Councillor C Jones left the meeting during consideration of this item.

The Leader of the Council invited Alan Small of UNITE to address the Cabinet. He stated that contrary to what was indicated in the report he had not received the report until it was made publically available in the week prior to the meeting. A number of his members had applied for voluntary redundancy in 2013 but this had been put on hold whilst the review was ongoing but he felt that the enhanced severance rate should be offered to this group of staff. Changes had been agreed to terms and conditions in 2013 but this was on the understanding of no further changes before 1 April 2016. He also stated that any transfers to the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust should be based on TUPE.

The Director of Adult Social Services in response stated that the union had raised the issue of differentials between the NHS and local authority staff terms and conditions. He acknowledged that it was not desirable to have staff ‘at risk’ for 12 months. The review was needed to understand where savings could be made and in this high risk service area operational requirements had to come first.

The Director introduced his report which provided context in relation to the review of Wirral Council’s Community Mental Health Services commissioned and provided by Wirral Council in conjunction with Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as the lead statutory Health Provider organisation.

The review was instigated by the Director of Adult Social Services, supported by CWP and had focussed upon those areas of service involving local authority resource deployments. Inevitably the review was placed within the wider system of mental health determinants and Cost Improvement Programmes (CSIP) and transformation programmes adopted by CWP.

The report sought agreement from Cabinet to consult upon plans to fully integrate DASS Mental Health service provision with CWP in order to provide an all age mental health service model across the borough which provided 24/7 response through an out of hours pathway service. 

A full consultation with staff and Trade Unions from WMBC and CWP would be required should members agree to the recommendations in the report. This would run from 27 January to 14 March 2014. In addition consultation with Senior Managers, the Executive and Board of CWP would be undertaken. Discussions with staff had been ongoing and the Director of Adult Social Services had met with a variety of staff and mental health professionals. These meetings had explored the variety of options available in relation to fuller integration. It was proposed that a period of 12 weeks consultation would be held with people directly impacted by any proposed changes, specifically in relation to proposals to incorporate the functions of Beaconsfield Centre, subject to Cabinet agreement.  This would run from 27 January to 18 April 2014. 

The Leader of the Council commented that he was reassured that no decisions had been made to change terms and conditions.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 130