Category: Department of Adult Social Services

Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 15 – speech (Cllr Steve Foulkes) on being made Leader of Wirral Council

He then went on to discuss in-house bids for council services and how that they’ve got to run things more efficiently. This had been somehow bypassed by people drafted in. He asked Cllr Kelly what was wrong with Overview and Scrutiny Committees being ambassadors and going to the public? This way they would get a … Continue reading “Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 15 – speech (Cllr Steve Foulkes) on being made Leader of Wirral Council”

He then went on to discuss in-house bids for council services and how that they’ve got to run things more efficiently. This had been somehow bypassed by people drafted in. He asked Cllr Kelly what was wrong with Overview and Scrutiny Committees being ambassadors and going to the public? This way they would get a balance of views. Cllr Foulkes said he stands by elected councillors and would bring big policies to full meetings of the Council in order to do the best for Wirral. If people wanted to personalise this then do so. However his team had a different style and was going to be better. He said that [personalising politics] doesn’t achieve much. He also said Notices of Motion don’t matter a great deal. However the hot air looks and sound good. There was now a chance for other people to engage in policy and use Scrutiny Committees to develop policy.

Consultation could also be use to define changes to the Corporate Plan. However Labour had inherited the Budget and Corporate Plan. He referred to the people of Wirral that councillors are serving, who are affected by decisions but are not online. The Department of Adult Social Services was mentioned in relation to the changes to Personal Budgets. He mentioned Highcroft costing £95/day and that this was an obstacle. He referred to his visit to Mapleholme where he had been told not to tell the people there as they might get upset.

Social Services & Martin Morton

It’s good to see some local press coverage in the Wirral Globe (with 37 comments) and other local papers about this issue, which I wrote about on the 19th in relation to the Cabinet meeting of the 14th.

Changing an entire culture of an organisation and how councillors do scrutiny in the future is always difficult. Wirral Council will need to bring people like Mr. Morton on board if things are to change. The public call for people who didn’t do their job to be fired and the finger of blame pointed at certain named councillors of various political parties as well as the full story as to what happened and why and will be clearer once the report is published. However Wirral Council needs to move on from the past and embrace change.

As pointed out in previous reports, it was not just the Cabinet Member’s responsibility but at the time of the special charging policy there was a separate Social Services committee with a Chair and party spokespersons whose role was scrutiny of Social Services. People involved in political parties at the time of the special charging policy do know who was involved in these at the time, but (perhaps as many are still serving councillors) these names haven’t been released to the general public.

Although weaknesses were exposed at the political/councillor level there were also massive failings within Social Services management and internal confusion regarding its policies and procedures.

In politics, only certain things are taken up and campaigned on (and this partly depends on the numbers that want something). The rest, councillors, MPs etc and others in political parties do their best about. Mr. Morton was standing up for disabled adults (many of which sadly at times encounter prejudice or in some cases due to their disability have difficulties in communicating). Many councillors have a very good understanding of physical disability (eg glasses, walking sticks, wheelchair users etc) but don’t fully understand the nuances (and differing severities) of adults with learning difficulties or learning disabilities.

Yet what is the employee body of Wirral Council as a whole like? Wirral Council itself was named joint “Scrooge Employer of the Year” for 2008 for poor staff morale and where staff felt their efforts went unappreciated. If you read the Council’s Workforce monitoring report for 2009/2010, that you were more likely to get a job if you were female or disabled. Yet if you were from a non-white ethnic background or male you were less likely to get from shortlisting to the job.

As the report points out “The success rate of disabled applicants is marginally above the norm. The high percentage of shortlisted disabled applicants is due in the main to the Council’s guaranteed interview policy. This policy guarantees that a disabled applicant who meets the essential criteria is shortlisted and is interviewed. The most significant trend is that whilst non-white ethnic background applicants have a greater chance of being short listed they appear to be less successful at interview stage.”

A quarter of its employees choose not to answer the question on disability. I hope Wirral Council working in the future with organisations such as Operation Black Vote will move things forward on race and by working through the issues flagged up by Mr. Morton Wirral Council will start getting things right for disabled people, rather than being branded the worst Social Services department in the country.

The author is a former student representative on the Disability SubGroup of University of Liverpool.

Cabinet 14th April 2011 – Department of Adult Social Services – Report of the Independent Investigator

Although the covering report about the independent investigator’s report into Social Services (despite multiple requests by myself) was not circulated to those present at the meeting, it has since been published on on Wirral Council’s website.

It makes interesting reading. A few quotes about how Wirral Council treated its former employee Martin Morton:-

“Mr Smith concludes that there were three examples of personal behaviour which he believed were inappropriate and which resulted in Martin Morton being bullied.”

“Mr Smith concludes that there were seven examples of collective behaviour which he believes were inappropriate; and which resulted in Martin Morton receiving detrimental treatment.”

“Mr Smith concludes that there were three examples of what he believes to be inappropriate behaviour/abuse of power at the departmental level in DASS; and which resulted in a denial of due process by the Council as an organisation.”

“Lastly, Mr Smith finds that there were three examples of inappropriate behaviour/abuse of power at corporate level, which he believes resulted in a denial of due process by the Council, as an organisation, in its consideration of
Martin Morton’s grievance claims.”

By my count that’s 16 examples of where things went wrong. There are many recommendations including:-

“Mr Smith’s final recommendation, Recommendation 6, is that, in the light of the investigation findings, the Council should consider its obligations to Martin Morton; and determine whether it should consider an appropriate remedy for the manner in which the Council has treated him.”

Basically things need to change at Wirral Council and although what’s in the 270 page report of Mr. Smith can be guessed at and will be made public there are various questions this raises:-

a) What role did individual councillors have in this? Are there lessons to be learnt on a political level (for all political parties)?
b) What role did individual officers have in this? Are the failings within Social Services part of what led to it being scored by the Care Quality Commission as one of the worst Social Services department in the country?
c) Although Wirral Council have apologised, what is an “appropriate remedy” for Martin Morton?

The whole thing comes across as confirming some things in political parties that people knew already about:-

problems in councillor/employee relations (or Member/Officer relations as its usually referred to)
management failings within Social Services
confusion by its employees over internal policies
prejudice towards the client group (vulnerable adults with a disability)
workplace issues
what role council employees play in the political process

I could write a very, very long list and await the publication of the report with interest! I admire Martin Morton for the principled stand he took (and was ultimately victimised and hounded out of a job for doing the right thing).

Some of those involved have left DASS, but some are still working there.