Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, 26 March 2013 be approved as a correct record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

Mr P Carter, Leader of the Council, and Mr A Ireland, Corporate Director Families and Social Care will attend the meeting to answer Members’ questions on this item.

(1)    The Chairman welcomed Members and the witnesses to the Scrutiny meeting. 

(2)    The Chairman then set out Mr Christie’s reasons for calling in the decision to appoint Newton Europe as the transformation and efficiency partner to manage the delivery of the Adult Social Care Transformation Programme. 

(3)    Mr Christie raised a number of further points and questions:

a.      That the debate should be held in public

b.      Why the decision was not taken by the Cabinet Member but instead by the Leader of the Council?

c.      Who decides where the savings would be made?

d.      Why the Directorate didn’t have the skills to undertake this review in house.

(4)    In relation to paragraph 1 (5) of the introduction Mr Christie asked who the consultant company was who advised KCC during the review?  If it was Newton Europe was the Committee comfortable that this was the same company who was awarded the contract?

(5)    The Leader explained that significant savings needed to be found within the Adult Social Services budget and that the most efficient way of carrying out this piece of work was by engaging with Newton Europe.  Members were keen to determine whether the service provided by Newton Europe was satisfactory and in response the Leader explained that he had been impressed at their identification of savings within the middle office to enable a reduction in the bureaucracy for the social workers on the front line.  Adult Social Services was a complex directorate and it was necessary to obtain an independent view of the deliverability of savings.  The Leader explained that Mr Gibbens was on leave when the decision was taken but they were in close contact.  Every week that the decision was delayed was costing the Council £300,000 - £400,000 of ‘lost’ savings and Newton Europe had assembled a team to start work as soon as the contract was in force. 

(6)    The contract with Newton Europe was on a payment by results system and the Council’s finance team had inspected the contract to ensure that any savings made would be honest savings; the Council would be exposed to risk if the savings were not found. 

(7)    Mr Gibbens confirmed that he was on holiday when the Leader took this decision and that he endorsed the decision being taken shortly after Easter.  Mr Gibbens stated that this was not about cutting services but about doing things differently for the people of Kent and transforming services for vulnerable people in the community. 

(8)    The Chairman asked whether the savings were deliverable, and where the threats and weaknesses were.  Mr Ireland explained that a diagnostic exercise had been undertaken to test whether the transformation approach could deliver savings.  There would be a need to commission different services with different outcomes, to reduce dependence with an intense programme of enablement.  It was not possible to do this in house due to the scale of the task, the pace at which it needed to progress and the capacity within the service.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

Exempt Appendix to Item B1