Tag: Conservative

DASS Management Structure (Wirral Council) | (Department of Adult Social Services) | Wirral DASS Management Structure

As there have been some searches made to the blog about the Social Services management structure I thought I would explain the current structure (or at least with the caveat that obviously this changes over time), along with contact details (whether email or phone). For each tier of management, I’ve given it a number followed … Continue reading “DASS Management Structure (Wirral Council) | (Department of Adult Social Services) | Wirral DASS Management Structure”

As there have been some searches made to the blog about the Social Services management structure I thought I would explain the current structure (or at least with the caveat that obviously this changes over time), along with contact details (whether email or phone). For each tier of management, I’ve given it a number followed by a letter. C stands for councillor, E stands for employee. The number represents what tier (starting with 1 at the top), followed by in brackets how many people are at this tier. I’ll also state who they report to/are line managed by.

There are three which aren’t employees in the Social Services department. One is an office-holder, one is an employee and the other is a vacancy (office-holder). Those are Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative) – resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Phil Davies leader@wirral.gov.uk (Cabinet (Chair), Labour) (from 21/5/12), vacancy – resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Anne McArdle (from 21/5/12) (Cabinet Member for Social Care and Public Health, Labour) and Dawn Stanley-Smith. Dawn Stanley-Smith is an employee in the Children and Young People’s Department (CYPD).

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Cabinet Member for Adult Ed- added 21/5/12 Social Care & Inclusion, C1 (3): Cllr Jeff Green, Conservative, leader@wirral.gov.uk – resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Anne McArdle (from 21/5/12) (Cabinet Member for Public Health),

Cabinet Member for Public Health, C1 (3): Vacancy to 21/5/12, Cllr Anne McArdle (from 21/5/12) Labour, N/A, Public

Cabinet Member for Finance/Best Value, C1 (3): Cllr Jeff Green – resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Phil Davies leader@wirral.gov.uk (Cabinet (Chair)) (from 21/5/12), Public

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Director of Adult Social Services, E1 (1): Graham Hodkinson, 0151 666 3650, Cllr Jeff Green resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Phil Davies & Cllr Anne McArdle

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Graham Hodkinson has four people he line manages, these are:-

Stephen Rowley (Head of Branch, Finance and Performance), E2 (4), 666 3662, Graham Hodkinson
Chris Begya (Head of Branch, Personal Support), E2 (4), 666 3624, Graham Hodkinson
Caroline McKenna (Head of Branch, Safeguarding), E2 (4), 666 3938, Graham Hodkinson
Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012 (Head of Branch, Personal Assessment and Planning), E2 (4), 666 476?, Graham Hodkinson

I’ll then split it into who reports to who starting with those who report to the Finance and Performance Head of Branch.

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Those who report to the Head of Branch, Finance and Performance (SR).

Sandra Thomas, Principal Manager (Finance and Performance), E3 (12), 666 4776, Stephen Rowley

????, Planning and Performance, E3 (12), ?????, Stephen Rowley

Mal Price, Principal Manager (Market Management and Development), E3 (12), 666 4785, Stephen Rowley

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Those who report to Head of Branch, Personal Support (CB)

Paula Pritchard, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Support Provision), 666 4932, Chris Begya

Kenny Robinson, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Specialist Services), 666 ?, Chris Begya

Nick Broadhead, E3 (12), Principal Manager Early (Advice and Support), 666 3630, Chris Begya

—–

Those who report to Head of Branch, Safeguarding (CM)

Amanda Kelly, E3 (12), Service Manager (Safeguarding Adults), 666 3614, Caroline McKenna

Dawn Stanley-Smith, E3 (12), Manager Complaints, Note: CYPD position, Caroline McKenna & CYPD?

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Those who report to Head of Branch, Personal Assessment and Planning (RO)

Pete Gosling, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Wallasey), 666 4967, Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012

Peter Tomlin, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Birkenhead), 666 4967, Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012

Jayne Marshall, E3 (12), Principal Manager (West Wirral), 666 4967, Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012

Anne Bailey, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Independence), 666 4967, Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012

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After the third tier of managers (E3), there is a fourth tier (E4).

After the fourth tier of managers (E4), there is a fifth tier (E5).

After the fifth tier of managers (E5), there is a sixth tier (E6).

At many tiers you get people without line management responsibility too, such as social workers, apprentices, administration staff such as secretaries, vacant posts, support workers etc.

Then there are people who work for Social Services, but are seconded elsewhere. Often when somebody is seconded, a second post is created to do the work they would be doing if not seconded. Also sometimes the post is created and is a vacancy as there isn’t the money in the budget to pay twice for basically the same post.

There are also agency staff too who are line managed by Social Services but not part of it.

However to show all the employees of Social Services department (as well as those line managed by it), would take 10 A4 pages and is a little beyond the scope of a short blog post. It’s a large department with a large Budget. Does anyone know the Budget for Adult Social Services for Wirral Council for 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 or where I can find it out?

Ed 18/3/2012 Thank you a reader for sending me the information to answer this question, the answer is as follows:-

Department of Adult Social Services 2010/2011 Budget £64,745,000

Department of Adult Social Services 2011/2012 Budget £65,520,900

The staffing element of Social Services budget is 2011/12 is £21.6 million and for 2012/13 is £21.7 million.

However Adult Social Services is currently predicted to overspend its Budget in 2011/12 by £3.715 million!

Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee 20th October 2011 PACSPE Call-in

Tonight’s meeting was as the Cabinet decision of the 22nd September 2011 on the PACSPE contract had been called-in by Cllr Jeff Green, Cllr Tom Harney, Cllr Dave Mitchell, Cllr Lesley Rennie and Cllr David Elderton.
At the end of a 3 1/2 hour meeting the voting went as follows.

Labour Amendment to Conservative motion

This amendment upheld the original decision.

Votes For         : 5 (Labour councillors)
Votes Against : 5 (Conservatives councillor plus one Liberal Democrat councillor)

Abstention       : 0
Casting vote of Conservative Chair: AGAINST

Votes For        : 5 (Labour councillors)

Votes Against: 6 (Conservatives councillor plus one Liberal Democrat councillor) + Chair’s casting vote
Abstention     :  0

AMENDMENT FAILS

Conservative Motion

Votes for          : 5 (Conservative councillors plus one Liberal Democrat councillor)

Votes against: 5 (Labour councillors)

Abstentions   : 0

Casting vote of Chair: For

Votes for:          6 (Conservative councillors plus one Liberal Democrat councillor) + Chair’s casting vote

Votes against: 5 (Labour councillors)

Abstentions:  0

MOTION PASSES (Proposed Cllr John Hale, seconded Cllr Don McCubbin)

Text of Motion:

This committee notes that:

    • The Cabinet appeared to ignore, and did not even mention, the findings of the Office of Government Commerce Gateway Reviews that the Parks & Countryside Services Procurement Exercise (PACSPE) had been subjected to.
    • No attempt was made to publically question officers from the Finance Department, the Legal Department and the Procurement Unit who were members of the PACSPE Project Board as to whether the “risk” identified by District Audit, and made such play of in the Cabinet resolution could or had been satisfactorily mitigated.
    • No discussion was had by Cabinet Members of the risks of not awarding the contract.
    • No mention or discussion took place regarding stakeholder management or the views of key stakeholders about the benefits of clear quality improvements that were built into the procurement exercise. In fact, other than the view of the Council’s Trade Unions, the results of the consultation and the views of the park users and user groups were not even mentioned in a single Cabinet meeting.
    • No reference was made to the new post of Community Engagement Manager to work with Friends, stakeholders, user groups, and local Area Forums or the new key performance indicators developed through PACSPE to reflect the change to a more customer and community focused service.
    • Insufficient account seemed to have been taken of the reduction from costs of £8.1 million per year to £7.4 million per year already achieved by the PACSPE process with the potential to reduce costs by a further circa £500,000. Indeed, it is hard to understand how the Leader of of the Council characterised a £1.2 million per annum potential saving arising from PACSPE to be sufficiently marginal to be ignored.
    • No effort appeared to be made by Cabinet Members to discuss or evaluate the additional costs to Council Tax Payers of purchasing what has been accepted as worn out equipment requiring immediate replacement (circa £2.5 million) or the TUPE costs of bringing current contractor staff into the Council workforce and pension scheme, per annum or over the 10 year period.
    • No mention was made of the training and development programme for staff and volunteers or the three to six new apprentices to be created as part of PACSPE.
    • No explanation was given at Cabinet regarding the opposition to a 10 year contract that would reduce annual costs by circa £1.2 million and improve the quality of our parks and countryside, other than the expressed need contained in the resolution to reduce spending by £85 million over three years.
    • Therefore we believe that the decision to refuse to award the PACSPE contract would see the ever decreasing quality of a service starved of investment by this administration which is already characterised by going for the quick fix instead of making the difficult but necessary strategic decisions in the interests of Wirral residents.

The Committee recommends to the Cabinet

*Editor’s note will have to check rest of resolution due to noise preventing taking it down*

My guess is that the rest of it is “reconsider the decision”.

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In the interests of openness, John Brace lives opposite Bidston Hill which is covered by the PACSPE contract.

Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 9 – speeches (Cllr Dave Mitchell & Cllr Chris Blakeley) on leader motion/amendment

Cllr Dave Mitchell (Deputy Leader, Lib Dem Group) said he had stood up against his own group regarding the library fiasco. No fingers had been burnt but soon he hoped it would be put to bed. The last administration had brought benefits to the people of Wirral. However we needed to look into the reality of the election and where [the Lib Dems] sit. He agree with Cllr Harney that they were now the smallest group. He said it was a cheap shot of the Conservatives as when they had been in opposition as the largest Group there had been all party support for a minority administration but they had turned it down.

Dave said they needed to move forward and the electorate had spoken. A tsunami had hit the Liberal Democrats, who were affected badly and had lost councillors as had the Conservatives. The Labour Party had fought on national issues not local issues. The Lib Dems would be making sure they were doing the right thing.

Cllr Chris Blakeley said it was an honour to be the last speaker. He said he won’t repeat what people have said. He thanked Cllr Green and the support from the Liberal Democrats. He said they had moved things forward in change local government as well as removing more items from exemption. They hadn’t waived as many call-ins. He said he was confused by the Lib Dems who had stated they were proud of their achievements over the last twelve months, but said there was a lot more to be achieved. He considered a Labour administration as a backward step.

Reminding people of the Strategic Change Programme, the Care Quality Commission report, swimming pools he pointed out that 60% of people hadn’t voted. If this was added to the people who had voted it was a mandate. He wanted to let people know about the FoulkesWorld Twitter account and said if this motion was agreed Wirral would go into Foulkes’ world.

Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 8 – speech (Cllr Stuart Kelly) on leader motion/amendment

Cllr Stuart Kelly said he had heard what the Conservatives were saying. However it was frankly not enough to address and debate, when this should’ve been done in the closing weeks of the local election campaign. The points that had been made should’ve been put to the people. However the people had spoken. He thanked Cllr Ian Lewis for not mentioning him. Cllr Dave Mitchell also thanked him too. Cllr Kelly said that people vote for a raft of reasons. He said it was said many people voted for reasons that were not linked to success or otherwise but that was the way democracy was. The voters however knew best.

However, there were two critical things, the number of votes and the number of seats commanded. If they [Labour] had slightly more seats then they would have the critical seats needed for the formula. On both counts the Labour Party was the party with the most votes and seats. Wirral Council had invited the public to tell us and they had said No to AV and that they prefer FPTP. He said they must respect this. He referred to the Localism Bill and pointed out the opportunity to reconsider local government structure. He said a “strong leader [model]” was not for us and doesn’t work with a balanced Council. There was the option to reform the committee system to involve more councillors in the issues that had all-party support. He said he had not been in the Cabinet very long, but recognised its achievements and the way forward.

Reasons to vote Liberal Democrat in Bidston & St. James on May 5th – Day Two

There are four choices you face in Bidston & St. James on May 5th. Your choices are Lib Dem, Labour, Conservative or UKIP. I will be voting for the Liberal Democrats.

UKIP came 5th last year with just over 3% of the vote. They are on course for coming last this time. The Tories didn’t even manage 11%.

Last year 78% of people either voted Lib Dem or Labour. Under our first past the post system if you vote Conservative or UKIP your vote won’t count but just help Labour to get elected.

In 2007 Labour’s candidate Harry Smith got elected with 1,384 votes. Last year the Lib Dems got 699. Only ~7% of voters will decide the result.

If you vote Liberal Democrat on May 5th:-

a) if you voted Green or BNP last time, voting Lib Dem will force Labour to work harder.
b) if you voted Labour last time but Lib Dem this time it will reduce Labour’s majority by 2.
c) if you voted Lib Dem last time, thank you but we need you to vote Lib Dem again.
d) if you voted Conservative last time, Lib Dems work with the Conservative Party and a vote for the Conservative candidate will just result in Labour being elected.
e) if you voted UKIP last time, a vote for the UKIP candidate will just help Labour. Please consider voting Lib Dem.

Under our first past the post system, the winning candidate only needs about 39% to win.

Postal voters should be getting their vote in the next fortnight, please let me know if you don’t receive yours and I will do my best to help. Last year, like many residents I didn’t receive my postal vote and had to be given two postal votes (local and General) on polling day. I hope this year things will run smoother.