Wirral Council was invoiced £36,000 by consultancy for work on the “delivery of a more effective urgent care system in Wirral” before consultation on changes had even finished!

Last year there was a well responded to consultation on “urgent care” that ran from 20th September 2018 to the 12th December 2018 on the proposed closure of walk-in centres on the Wirral. During that consultation a petition of 3,853 residents opposing the proposed closures was presented to a public meeting of Wirral Council councillors. At that same meeting sixty-two councillors agreed a resolution that stated, “Council is totally opposed to any outcome which would see the closure of existing walk-in facilities and minor injury and illness facilities at current urgent care locations in Wirral”.
After that meeting and on the day before the consultation finished on the 11th December 2018 Wirral Council was invoiced £36,000 by Venn Consulting Limited for “Funding to support the analysis, and any associated programmes of work, in the delivery of a more effective urgent care system in Wirral” which included “Pathway redesign” and “Plans for further progression” – which let’s face it are both euphemisms for closures and indeed the final decision was the closure of services at two locations.
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Yet again more taxpayers money being wasted, the voters need a say on the consultation process, far too much money is being paid out to outside firms
It seems to me, there is a severe shortage of in-house skills in our local goverment on a wide gamut of operations. What happened to management actually having some experience within the sector they look after? Or is it a case of now only needing to know how to string sentences of meaningless jargon together?
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Well consultants Avis Young were recently awarded a £345,151 contract by Wirral Council to prepare a Birkenhead Regeneration Framework and associated Delivery Action Plans – so yes there must be a capacity issue in-house at Wirral Council.
Either that or consultants are very good at marketing their services to Wirral Council!