Month: February 2012

Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee 6/2/2012 Part 2 Anna Klonowski report

Following on from part 1 Bill Norman continued. Bill Norman said that a number of names should be disclosed to councillors. One of those names was his and he had no reason in them not knowing which number he was in the report (although some may have already guessed). He was working towards giving them … Continue reading “Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee 6/2/2012 Part 2 Anna Klonowski report”

Following on from part 1 Bill Norman continued.

Bill Norman said that a number of names should be disclosed to councillors. One of those names was his and he had no reason in them not knowing which number he was in the report (although some may have already guessed). He was working towards giving them this information, but pointed out it had been a non-statutory inquiry.

Cllr Simon Mountney asked if he was correct that there was no unredacted report?

Bill Norman said there was no unredacted report in his possession. However there was a list of names with the draft report which had been circulated to a small number of officers and councillors.

Cllr Paul Doughty said he found it amazing that the party opposite were looking towards making political points.

Cllr Mike Hornby said it was the people of Wirral who’ve suffered by it being “swept under the carpet” and the “deplorable” way it had been handled.

Cllr Sheila Clarke said as Carer’s Champion she had hit the “brick wall of legal” and didn’t know of the report into Kent House which went into serious safeguarding issues regarding its vulnerable residents. She said that someone from the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership [NHS Foundation Trust] was here tonight. She said all this was done by bypassing the formal scrutiny process.

The Chair, Cllr Patricia Glasman said it was on the Cabinet papers and went before Cabinet on the 2nd February and that it had “not been kept from view”.

Simon Wagener talked about accountability and transparency. He wanted to echo the views of users and carers, who didn’t believe that the option of anonymity should’ve been extended. He said that those identified should be held responsible and have to be held to account. Mr. Wagener said a senior manager in the Department of Adult Social Services had said their responsibility lay to the Director of the Department. He said this was a conflict of interest and that they need to be held accountable to the people they serve and carers. He said to have those people “kept in the dark” was “not in the public interest” or in service user’s interests.

Graham Hodkinson, Director of Adult Social Services said that all officers had a clear responsibility to the people they serve. He suggested that the officer had wrongly informed [Simon] and that they all have legal and professional registration as individual professionals which covered accountability and responsibility. He agreed that officers are accountable to the people of Wirral.

Simon Wagener said there was mention of an ongoing review, who had this been conducted by?

Cllr Mike Hornby said the report had been commissioned by the Council and paid for by taxpayers.

Bill Norman said yes it was paid for by the Council, but they had been informed by Anna that assurances had been made that names were not appearing. It was a voluntary process and assurances had been given, therefore there was a legal and moral obligation to respect this, which they were seeking to clarify through independent lawyers. He understood they were working towards that goal but there might be legal consequences.

Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee 6/2/2012 Part 1 Anna Klonowski report

The meeting started off cordially enough with the Chair Cllr Patricia Glasman welcoming people to a special meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

She asked for declarations of interest. Cllr Denise Roberts said she was a member of the Members’ Working Party and wanted clarification on whether it was an interest. In Bill Norman’s view it wasn’t an interest she needed to declare.

The Chair asked for any party whipping arrangements, none were declared. She said she had something to read and circulated a motion. A Conservative councillor asked for a ten minute recess so after three minutes the meeting was adjourned.

After the adjournment the Chair asked if she wanted them to read out her motion. They did, so she read it out in full.

Cllr Cherry Povall, spokesperson for the Conservative Party said her first point was that they’d only just been handed the Improvement Plan and that it was designed to bypass scrutiny.

The Chair pointed out that the Action Plan was published on the intranet on the 2nd February and had been available since then.

Cllr Simon Mountney said, “It’s taken four years almost to get to this point and members of the public are currently asking for us to name and shame. Well to be honest I think it’s even more than that. I think it’s name and hold to account. If people prove under that process to have something to answer, then in fact there might even be prosecutions to follow, as I understand the police are involved in this.

So how do you expect to sweep this under the carpet whilst there is a police investigation into this issue is beyond me? This is one of the most serious matters this Council…”

The Chair interrupted and denied that they were trying to sweep it under the carpet.

Cllr Simon Mountney said “Well I think by this statement that you’ve issued just now, what you’re looking to do is move on. Well I’m not ready to move on and I don’t think my colleagues are ready to move on. We need to know who is responsible for this and at this point in time we don’t! We haven’t even had a non redacted version of the report. How can you expect this Council to move on when we don’t know who was responsible for one of most serious issues to happen in this Council for many years?

It’s just beyond me how you have the audacity to issue this kind of report saying let’s move on. We don’t have the answers yet! How can we possibly move on? The report talks about people turning up with baseball bats and you want us to move on? It’s just absolutely beyond me, I don’t understand how your party and you as an individual can continue with this ridiculous issue that it’s going to go away.

This is not going to go away and I’m going to make sure it doesn’t go away till I get the answers that I’ve been seeking for four years. Now we’re getting to a point perhaps where the answers will start to come out, because it will go to a public investigation of some sort. It will. So don’t, let’s not try and sweep it under the carpet because that’s what you’re trying to do.”

The Chair, Cllr Patricia Glasman said “I’m not trying to sweep anything under the carpet. Nobody is and I’m…”

Cllr Simon Mountney said “You are trying to sweep it under the carpet by saying let’s move on!”

The Chair said, “I would be very grateful if nobody here tonight reduces this to the level of personal abuse. With regards to the issue of naming names, I’d be grateful if the Director of Law could answer that.”

Cllr Simon Mountney asked who had put together the statement, whether it was the Chair and if it wasn’t he’d like to know who?

Bill Norman, Director of Law, HR & Asset Management said, “Following a previous meeting of this committee I was informed there was a request from a number of Members to seek an unredacted copy of the Anna Klonowski report. Errm when we received the request for an unredacted version…”

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Audit and Risk Management Committee (Wirral Council) 1st February 2012 Part 1

Present:

Committee

Cllr Crabtree (Chair)
Cllr Dodd
Cllr Mountney
Cllr Brighouse
Cllr John Salter deputising for Cllr Ron Abbey
Cllr Irene Williams
Cllr Jeff Green

Officers

Mark Delap (Committee Clerk)
Deputy Director of Finance
Chief Internal Auditor
Bill Norman (Legal Adviser/Head of Law, HR and Asset Management Department)
Tom Sault

Audit Commission
Mike Thomas (District Auditor)

Liz Temple-Murray

The Chair asked for declarations of interest. There weren’t any declared, so the Committee considered the minutes of the meeting held on the 29th November 2011.  The Chief Internal Auditor said they had been asked in the minutes to circulate a copy of the Internal Audit Manual.

Cllr Darren Dodd referred to amendments to the minutes. The Chair said if he was OK with the explanation Cllr Dodd had received from Mark Delap? He asked if it was OK if he signed the minutes?

The Chair moved onto item 3 Annual Governance Report 2010/2011 Action Plan Update.

The Deputy Director of Finance referred the Committee to the Action Plan and recommendations.

The Chair asked for comments.

There were no comments, so the Chair moved onto item 4 Statement of Accounts 2011/2012 Review of Arrangements.

Tom Sault introduced item 4. He referred to the Statement of Accounts and Action Plan and updated the Committee on areas of further progress. He said he was happy to take any questions?

Cllr Green was keen that there was not a repeat of last year and following criticism by external audit didn’t want the situation to happen again. He asked Tom to clarify and comment on the proposal for closing the Statement of Accounts.

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