.

From the 22nd October they would be removing debris in the lead up to Bonfire Night, he gave out statistics on accidental dwelling fires, last year there had been eleven, so far this year there had been five. They had completed 622 Home Fire Safety Checks since the start of the year. On deliberate secondary fires there had been 222 last year and 74 so far this year. He referred to the tragic road traffic fatality in Claughton, but that road traffic collisions were low compared to other Merseyside authorities. He gave the phone number of 0800 731 5958 which could be used for Home Fire Safety Checks or from 22nd October to report rubbish that needed to be cleared. He said that Birkenhead Fire Station was due for completion in 2013.

Cllr Harry Smith asked if they would be based with the ambulance station?

Paul Murphy answered that in Croxteth they shared the same building. Cllr Roberts said there were no plans to merge.

Donnie asked a question about the ring fenced road safety funding for Area Forums?

Cllr Roberts asked if he was referring to road traffic accidents?

Donnie said he was referring to the bus hitting the car and the tragic fatality, but also the 20mph zones?

Cllr Foulkes said that the money allocated locally was a small fraction of the Highways Department budget, but that money would be put sadly where there had already been accidents.

Cllr Harry Smith referred to hotspots.

Cllr Foulkes said that after a major accident or fatality there was an investigation to see if it could have been prevented, such as the lights being purposely staggered slower but that he wouldn’t preempt the investigation.

George Thomas said he was frustrated by the cuts and drew attention to November 15th when it would be voting day for a Police Commissioner. He said it was “Tory ideology” and costing £100 million to create the position. He said the Chief Constable would be paid £155,000 and the Commissioner £85,000 but that independents couldn’t afford to run as they needed a deposit of £5,000.

Cllr Roberts said yes, yes.

Cllr George Davies said it was a waste of money.

Cllr Foulkes said he believed in democracy and pleaded with people to get out and vote.

Cllr Harry Smith said he wanted people to vote for the Labour candidate.

Jim Thompson said that Home Office funds, currently £122,000 were given to the local authority, as well as £150,000 to £160,000 from the Area Based Grant, however from April 2013 this would be given to the Police and Crime Commissioner instead.

Cllr George Davies disagreed with Jim Thompson over the change. He said he objection was that the change to a Police and Crime Commissioner was that it was one person compared to seventeen on the police authority.

Anna said they had a positive event to report as a person was coming to the library to talk about Viking remains.

A member of the public commented on the road conditions and said they were pleased that in the last four months it had been seen to.

Cllr Roberts said as there were no further questions, she would close the formal part of the meeting, the next one would be Tuesday 5th February 2013 in the Bidston ward.

Michelle Gray said she would advertise the venue and write to people.

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Bidston & Claughton Area Forum 3rd October 2012 Part 4 Council Tax Benefit, Housing Benefit and Universal Credit


Continued from Part 3.

Cllr Foulkes said that the tactic of government was to save money to pay off the deficit and that they had to save £3.2 million or find it elsewhere. He said that he didn’t invent the figure, but if they believed in Council Tax Benefit for certain groups it would be implemented.

Paddy said that just because people had mortgages and things were tight didn’t stop them eating and that the changes could cripple people. He said it could be done over a longer period of time and that the deficit was going up.

Cllr Foulkes said it didn’t support it and agreed [with Paddy]. He said he was a Labour councillor and that the way to get out of the depression was to stimulate the economy.

Cllr Harry Smith said that as well as the possible cuts to Council Tax benefit and the issue of spare bedrooms affecting Housing Benefit, that service charges were going to be removed from Housing Benefit and that the current Wirral Partnership Homes service charge for sheltered accommodation was about £13/week. He said that this would affect the poorest in society.

Cllr Foulkes said that rents were no longer going to be paid directly to landlords and that landlords would have to collect the rent, which would be a massive change.

A member of the public asked a question about Council Tax Benefit/Housing Benefit and the means testing system.

The officer said that they wouldn’t get more money next year for new claims, but they would try and divide it as best they can, these decisions were being consulted on as to whether people wanted Council Tax to go up or the debt to fall on the most vulnerable people.

Cllr Foulkes asked if they would still administer Housing Benefit?

The officer said that they would, but there would be changes to reductions for excess rooms, one room would result in 14% less, two rooms 25% less.

A member of the public asked about a family of four who needed this income who were on tax credits and how it couldn’t be looked at in isolation.

The officer said there would be a discretionary fund.

Cllr Foulkes said that people were “blissfully ignorant” and they had “not got a clue” what was coming round. He suggested that they ask all Area Forums to have an expert give a demonstration to tell people what was coming round the corner. He suggested there was a knowledge gap and that an expert making a presentation explaining what it meant for certain families would be useful.

Donnie said that Wirral Partnership Homes had done that with a mailing about the bedroom tax, which had a four page breakdown about what it meant to people.

Cllr George Davies said that pensioners were exempt from the changes, but referred also to the change to Universal Credit.

An officer said they could give six or seven worked examples.

Donnie said that people were not understanding the changes.

Cllr Foulkes said that it was different for tenants with organisations with resources such as Wirral Partnership Homes, but private tenants, community groups and church groups were up a creek and needed to have a semblance of understanding to mitigate the impact of the changes. He also said the appeal and claim process would be made more difficult and if the benefit was lost it would take “ages and ages” to appeal.

Paddy said it was important people had enough “bread and two potatoes” to eat, but what are people going to do? He said it was life and death with people starving and that “we are the plebs”, whereas government ministers were more concerned with what they have with their Beaujolais. He again referred to the crisis loans.

Cllr Harry Smith referred to people having to downsize because of the bedroom situation, but that Wirral Partnership Homes didn’t have enough one-bedroom homes.

Continued at Part 5.

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Bidston & Claughton Area Forum 3rd October 2012 Part 3 Council Tax Benefit Consultation and Rampworx


Continued from Part 2.

Donnie said that the document said there was £200 million left and asked to the layperson what did that mean, as most people don’t talk in those figures? He said he had come along to try to get an understanding of the mechanics. Normally there would be presentations from the grass-roots about bids, but they had received a letter from the new Chief Executive saying the funding had been suspended which he was disappointed about. He said that funding at that level was important and he didn’t understand what caused a £17 million overspend unless people just “can’t add up”. He asked a question about the Rampworx project and how Wirral Council had offered match funding, but that the site had archaeological significance and contamination issues and how they had looked at a plan B which was the back field to the Bidston Rise estate. He asked whether this had been put on hold or they’d switched to plan B?

Cllr Foulkes said that he hadn’t got the Cabinet decision which was about non-essential spending and why it fell foul was that it wasn’t life or death. He said that it should be a priority as it would create jobs and youth opportunities and sounded like good value for money, however they had to fight for investment.

Donnie said that the land in question belonged to Wirral Partnership Homes and had been transferred by mistake with the housing stock, so it was designated as building land due to the need for affordable housing. He was hoping at the Strategic Housing Partnership meeting that he would find out more.

Cllr Foulkes asked Ian Brand to answer.

Ian Brand said if they had entered a legal contract then the money wouldn’t be frozen, he said he would talk to Donnie separately after the meeting.

Cllr Roberts said although this fund was frozen, that there was another pot of money called Community First that it was possible to apply to and that Anna Wallace the person responsible for Bidston could help. She said as there were no further questions, they would move to the consultation on Council Tax support and benefits.

The officer said they were proposing changes from the 1st April 2013 and that there were 40,000 people in receipt of Council Tax Benefit. There were a few rules, pensioners were protected so they would be no worse off and there was a suggestion that they should protect vulnerable groups. There was another consultation about the changes and they were now seeking people’s views. They currently received £32 million for Council Tax Benefit, which would be reduced by £3.2 million next year, so they were looking at options, one of which was not backdating claims and whether there should be a discretionary fund for hardship. If they didn’t agree on a scheme, then the default scheme would be the same as the one they had now. The consultation was running from the 1st September [2012] to the 31st October [2012].

Continued at Part 4.

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Bidston & Claughton Area Forum 3rd October 2012 Part 2


Continued from Part 1.

A member of the public called Paddy asked why the “Labour controlled council” was planning to make cuts? He said the benefit changes from April next year and the move to Universal Credits were an “attack on the poor”. He said that most cuts affected the poor, who would “get it in the neck”. Paddy went on to refer to tax credits, no crisis loans for a month, and how [the Coalition Government] was making you [the Labour controlled council] implement this. He said that in 1932, there had been a crisis in banking system, which led to an attack on the poor because of the errors of rich. Paddy referred to riots in Europe unless reps do something with the power in own hands and went onto refer to the 1930s, fascists and war as well as a lost generation of youth.

The Chair, Cllr Denise Roberts said that they were dependent on money Government gives us and went on to refer to militant Labour in Liverpool in the 1980s.

Cllr Steve Foulkes suggested to Paddy that he put his comment on the consultation form, so that his view would be in the system. He said that part of their thing was that they had to set a legal budget, in fact they were forced to set a legal budget. He suggested they take the fight to Government. Cllr Foulkes asked why Metropolitan Authorities, mainly Northern and North-West ones were facing more severe cuts than the shire counties and the South-East?

Cllr Foulkes said the figures showed they were taking a heavier burden of the deficit. He said it was “our job”, to take the “fight to government” for a fair share. He referred to a protest on the 20th and how the public sector would bear the brunt. He felt that at the end of the day, he believed they could predict significant funding cuts.

He said that people complain bitterly about the NHS cuts, but the NHS in [Coalition government] terms was not cut just frozen. Cllr Foulkes referred to a 20% cut and the cries of anguish about the National Health Service, but that it was an unprecedented future. He said the public would be consulted and people would be involved, even if it was inevitable. Cllr Foulkes said he was an Evertonian, so he was naturally a pessimist, but the Director of Finance had said that if they don’t make decisions it would be a bigger failure of their duty.

He said in the heady days of Derek Hatton, by taking a stance and causing mayhem they had got an extra £1.8 million, which would not go very far [today]. He said there was a will within [Wirral Council] to tackle the problems. He said that with a number of services provided, such as the Department for Adult Social Services, in reality a small number people took up a third of the budget, but that we’re all “going to be old at some point”. He said it was a statutory service and if there was a belief that the public sector would diminish, then there needed to be the jobs in private sector. Cllr Foulkes said they needed to promote jobs and that even if the general public came out with the theme [in the consultation] of higher spending, all departments would take some hit. He said some authorities are saying the only services protected are adult and children’s protection, with the rest hired out to the public sector or volunteers, it was these sort of dimensions [of cuts], but that very rarely services were not loved. Cllr Foulkes said they were involved with a number of lobby groups, the Local Government Association (LGA), the Special Interest Group of Metropolitan Authorities (SIGOMA) all of which had common cause, that they would not take an inordinate share [of the cuts]. Cllr Foulkes said that local government was the best spender with regards to efficiency and that there was a big campaign the Fire Chief was running in the local press. He also mentioned that they would be electing a new Police Commissioner, but that they had to plan for the worse and hope for best, that the consultation was about realism and what really matters.

Cllr Foulkes said that the Department of Adult Social Services was demand-led, whether collecting in debts, or issues of child protection such as Baby P, he said the basic element was a loss of a third of funding and currently they provided services to people classed as critical and substantial.

Continued at Part 3.

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A series of popular Youtube videos of adjourned meetings at Wirral Council.


First we have the ever popular Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting of the 6th February 2012 which was (after recording stopped due to running out of tape adjourned). Now with subtitles it has been viewed (at the time of writing) 228 times, has been embedded in an article on Wirral Leaks and a blog post here.

The Chair herself of the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Patricia Glasman even talked to me about it on the 13th February 2012! After she’d talked to me I realised I needed to put subtitles on it.

Now with subtitles, this video has been viewed by many viewers in the UK and a viewer from Finland who watched it twice! Speakers in it are Cllr Patricia Glasman, Cllr Cherry Povall, Cllr Simon R Mountney and Bill Norman.

Secondly another adjourned meeting on the same subject (although this time the entire meeting and not just a segment). This one is the Council meeting from Monday 13th February, again on the AKA report.

The Council meeting from Monday 13th February is adjourned to Monday 20th February at 7pm.
The Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee from Monday 6th February is adjourned to (date unknown to be decided by Chair and spokespersons).

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Bidston & St. James/Claughton Area Forum 8/2/2012 Quote of the evening: Cllr Steve Foulkes


The quote of the evening goes to Cllr Foulkes who stated:-

“I get the blame for everything else these days so I may as well accept the blame.” in regards to his Cabinet’s decision to transfer of the River Streets Community Centre to Wallasey Gymnastic Club at a 99 year peppercorn rent and its partial demolition.

The prize for persistently asking a question in about a dozen different ways goes to Charlie Wright, who only stopped when local police Inspector McGregor asked him to.

Cllr Foulkes also said he’s “not going to try to rewrite history” that he “can’t rewrite history” and described Birkenhead Town Centre as “dying on its feet”.

But wasn’t it Cllr Foulkes’ Cabinet in a behind closed doors meeting that sold off the Wirral Council car parks there to Asda which affected trade in Birkenhead? The recession had some role to play, but Asda clearly accelerated the demise of some businesses.

You almost get the idea that Cllr Foulkes is looking for some sympathy to the predicament he now finds himself in, being hoist by his own petard. Wasn’t it only a few years ago he was proudly standing up at the Lauries Centre telling the world of his vision for closing half the Borough’s libraries and flogging off its community centres despite the sixty thousand Wirral residents that didn’t want their leisure centres, libraries or community centres sold? What will be cut from Wirral Council’s Budget when Labour announce their 2012/2013 Budget in a few weeks time?

Thankfully his colleagues are now trying to consult with the public over the libraries (a lesson learnt from Sue Charteris was that they should consult first) and parks, beaches and open spaces.

One would almost think there are local elections less than three months away, in which Labour seek to gain majority control of Wirral Council. Yet with £millions to find in Budget savings for 2012/2013 in the next few weeks, all eyes are on the two no confidence motions in Cllr Foulkes’ leadership of the Borough next Monday… will he pull a rabbit out of a hat, or like the proverbial cat with nine lives has he used them all up?

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Cabinet (Wirral Council) 12th January 2012 Any Other Business – Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 1) – Independent Review of Claims Made by Martin Morton (and others) Part 4


Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive said he would make some very brief comments and did about the Anna Klonowski report and the other summaries attached.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said it was a “damning report”. He hoped the members of the public could understand why there had been an elongation of the Right to Reply to allow the process to take place. He believed the way matters had been dealt with had clearly not been appropriate. He thanked the former Leader, Cllr Jeff Green.

Cllr Foulkes said it was fully costed and they would continue to engage [AKA Ltd] for the foreseeable period. He saw it continuing going forward to the next available Cabinet meeting. He felt it need to be discussed in full and with other whistleblowing issues.

The Highways and Engineering Services Procurement Exercise report was discussed by Cllr Foulkes in detail. He said the main accusations were people being overcharged and compensation as well as other forms of abuse. Cllr Foulkes said they had been investigated and reported to the police.

Cllr Foulkes mentioned detailed work on the Action Plan and how to “move forward”. He said the view to the outside world was one of reputational damage to Wirral Council. They were engaging an external body to help and advise which would hopefully counter the insular culture.

He referred to a Corporate Governance Committee briefing and the “Improvement Board” which would include North West Employers to hold them [Wirral Council] to account. The Chief Executive and Bill Norman would keep an overview on how they dealt with the Action Plan. He mentioned hope and prayer and picking up comments by employees.

There was outrage and outrage by individuals and harm to individuals. He gave a public apology to Martin Morton which was a “genuine case” that Wirral Council had “not dealt with appropriately”. The Audit and Risk Management Committee had had a time of reflection, but should now move forward with a final resolution.

Graham Hodkinson was now Director of Adult Social Services and he welcomed him to his new post. He then read out the following resolution verbatim that was also handed out to those present. He said an apology to Martin Morton had been added. He wanted discussions to continue with Martin Morton to ensure an “amicable outcome” and a job with the authority. However they had to tie the loose ends up and it was not for Cllr Foulkes or the Cabinet to speak on behalf of Martin Morton.

He said it was the final outcome and that it helps the audience. He said it was a “difficult report to read”. He had tried to give encouragement to people working in the Department for Adult Social Services, but that it can’t go without thorough investigation.

Cllr Phil Davies formally seconded the resolution. It was agreed by the Cabinet. The resolution is below.

On a Motion moved by Councillor S Foulkes and seconded by Councillor P Davies it was

RESOLVED (unanimously): That

(1)       the Exempt Appendices 2 and 4 be brought into the public domain;

(2)       the previous Council Leader, Councillor J Green be thanked for engaging AKA to investigate the claims of Mr Martin Morton (and others);

(3)       the Council apologises to Mr Martin Morton and discussions will continue with him in the hope that an amicable outcome is reached; and

(4)       this Cabinet recognises the serious failings contained within this report and the harm done to vulnerable adults as a consequence of those failings.

It accepts unreservedly the recommendations made in the report and asks the Chief Executive to draw up an Action Plan demonstrating how those recommendations will be implemented, which should be reported back to the next Cabinet, and referred from there to a Special Council for full debate.

Cabinet welcomes the fact that the Chief Executive has already asked:

§ The Director of Adult Social Services, supported by the Head of Safeguarding, to urgently review the Final report for any further safeguarding issues that need to be addressed

§ The Director of Law, HR and Asset Management, supported by the Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development, to urgently review the Final Report to ensure all appropriate action is taken,

§ The Director of Law, HR and Asset Management, in consultation with the Director of Adult Social Services and the Head of Safeguarding, to urgently review the Final Report to consider whether any historic safeguarding failures should be referred to the Police, (or any relevant regulatory body) for investigation.

It further notes the actions already under way listed in paragraphs 3.8 to 3.10 which include:

§ A series of measures to strengthen the Council’s  safeguarding of vulnerable adults

§ An ongoing review into the Council’s whistle blowing and harassment and bullying policies and

§ A wider review of the Council’s Corporate Governance (including a review of all fees and charges)

And notes that these measures are designed to ensure that the situations contained within the report could not be repeated in the Department of Adult Social Services or elsewhere across the Council.

Cabinet is also conscious of the fact that one of the criticisms in the report is that in Wirral Council the “abnormal has become normal”.

Cabinet therefore endorses the decision of the Leader of the Council to set up an Improvement Board, under the umbrella of the LGA, with external representatives from the LGA and elsewhere, including the author of this report, Ms Anna Klonowski, to ensure that any future decisions are taken on the basis of best practice rather than accepted Wirral practice.

Cabinet further endorses the decision to refer the Action Plan to be drawn up by the Chief Executive to this Improvement board for their Scrutiny and comment.

Cabinet also refers the Final Report to the Health and Well Being Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their Scrutiny and Comments.

Cabinet believes that this Final Report should be seen in tandem with the Martin Smith report into allegations of bullying and harassment and therefore believes it would be in the public interest to publish this report,  and refer it to the Special Council called to discuss the Final Anna Klonowski’s report, along with a separate report on HESPE which also arose from the actions of Whistleblowers and the Council’s response to those Whistleblowers.

Cabinet thanks Ms Klonowski for the detailed work that has gone into this Final Report and expresses its hope and belief that these findings can be used as a catalyst for major improvement and change.

It further hopes that this will allow the Council to move forward from this point to the provision of radically improved services and a much more open and transparent culture which welcomes and learns from criticism and responds rapidly to complaints or concerns at the earliest possible stage, preventing a situation like this from ever arising again.

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Cabinet 12th January 2012 Declarations of Interest, Minutes (8/12/11) & objections (12/12/11), AOB – Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 1) – Independent Review of Claims Made by Martin Morton (and others) Part 3


Bearing in mind the previous interests I have mentioned in this matter I will try to write this up in as fair a way as possible!

Present:
All Cabinet Members

Cllr Steve Foulkes started the meeting by saying “What a day!” He wished people present a good evening and said he was changing the agenda because of a serious issue to do with the AK report, which was supplementary agenda one, item 24. First however the Committee had to deal with declarations of interests.

Cllr George Davies declared a personal interest in item 7 due to his wife’s employment as a primary school teacher.
Cllr George Davies declared a prejudicial interest in item 7 due to his wife’s employment as a primary school teacher.
Cllr Chris Meaden declared an interest in item 13 due to being a Non Executive Director of Lairdside Communities Together.
Cllr Phil Davies declared a personal interest in item 13 due to being a Non Executive Director of Lairdside Communities Together.

Cllr Steve Foulkes asked if they could move on and agree the minutes of the meeting held on the 8th December 2011. The minutes were agreed and the four successful objections to the minutes on the 12th December 2011 were noted.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said he had quite a rewarding day at Hulme Hall. Five people including himself as Leader as well as the Deputy Leader & Chief Executive had been present for matters involving corporate governance, public health and child poverty. He said they had dealt with two thousand employees. He wanted to “get every employee up to speed” but his “voice may go”.

With regards to Agenda Item 24, the independent review, they had been requested and thought it also sensible to bring the Martin Smith report about bullying. An Executive Summary was already in the public domain but he had asked Bill Norman to make it available and to the future full Council meeting.

Bill Norman said the report had been received to a previous Cabinet meeting in April 2011. The report had been exempt because Wirral Council had to consider disciplinary issues. This reason for the exemption no longer continues. There was an exempt appendix three involving North West Employers which for some reasons they’d prefer not to disclose they needed to ensure the version circulated is redacted and anonymised. It was in his opinion in the public interest to disclose.

Cllr Steve Foulkes used the words “anxious”, “complicated” and “accusations”. He expressed the view that they had held onto it longer than they need to. He said councillors had seen the original version and it was part of the same issue. He wanted it in the public arena sooner rather than later. The Martin Smith report would be considered in the public domain. He referred to the full Council meeting.

Bill Norman said with regards to exempt appendix 4, the letters from the Standards for England to four Wirral councillors, he had spoken to the four councillors. All four councillors had said they would prefer the decision notices to be made public and agreed to it being in the public domain.

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