Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Cabinet Member for Central and Support Services (Cllr Adrian Jones)
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Cllr Joe Walsh asked, “Taking into account what the former local MP .. is Cllr Adrian Jones in a position to provide further information?
Cllr Chris Blakeley asked, “It’s regarding the disruption to IT services. Is the Cabinet Member aware that since the major outage there have been a further three periods of disruption, particularly at weekends, where local residents who wish to contact their local councillors cannot get email through? Can he tell us what action will be taken to provide a reliable and consistent service, so that we can serve the people who elected us to the Town Hall?”
Cllr Gerry Ellis asked, “My question relates to the first part of your report which is to do with human resources. You and I both have an interest in this and in your report you mention that you’re making numerous savings in the report. My question is can you explain to the Council why the top ten Chief Officers today get paid more than the top ten Chief Officers did in 2010, when ordinary council workers have had their pay frozen during that period and progression halted under this present Administration?”
Cllr Adam Sykes asked, “Can the Cabinet Member give me their assurance that they will work with Thingwall Primary School to ensure that the old Stanley School site adjacent to Thingwall Primary is put to good use after the continued effort of the Thingwall Primary to work with the Authority in providing a facility that benefits the whole of the ward?”
Cllr Bernie Mooney asked, “The asset management report page fifty-two confirms the integration will not result in any increased costs to the Council and the trade union accommodation reduces. So will the trade union still have offices?”
Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care (Cllr Chris Jones) Questions on zero hours contracts, day services, Moreton Day Centre and domiciliary care
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Cllr Stuart Kelly asked, “I liked what the Cabinet Member said in her report about the commissioning of services, but is the Cabinet Member embarrassed that Wirral was named and shamed over the summer as the council with most contracts with most care homes on Merseyside using zero hour contracts for their employees?
Is she also aware the response that was given to me when I submitted a Freedom of Information request which asked how many contractors for Wirral Council providing Council services have used zero hour contracts? The reply I received was Wirral Council does not have a policy on the use of zero hour contracts and that Wirral Council would not hold information about the resource management of our contractors as how they manage resources is a matter for the contractor. Does she still stand by that reply on behalf of the Administration and believe that resource management is not a matter for the Council when considering that we place contracts for care services for vulnerable people and when will we see a policy on the use of zero hour contracts by companies Council contracts with to provide services?”
Cllr Simon Mountney asked, “The Cabinet Member in her report details changes to residential and day services, which have been delivered on time and within Budget. Can she explain what effect the department’s failure to hit the performance indicator for permanent admissions of older people to residential & nursing care homes, as reported to Cabinet on Thursday will have on the department’s Budget and can she please give me an assurance that the same rigour and process are applied to the alleged payment of £48,000 is as being applied to the Martin Morton issue please?
Cllr Anita Leech asked, “I was delighted to hear from students and staff when I recently visited Moreton Day Centre which falls within my ward, that the much smaller group of students remaining have been able to carry out alternative and increased activity and participate in the local and vibrant community as well as the usual centre based activities and they are happy with the proposed move to other.. and I’d like to personally thank the staff of the day centre, parent and carer’s groups and the officers of the Council for the hard work they’ve put into reviewing this unfortunate closure as we’re providing what appears to be a facility that could be improved upon for the students remaining. I would however like to ask the question with regards to the hundred people who transferred from the services from Moreton. Did one to one consultation take place as was indicated to identify the needs of the individual and were their places allocated accordingly? And secondly how was the transition for the students, were there any issues?”
Cllr Phil Gilchrist asked, “Can I ask the Cabinet Member about the domiciliary contracts and the care of the elderly? What monitoring is undertaken in Wirral to ensure that Wirral isn’t subject to some of the problems identified recently nationally where mistakes were made by very limited time available for clients?”
Cllr Chris Jones responded, “Thank you very much for your questions, it’s nice to know you’ve actually looked at my report.
I suppose I can answer the two together really about the domiciliary contracts. If you had read the second page of my report, you’d see that we’re trying to support the principles of the ethical care charter, which looks after the workers as well as some looking at the people who need care. We are actively encouraging people and the firms who are going to tender to not use any zero hours contracts and we’ve asked for a report from the HR department to find out how many contractors that are generally used by the Council are using these zero hours contracts.
Stuart’s commissioning of services, we’re doing an awful lot of work with the NHS which has been a huge problem in the past I think we’re working far more closely together now around intermediate care and all the rest of it. The zero hours contract I’ve already answered Stuart. Chris Begya and Jacqui Evans’ reports are, Jacqui Evans is undertaking and is personally involved with the commissioning work and is making great inroads into that and looking at savings as well as improving quality of care for the people of the Wirral.
Anita asked about Moreton Day Centre. Everybody who attended Moreton has had a one to one .. they also had a .. visit to their new centre which we felt was really important. About seventy people have actually transferred, mainly to … which is a really popular choice mainly around .. moving anyway and to Heswall but others have gone to Pensby and Eastham as well but increasing places at Dale Farm taking extra visits to Dale Farm, and generally people have settled really well. Some of the staff have moved with the service users so .. a little bit of continuity of care for those users. Thank you Mr Mayor.”
Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Answers to Questions to the Leader (Cllr Phil Davies)
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Cllr Phil Davies answered the seven questions as follows, “Thank you Mr Mayor. Cllr Green has asked me about rumours circulating et cetera, I’ve got nothing to add to the email from the Chief Executive issued to all Members of the Council on the 7th October.
To Cllr Denise Roberts, the visit to China, yes I was actually delighted that our Government sent out a high powered delegation of actually six politicians, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, four Government Ministers (I’m not sure who the Government Ministers are) and the Mayor of London together with civil servants and business people. And you know the serious point about this is that, and I again I applaud George Osborne, because he I think quite rightly in a speech he made this morning, did comment on the importance of increasing the links with China as a global market which is growing aggressively and we need to in Britain I think we need to be very mindful of that and try and use every opportunity we can to ensure that our residents benefit from investment, jobs which can be secured from that growing economy and I was delighted to be part of the delegation which visited China recently.
I know the Leader of the Opposition Cllr Green and the former Leader of the Liberal Democrats Cllr Harney have also been out to that country and the scale of progress is absolutely staggering. It really is the pace of the recruitment and the government there have a policy now of encouraging their companies to look at Western countries to invest in and therefore I think it’s essential actually for the local authorities to take advantage of these opportunities to secure jobs and investment. The International Trade Centre, Wirral Waters and the opportunities that exist within our offshore wind sector were two of the areas that we, I certainly focused on while I was over in China.
In terms of just while I’m on my feet, Cllr Blakeley, the reason why I didn’t mention the school links, it was literally a proposal that we handed to the Mayor of Taicang for a school teacher exchange program which they’d expressed an interest in. So it was an element of the visit but the two main reasons to go out there was one to support Peel on getting jobs and investment in the ITC and secondly to get wind power companies to look at doing a partnership with Cammell Lairds. So it wasn’t the main element but it was an element.
And the issue about gifts, again as the other leaders who’ve been out to China will testify, it is protocol that when you visit China you exchange gifts, we’ve done that on previous visits and when delegations come over here they’ve done that. We took over some gifts which unfortunately got stuck in Chinese customs, they’ve come back at no extra cost to the Council and indeed we will use them because we’re expecting a delegation from China to visit us in the next couple of months so they will be used.
Stuart Kelly asked about the the SME contractors that we use and making sure that we report back on the ten day target. Stuart I’ve not forgotten that, the report’s not been completed yet for Cabinet. It’s my intention that that will still be tabled, I’m not exactly sure when but I give you my assurance that I will check with the relevant officer and drop you a note exactly when that is expected to come to Cabinet.
OK, Stuart Wittingham, I’ve dealt with Chris Blakeley’s questions, Stuart Wittingham, yeah Stuart I think all those I’m delighted to thank all the elected Members who attended the second annual conference at the Floral Pavilion on Saturday. Obviously some groups were, some Members were unable to attend and you know I understand that there were other commitments. However, I think those people who were there, I certainly got very good feedback about the event.
We had two very good speakers, one the Chief Exec of the LGA and one the Chair of Local Government Association Improvement Board and I think we had a good debate about the future model for the full Council in the next few years. I wanted to stress that this is the start of a debate and there’ll be other opportunities, Scrutiny Committees, in individual groups before we have our policy Council at the start of December where we will revisit our Corporate Plan, so I think that was a very … day and again I’m very grateful to officers and Members and our partners in that.
Right onto Cllr Hodson, again Wirral Waters and the ITC I think I’ve emphasised how important that is for the future economic prosperity of Wirral. On his invitation to congratulate Esther McVey on her promotion … I mean clearly on a personal level I will say congratulations, however I sincerely hope her record on employment is much more successful than the horrendous cuts that’s she’s presided over.
Disabled people in this country are some of the poorest groups in this country. I hope, I sincerely hope that she uses that position to persuade George Osborne that he’s got the policy direction in terms of the economy completely and utterly wrong and he needs to rethink now. And then finally Mr Mayor, Mark Johnston asked me about the progress on the International Trade Centre scrutiny report which he was involved in when he was Chair of that particular scrutiny committee.
I can tell Mark that clearly as I’ve mentioned the ITC does remain a key priority for the Council working with our colleagues in Peel. I think we’ve offered significant support to and that continues to Peel including the use of Birkenhead Town Hall as a key visitor’s centre for overseas visitors. An internal working group of officers has been set up Mark to take forward the recommendations from the scrutiny committee’s report and various actions have been allocated across Council departments depending what each recommendations are to ensure that a rapid start can be made once the actual development has, we’re expecting construction to start in the early part of 2014.
At the moment businesses are being signed up over in China, some of the actions do have resource requirements and you know we need to look at that in the context of the Budget and I think it is more appropriate to undertake that at a point just before development starts. The trigger point for implementing the actions from the scrutiny report will be receipt of the reserved matters application, phase 1 of the ITC, but I’ve been assured, because I’ve asked a question and you’re kind enough to give me notice that you’re bringing this up tonight so thank you for that Mark.
Officers have assured me that they will pull together the cross party working group very soon indeed, in the next couple of months, so Members that were involved in that piece of work can ensure themselves that you know progress is being made against each of the recommendations in the report, that answers the question.”
Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Leader (Cllr Phil Davies)
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Council (Wirral Council) 14th October 2013 Questions to the Leader (Cllr Phil Davies)
The Council meeting started with a one minute silence for the late Sylvia Hodrien and Jim Edwards. There were prayers for councillors after which the Mayor invited people to sit down.
Cllrs Rennie, Niblock, Roberts and Stapleton declared a personal interest in item 11 (Recommendation from the Regeneration and Environment Policy and Performance Committee) as Wirral Council’s representatives on the Mersey Fire and Rescue Authority.
Cllr Les Rowlands presented a petition of seventy-four households opposed to the proposal to sell off public land on the corner of Boundary Lane and Telegraph Road.
Cllr Stuart Kelly presented a petition of a hundred and eight residents asking for improvements to the lighting on the pathway from the Holmlands area to Woodchurch High School and Woodchurch Leisure Centre.
Cllr Philip Brightmore presented a petition of two hundred and thirty-seven households asking for something (sadly the rest of what Cllr Brightmore said about that petition was unclear).
Cllr Pat Hackett presented a petition of one hundred and eight people from the Field Road Residents Association in New Brighton objecting to the Council selling a car park.
The Mayor invited the Leader of the Council to introduce his report. Cllr Phil Davies said that his report covered five main areas. These areas were the future Council model and vision, the Budget, European funding (Wirral Council were going to submit a judicial review on this matter), the progress of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority application and his recent visit to China.
Cllr Jeff Green asked the first question to Cllr Phil Davies. His question was, “Given the Council’s Budget position, as set out in this report, is the Leader of the Council aware of the rumours circulating around a £48,000 compensation payment made to a serving Council officer and does he know what that payment was for?”
Cllr Denise Roberts asked, “Would the Leader of the Council join with me in congratulating the Chancellor of the Exchequer for following Wirral’s example by leading a trade delegation to China and declaring he wants Britain to share in China’s economic progress?”
Cllr Stuart Kelly asked, “In the Leader’s report he talks about working in partnership with strategic partners such as business. At the Council meeting on the 15th July, the Leader will recall that I asked him whether he was aware that the policy of payments to small and medium-sized enterprises within five days was being quietly abandoned by officers. In his reply to me in July, the Leader was clear that the policy had not been abandoned by him or the Administration but also does he recall in his answer saying that he had and I quote ‘asked for a report to be presented to the Cabinet by the Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment detailing what support is in place to ensure SMEs continue to survive and grow which would include information regarding payment times’? I’d ask the Leader Mr Mayor what has happened to that report and how is Council performing against the five-day payment times?”
Cllr Chris Blakeley asked, “My question is about the visit to China. Mr Mayor, we’re informed a key theme of the latest visit was to develop educational links between the young people of Wirral and the young people of China. Can the Leader of the Council tell us why that key theme does not appear in his report because he’s covered everything else (developing education links)? Mr Mayor, I think I … to update councillors on the status of the gifts that travelled halfway round the world and back.”
Cllr Stuart Wittingham asked, “Can I express my thanks to all those involved in organising the second Wirral Council annual conference which was held at the Floral Pavilion on Saturday? Can I ask the Leader of the Council to emphasise the importance of all elected Members to engage in the discussion about developing a model and vision of how the Council operates in future?”
Cllr Andrew Hodson asked, “I was delighted to read of the ongoing progress of the Wirral Waters site and will he be joining me in congratulating Esther McVey on her recent promotion as Employment Minister and place on record his thanks to her for her endeavours to secure Enterprise Zone status for Wirral Waters?”
Cllr Mark Johnston asked, “My question is in relation to point five in the report and the International Trade Centre. Firstly I would like to applaud the Council for its outward looking approach to inward investment, however I note that all three party leaders have all been out to Taicang, China on separate visits. My question relates to the progress on the recommendations made under a scrutiny review looking at the International Trade Centre, especially the agreement reached to explore a cross party working party to make sure the recommendations were carried through. I haven’t seen any progress on that yet, thank you.”
The Mayor asked the Leader of the Council, Cllr Phil Davies to answer those questions.
Cabinet (Wirral Council) 10th October 2013 Cllr Phil Davies “we’re not out the woods yet by any means”
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Cllr Phil Davies said, “OK so that takes us on now to item four, the err Statement of Accounts for 2012/13.
Errm, again, errm this err, I think these Statement of Accounts have been to Audit and Risk Management Committee, err err, but the thing that err again I want to draw your attention to is in paragraph 2.10, clearly this is a report that relates to 12/13, the statement of accounts relates to 12/13, err when we had a number of errm pretty err you know big challenges err on errm to you know address. Not least errm a £17 million overspend from the previous administration errm which you know which was a huge challenge and again I think it reflects the distance that we’ve travelled, that we’ve addressed that and later in the financial monitoring report we’re actually reporting an underspend now in the first few months of this year which is err great.
Errm but I think the the the paragraph 2.10, errm Grant Thornton err recognise the progress made by the Council during 12/13 with the direction of travel being rated as amber, errm so I think that’s, err we’re not out of the woods yet by any means, but I think that’s encouraging errm external validation if you like of the progress that we’ve made, so I think that’s very welcome.
So I don’t really want to say much more than that except to say that we’re err being asked to note the Statement of Accounts err and the audit report by Grant Thornton and that errm at 12.2 progress on delivering the actions identified in the audit findings report will be monitored by Audit and Risk Management Committee. So can we agree those recommendations?”
Cabinet: “Agreed”
Cllr Phil Davies: “OK, very good thank you.”
Ed – although Cllr Phil Davies refers to a £17 million overspend which he blames on the previous Conservative/Lib Dem administration, this wasn’t an overspend but a projected overspend of £17 million, which after a spending freeze reduced to £4.7 million. The Labour Cabinet in October 2012, after the projected overspend of £17 million was known, agreed to extra spending (beyond what was in the 2012/13 budget) of £700,000.
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