Members are asked to consider whether they have personal or prejudicial interests in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state what they are.

Members are reminded that they should also declare, pursuant to paragraph 18 of the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules, whether they are subject to a party whip in connection with any item(s) to be considered and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

No declarations of interest were received.

Each Member of the Committee received a copy of the Recommendations Action List following Anna Klonowski’s (AKA Ltd) Final Report.  A written resolution provided by the Chair was also circulated.

A short adjournment was requested so that Members could read the documentation supplied and discuss it in their Political Groups.

The Chair adjourned the meeting at 5.15pm to give Members the opportunity to consider the documentation they had just received.

The meeting resumed at 5.30pm.

Councillor P Glasman, in her capacity as Chair, and with the agreement of the Committee, read out the following resolution:

‘This Committee recognises the seriousness of the issues raised within the Anna Klonowski report.

Committee welcomes the Action Plan put forward by the Cabinet to tackle these issues, which incorporates the recommendations made by the author of the report.

It further welcomes the fact that the Council has formally apologised to Mr Martin Morton, and that there is an ongoing review into the Council’s whistle blowing and bullying and harassment policies.

Committee recognises that the Chief Executive has already asked the Director of Adult Social Services, supported by the Head of Safeguarding, to urgently review the Final report for any further safeguarding issues that need to be addressed, and that Cabinet has already asked them to consider whether any historic safeguarding failures should be referred to the police or any other regulatory body..

Committee therefore asks the Director of Adult Social Services to provide a verbal report to the committee on these issues at this point, followed by a written report to a subsequent committee.

Committee notes that a series of measures have already been taken to strengthen safeguarding, and seeks assurance from the Director that these measures will be sufficient to ensure that the serious failures detailed in the AKA report cannot be repeated in the future.

Committee welcomes the setting up of Improvement Board, with an independent chair, three party membership and members from the LGA, an external Chief Executive, Ms Klonowski and the District Auditor to oversee improvements  and the implementation of best practice in the Council, and to monitor the implementation of the Action Plan on the AKA report.

Committee further notes the work that has been done with the Care Quality Commission on improvements within Adult Social Services, and the Peer Evaluation which demonstrated that good progress was being made in Adult Social Services.

Committee believes that vital lessons have to be learnt from mistakes that have been made in the past, but believes that it is important to move forward at this point, with a new Director, and for members of all parties to work together with officers and other agencies on Wirral to create the best possible Adult Social Services in Wirral.’

Some Members raised concerns about not receiving a copy of the Action Plan in advance of the meeting and therefore, not having enough time to look at it in detail before being expected to discuss it.  They considered that, although it appeared grand and laudable, it was designed to bypass the scrutiny process and, they were unhappy about that.

The Chair informed that the Action List had, in fact, been published on the Council’s website with the Cabinet agenda well over a week ago.

Some Members made the point that as it had taken four years to get to this stage of the enquiry.  They reported that members of the public were asking for those who had behaved inappropriately to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

The Head of Safeguarding provided the Committee with a brief oral report on interviews being held with those who had raised concerns (referred to on Page 94 of the AKA report) and on the Police’s involvement.  The Committee was informed that the names had been obtained from Anna Klonowski via the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management.  A further report would be presented to the Committee when more details became available.

The Committee was aware that the redacted report had been provided for officers in September 2012.  Members asked when it had been decided to involve the Police.  The Director of Law, HR and Asset Management confirmed that the Police had been contacted after the final AKA report was received.

The Director of Adult Social Services reported that there was no service provider named in the report who currently had a contract with the Council.