Members of the Cabinet are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

No declarations of interest were received.

The minutes of the last meeting have been printed and published. Any matters called in will be reported at the meeting.

RECOMMENDATION:  That the minutes be approved and adopted.

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 18 April 2013 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Phil Davies confirmed that a collective agreement had been reached with the three Trade Unions (Unite, Unison and GMB) over changes to employees’ terms and conditions.  This successful conclusion was the culmination of several months of difficult negotiations and Councillor Davies was delighted that it would mean substantial savings for the Council.  He thanked the Trade Unions and told the Cabinet that the agreement was testament to the fact that the Council, staff and Trade Unions were all pulling together.

Councillor Phil Davies informed that the Cabinet would be considering the next three reports on the agenda together, as follows:

(a)  Overview of Debts – a report which summarised the Independent Review of Sundry Debt report by the Independent Expert, Eugene Sullivan and the work that had been ongoing in response;

(b)  Independent Review of Sundry Debt – report prepared by Eugene Sullivan IPFA, Hons; and

(c)  Response to Independent Review of Sundry Debt – the Interim Director of Finance’s response to the Independent Review of Sundry Debt, by Eugene Sullivan.

Councillor Phil Davies thanked Mr Sullivan on behalf of the Cabinet for undertaking his independent review of the Council’s sundry debt and for producing his hugely helpful report.

Mr Sullivan presented his report and thanked officers in the Finance, Adult Social Services and Legal Departments who had assisted him with his review work.  Mr Sullivan informed that over the last eight or nine years the Council had recovered 89% of its debts but that the recovery rate could have been better.  The problem was that unfortunately, there had been no penalties incurred by the Departments for their failures.  Former Senior Officers had been aware of the growing problem of aged debt and there had been a corporate failure to understand the scale and consequences of this matter.  It had been allowed to get worse through inaction. 

Mr Sullivan reported that there was an acute awareness of the situation now within the Council and appropriate actions had been taken in all three Council Departments.  He was confident of recovery and encouraged by the progress that had been made on the action plan.  Mr Sullivan told Members that it would be necessary to put a permanent solution for collection and recovery in place and allocate resources to ensure that new debt did not occur.  There were some debts which would be very difficult to collect but Mr Sullivan advised the Cabinet to leave no stone unturned before it wrote off any debt.

Councillor Phil Davies reported that the debt problem dated back to 2006.  It had been identified that there had been a lack of assessment.  Clients had not always been aware that they had to pay for care and debts had not been chased up in a proactive way.  Part of the problem had been that Members had not been made aware of the issue.  Also, the way that debts had been handled in the past had been substantially flawed.  There had been no proper reporting regime.  As soon as the Cabinet had been alerted to the situation with regard to debts it had asked the Chief Executive to commission the independent review and report.  Councillor Phil Davies was in no doubt that serious mistakes had been made in the past and the Council would learn from them.  He considered that it was important to acknowledge the failures of the past but he was heartened by the procedures put in place and the actions taken to ensure that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 248.

Councillor Ann McLachlan introduced a report by the Chief Executive which set out the proposed key transformational projects to be progressed during 2013/14 and requested the Cabinet’s endorsement of them.  An outline of the proposed governance arrangements for the transformational projects was also included in the report.

It was noted that the Transformational Projects 2013/14 Outline Business Case required updating to include percentages of children in need for 2011/12.

Councillor McLachlan informed that the Transformational Projects would be a key challenge for the Children and Young People’s Department.  It was important to ensure that specialist support was targeted effectively whilst providing effective services.  There had been consultation and the Department had listened to the views of children and their families.

Councillor Phil Davies informed that this was an absolutely critical programme of work and that it was clear to most informed observers that if local government was to survive it needed to change the way it delivered its services.  Not to change was not an option and the Council had looked at good practice elsewhere and intended to look at more.  The Council was receiving good advice from the Local Government Association and others.  The Peer Challenge Team was of the opinion that the Council was making good progress on this.

The Chief Executive informed that these budgets would make a contribution to budget gaps.  The budget linked to need was a major cultural change for the Council.  The work force would need to work in many different ways to improve services and help meet the large budget gap.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the transformational projects business plans attached as appendix 1 to the report be endorsed and officers be instructed to progress the projects as outlined within the business case; and

(2)  regular Transformation Project reports be presented to the Cabinet to update it on the progress being made.

Councillor George Davies introduced a report by the Chief Executive which set out in detail the proposed operating model for neighbourhood working in Wirral.  This followed agreement by the Council on the broad scope of this model at its meeting on 11 February 2013 (Minute No. 108 refers) and the revision of Article 10 of the Council’s Constitution at its meeting on 30 April 2013 (Minute No. 146) to reflect the creation of four area committees, to be known as Constituency Committees, co-terminus with constituency areas.  These decisions had been taken following an ongoing process of consultation with Elected Members.

The report set out proposals for the governance and membership of Constituency Committees, as well as their role and function.  These proposals had been developed on the basis of ensuring that Constituency Committees were fully enabled to take a leadership role in influencing and shaping the services which were available and delivered in their area by having devolved powers, transparent governance arrangements and appropriate membership.  They also sought to ensure that citizen engagement and empowerment in transforming the areas where they lived was continuously improved.

The Chief Executive’s report also set out proposals for organising Council services to support the delivery of priorities identified by the Constituency Committees for their local area and how partner agencies and organisations would be involved and integrated in neighbourhood working through the establishment of Constituency Public Service Boards.

Finally, the report set out a series of recommendations for consideration by the Cabinet to begin implementing the approach as part of the Council’s transformational programme.  It was noted that the recommendations in the report, therefore, linked closely to the 2013/2014 milestones for neighbourhood working detailed in the Transformation Projects agenda item.

Councillor George Davies informed that Merseyside Police were setting up teams in each of the Constituency areas and the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service intended to focus its work around Constituency hubs.  The governance arrangements for the four new Constituency committees were a key element.  Councillor George Davies reported that Constituency workshops would be held in June/July 2013 and the first formal meetings of the Constituency Committees would take place in September/October 2013.  

Councillor Phil Davies informed that this proposed operating model was an exciting delivery of neighbourhood working in a radical way and would provide funding.  Initially £200,000 (£50,000 for each of the four Constituency Committees) had been put aside for this by the Council but it expected other agencies to also provide funding because this arrangement was a partnership. 

Councillor Phil Davies informed of a recent visit by Members to Sunderland City Council to look at its neighbourhood working models.  This had been very enlightening as Sunderland had devolved £14m to five area committees.  He also reported that he had attended an inspiring session on the asset based community development where he had seen good examples of other local authorities who had embraced asset based community development.  He was looking forward to developing this in Wirral along with the role for all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 250.

Councillor Phil Davies introduced a report by the Chief Executive which summarised the process followed in undertaking a recent review of the issues contained within the Corporate Risk Register.  A draft Corporate Risks 2013-14 Register was appended to the Chief Executive’s report. 

Councillor Phil Davies informed that the Corporate Risk Register was in line with the ratings in the report and it was intended that the Cabinet would receive a report on its risks on a quarterly basis.

The Chief Executive reported that the Corporate Risk Register was to be taken very seriously and the Cabinet should keep it under review.  He thanked Mike Lane, the Council’s Risk and Insurance Officer for his hard work he had undertaken within a short period of time.

The Chief Executive drew the Cabinet’s attention to the potential impact and principal controls of the following risks ensuring Members were fully aware of the situation so that they could take appropriate action:

• Failure to deliver with immediate and long term budgets.
• Organisational Development – the scale and pace of change required could exceed the Council’s organisational capacity (e.g. critical projects).
• Organisational Development – multiple simultaneous demands on key teams (HR, Legal, Finance etc.) exceed the available capacity.
• New IT systems/hardware are not implemented in time to support the new Council model.
• Low economic growth.
• Welfare Reforms
• Increasing demand for socially provided care exceeds the resources available (Council and NHS).
• Uncertainty over funding post 2015.

Councillor Phil Davies agreed that it was important that the Cabinet closely monitored these risks over the next year and that it must receive regular updates on them.

RESOLVED:

That the draft Corporate Risk Register be adopted and the Cabinet receive a report on risks on a quarterly basis, for monitoring purposes.