Members of the Committee are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non pecuniary interests, in connection with any items on the agenda and state the nature of the interest.

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.

Members of the Committee were asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, in connection with any item(s) on the agenda and state the nature of the interest.

Members were reminded that they should also declare, pursuant to paragraph 18 of the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules, whether they were 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.

In relation to Item 2 – Consultation Findings – What Really Matters Stage 2 (Minute 53 refers), Members declared following interests.

Councillor Hornby declared a personal interest by virtue of his appointment as a trustee/Director of Voluntary and Community Action Wirral.

Councillor Salter declared a personal interest by virtue of him being a trustee of the Lonsdale Trust.

Councillor Roberts declared a personal interest by virtue of her appointment on the Management Committees of Arch Initiatives and Wirral Council for Voluntary Service.

Councillor Mooney declared a personal interest by virtue of her work with Age UK.

Councillor Mr T Norbury declared a personal interest’ by virtue of being an employee of Merseytravel

The report of the Chief Executive in relation to the What Really Matters Stage 2 Consultation, to be considered by the Cabinet on 7 February 2012, is attached.

The Committee is requested to give consideration to the consultation feedback in relation to matters which fall within its remit.

Further to minutes 29 (6 November 2012), 40 (5 December 2012) and 44 (16 January 2013), the Committee considered the report of the Chief Executive upon the outcome of the What Really Matters Stage 2 Consultation, which had been considered by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 7 February 2013 (minute 184 refers).

The comprehensive programme of consultation and engagement had been undertaken to inform the development of the Council’s Corporate and Financial Plan for 2013-2016 and further to inform the decision making process surrounding significant budget savings. The Cabinet had noted the consultation process and implementation described within the report, and thanked Wirral residents, staff and other stakeholders for their input. Cabinet had also noted the detailed consultation findings in relation to each budget option as contained within Appendices 1, 2 and 3.

Kevin McCallum, Corporate Marketing Officer, Chief Executive’s Department gave a brief presentation on the consultation findings and provided information in relation to targeted engagement and the methodology for the geographic and demographic analysis that had been undertaken. Key messages were that the Council should protect the vulnerable, retain responsibility for quality and look to raise income and eliminate waste. The Chief Executive had responded personally to all direct communication from members of staff and a team was in place to ensure Equality Impact Assessments, continued engagement and consultation and to show due regard to concerns raised.

Individual views expressed by Members in relation to the general analysis of consultation responses, were that the comments did not represent a neutral interpretation; for example, 51% being shown as either strong support for an option or, conversely, being a slight majority against. However, Members accepted the accuracy of the figures and noted that the comments were subjective.

The Committee was requested to give consideration to the consultation feedback in relation to the following specific items, which fell within its remit and the Chair proposed that views expressed by Members could form the basis of feedback to Budget Cabinet.

In relation to concerns raised regarding the lesser responses to stage two and asked if this was because of the document being lengthy, Mr McCallum indicated that he did not feel this was the case and explained that incomplete online submissions were taken into account as part of the process.

In relation to ethnicity and consultation with those whose first language was not English, Mr McCallum indicated that the Department had worked with external agencies to liaise with the hard to reach group; produce and circulate information and assist people in completing the questionnaires. No requests were received for translated documents.

In relation to petitions, emails and comments received, information regarding petitions had been fed in to the consultation process and reported to Cabinet. Emails sent to Chief Executive were being monitored and fed into the process; questionnaire responses were appropriately analysed and all comments published to the Council’s website.

Mr Donaldson, Co-opted member representing carers asked about the letters sent to Chief Executive from Mencap in relation to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

Mr Hodkinson updated the Committee regarding his recent attendance of the TEASC Board where he presented the progress Wirral had made in improving Adult Social Care  since the judgement made by the Care Quality Commission in 2010 that adult social care services at Wirral were Adequate.

 Mr Hodkinson thanked his staff and all those involved, for their contribution in achieving the improvements demonstrated and agreed to circulate a letter received from the TEASC Board to Members.

Resolved -  

That Mr Hodkinson and his staff be thanked for their contribution in achieving the improvements demonstrated.