Wirral Council agrees to foot £630,000 social care bill

COUNCIL chiefs have agreed to foot a £630,000 bill for social care to avoid people with learning disabilities being sued for breach of contract.

Wirral’s social services department had allowed 78 people to enter into the contracts for help with living independently – but had not checked where the money would come from.

Council leader Jeff Green has now demanded a full investigation and a report completed within a week.

Referring to the recent damning report into the council’s adult social services department, Cllr Green said the errors “have echoes” of failures highlighted by external consultant Anna Klonowski.

The Klonowski report was triggered after former social services employee Martin Morton blew the whistle on the council systematically overcharging vulnerable people in its care. The report also highlighted a range of other failures within the authority.

He said: “In this case it appears we were having people agreeing to payments without any contracts or controls. The money was promised without any contracts in place.”

“I have asked the chief of internal audit to review all the issues around it and have a report on my desk within a week.”

According had “no other viable option” but to “honour the position as agreed by Adult Social Services on behalf of the council”.

The report said “against previous advice” and without informing them, social services had included funding from another council department in the new Personal Budgets, which are used by people to fund their care. It led to a massive £632,928 overspend by social services and the request to transfer the money from another department.

According to a report to the ruling cabinet if the transfer of cash was not made “individuals with learning disabilities could possibly be sued for breach of contract if funding is not paid in full to providers of support services”.

It also said council departments need work closely to avoid “further poor communication in the future”.