At the request of the Chair, three reports, which had been to the Audit and Risk Management Committee had been submitted for the Committee’s consideration.

The Chair informed the Committee that the Audit and Risk Management Committee had expressed the view that consideration of two of the reports, this one and ‘Charging Arrangements for Supported Living in Wirral 1997 to 2003’ should be deferred until such time as a final update report had been resubmitted to the Audit and Risk Management Committee.

With the agreement of the Committee consideration of this item was deferred.

Further to minute 23 (23 September 2009), the Chief Internal Auditor presented a report which addressed the Special Charging Policy applied to service users residing at "in house" Supported Living Units. The Committee considered the report in conjunction with the report elsewhere on the agenda of the Director of Adult Social Services ‘Charging Arrangements for Supported Living in Wirral 1997 to 2003’ (see minute 43 post).

Information had been reviewed from a number of sources including the Audit Commission's PIDA Report, Mr Morton's grievance, and documents within the Department of Adult Social Services. The Audit Commission was made aware of the documents reviewed by Internal Audit and was not aware of any additional documents relevant to the investigation. In response to a question from a Member, the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management confirmed that he had contacted Mr Morton’s solicitor, to seek the views of Mr Morton and to request his assistance in relation the audit investigation. The Director had also requested the co-operation of Mr Morton in relation to his investigation of Mr Morton’s allegation of bullying (Cabinet minute 137 (24 September 2009) refers). However, to date, no response had been received from Mr Morton, or his solicitor, in relation to either matter. A Member expressed the view that the report of the Chief Internal Auditor was incomplete without the views of Mr Morton being included within it and that its consideration should be deferred to allow time for consultation with Mr Morton to be undertaken.

In order to assess if the Special Charging Policy was "unreasonable", enquiries were made to the Directors of all northern Adult Social Services with a copy to the Chief Internal Auditors of the same Authorities concerning the charges levied by them between 1997 and 2003 for "in house" supported living service users. The format and content of the Questionnaire and letter had been agreed with the Director of Adult Social Services and the Audit Commission. Over 50 authorities were consulted from the North West, the Midlands and Yorkshire; all were given reminders, but only 11 replies had been received, all from North West Authorities. Analysis of the survey of other local authority's charges was difficult to use to make comparisons as there were only 11 survey responses. Some authorities charged on an hourly rate or a sliding scale whereas Wirral charges were based on income. Depending on the hours of care provided, some charges were comparable with Wirral's and the maximum charge of one approximated to Wirral's average for the period 1997/1998 to 2002/2003, which was £78. The approximate average for the other authorities was £45 and some of those who made comments on Wirral's charging policy were critical of the level and considered it high.

Relevant documents from the Department of Adult Social Services (DASS), e-mails and committee reports had been reviewed to ascertain if there was evidence that officers had information that could have indicated the charges were unreasonable. Further discussions and enquiries were made with DASS  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42