CQC Improvement Plan Milestones

Waiting for an internal review by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council of their handling of this request.

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

Please could you provide a list of any milestones which have not or were not met by the assigned date within the second CQC Improvement plan.

Could you provide the Improvement Area Number and the Action number alongside the milestone. Could you provide the lead officer responsible and any reasons why it was not met in the proposed timescale.

Additionally please include what the new timescale will be for any milestones which was not met.

Yours faithfully,

Pete Sheffield

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your email below, I would be grateful if you are agreeable
to extend the time period in which the Council can answer this request.
Wirral Council is currently experiencing a high level of requests in
certain specific areas and this coupled with some key officers being on
leave has meant that we are unable to respond in a timely fashion.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

show quoted sections

Dear Corrin, Jane,

Thank you Jane. I can appreciate that there is interest in the performance of 'DASS' due to its historic and current poor performance issues.

The request, however, was made on the 27th of January and following this there have been 20 working days in which to disclose the information and comply with the Freedom of Information Act as a Local Authority.

I would suggest that the information would be part of a live document to which multiple officers would be working on and thus have access to the current completion of the milestones would not be so exclusive.

In order to accept your reasons that this will be another FOI request from Wirral Borough Council which will fail to be answered promptly could you please reassure me of:

1. A proposed date to which I should expect the information following which I will request an internal review.

2. Which officers and / or roles will be dealing with this request.

Yours sincerely,

Pete Sheffield

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your recent request for information shown below. The Council
does not hold the recorded information as specifically requested in your
enquiry below; but I have taken this opportunity to provide you with
information in relation to the CQC improvement plan and milestones, which
I believe you will find of use. This is based on the recorded information
that we do hold.

The Improvement Plan is the vehicle by which the Department of Adult
Social Services undertakes to meet all the (self-imposed) milestones by
May 2011. The milestone timescales are relevant only to the Department.
From the outset, the intention of the Plan has been to ensure that the
work has been undertaken, and further, undertaken in a manner that is
appropriate and of good quality. This ensures that sub-standard work is
not delivered for no other reason than it had to be delivered on a
particular date. Where timescales have slipped, authorisation to amend to
new dates have been granted by the Monitoring Group following discussion
with the Responsible Officer.

The Improvement Plan process is monitored on an ongoing basis with
Responsible Officers advising upon any change in status on a day-to-day
basis. The manner in which this monitoring is undertaken allows for an
accurate assessment of performance on a daily basis. As of 7th March
2011, the 189 Milestones were assessed as follows:-

o RED - 0 Milestones

o AMBER - 20 Milestones (11%) (Awaiting Monitoring Group report
and decision)

o GREEN - 43 Milestones (23%) (Expected to be delivered within
timescale).

o AWAITED - 1 Milestones (1%)

o COMPLETED - 121 Milestones (63%)

o ISSUES - 4 Milestones (2%) (All relate to a review of the
Total Commissioning Framework currently being undertaken).

Kind Regards

Jane Corrin

Information Manager

Wirral Council

This information supplied to you is copyrighted to Wirral Council and
continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial
research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other
reuse, for example commercial publication, would require our specific
permission, may involve licensing and the application of a charge

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

Please could you provide a list of any milestones which have not or

were not met by the assigned date within the second CQC Improvement

plan.

Could you provide the Improvement Area Number and the Action number

alongside the milestone. Could you provide the lead officer

responsible and any reasons why it was not met in the proposed

timescale.

Additionally please include what the new timescale will be for any

milestones which was not met.

Yours faithfully,

Pete Sheffield

show quoted sections

Pete Sheffield

Dear Corrin, Jane,

If you are able to provide exact percentages of which milestones have been met and grade further percentages of milestones in the order of their likelihood of being met - then the information must be available.

I asked:

'Please could you provide a list of any milestones which have not or were not met by the assigned date within the second CQC Improvement plan.'

This information must be available to the officers managing the improvement plan as they must be either:

1. Amending their timescales
2. Classing the milestones as completed

I also asked:

'Could you provide the Improvement Area Number and the Action number alongside the milestone.'

This information must be available if you are able to collate the percentages above and thus should be made transparent to my request. If such information gathering is taking place and the plan is being updated then this information should be easily at hand.

I also asked in my request:

Could you provide the lead officer responsible and any reasons why it was not met in the proposed timescale.

This information should also be readily available, as the officers dealing with the plan would be changing and managing the 'self imposed' timescales.

I ask again for this information to please be transparent and remind you that this request was late, and you failed to reply to my reasonable questions when you asked me to be agreeable to extend the time period of the request.

Yours sincerely,

Pete Sheffield

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

May I suggest that an officer of the council should be able to disclose this information.

In the minutes from the 'Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee' on the 31st January 2011 information taken from an overview of the CQC Improvement Plan and its milestones is explicitly shown in a presentation from Interim Director of Adult Social Services, Howard Cooper.

I would suggest that the Interim Director would have access to an overview of the CQC Improvement Plan and its milestones to be able to answer my Freedom of Information request.

Yours faithfully,

Pete Sheffield

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

On the 27th of January I asked:

Please could you provide a list of any milestones which have not or
were not met by the assigned date within the second CQC Improvement
plan.

Could you provide the Improvement Area Number and the Action number alongside the milestone. Could you provide the lead officer responsible and any reasons why it was not met in the proposed timescale.

Additionally please include what the new timescale will be for any milestones which was not met.

This information should have been disclosed by the 24th February 2011. Your response did not meet my request.

I ask again if you could please disclose the information I requested.

Yours faithfully,

Pete Sheffield

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your email below. Due to the manner in which the Plan is
operated, it gives a current status and does not provide an archive
facility.

Kind Regards

Jane Corrin

Information Manager

Wirral Council

This information supplied to you is copyrighted to Wirral Council and
continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial
research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other
reuse, for example commercial publication, would require our specific
permission, may involve licensing and the application of a charge

show quoted sections

Dear Corrin, Jane,

Could you please disclose which officer(s) drafted the response to me, dated the 8th March 2011.

Yours sincerely,

Pete Sheffield

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'CQC Improvement Plan Milestones'.

I fail to accept that there is no further information from my request.

I asked:

1. Please could you provide a list of any milestones which have not or were not met by the assigned date within the second CQC Improvement plan.

2. Could you provide the Improvement Area Number and the Action number alongside the milestone. Could you provide the lead officer responsible and any reasons why it was not met in the proposed timescale.

3. Additionally please include what the new timescale will be for any milestones which was not met.

I find the implicit excuse in the reply on the 8th March 2011 that the timeliness of the plan is self imposed and thus mitigates any failures or responsibilities in reaching the milestone. It may be worth considering the improvement of poor services impacts directly on the quality of lives of those vulnerable individuals whom you have a duty of care to assess, safeguard and protect from harm.

In your initial response on the 8th March 2011 you state: 'The milestone timescales are relevant only to the Department.'

I would contest 'timescales are relevant only to the department' when they include such areas as:

'Improvement Area 1 – Ensure that arrangements and policies for preventing abuse are comprehensive and co-ordinated.'

'Improvement Area 2 – Embed a shared approach to recognising and responding to allegations of abuse.'

'Improvement Area 3 – Ensure that staff involved in safeguarding adults and supporting people with high or complex needs have the appropriate knowledge and competences.'

'Improvement Area 4 – Ensure that safeguarding activity at all levels is focused on the experience of people who require safeguarding and on the outcomes achieved.'

'Improvement Area 5 – Ensure that safeguarding is supported by robust quality assurance arrangements across the partnership.'

'Improvement Area 6 – Improve scrutiny of provider activity and risks across the sector.'

For those vulnerable individuals who have suffered abuse and neglect as a direct result of the poor performance of DASS and its inability to provide its duty to protect the most vulnerable of society, I would presume that the timescales in improving its ability to safeguard would be very relevant.

I would contest 'timescales are relevant only to the department' when they include increased choice and control for adults with a learning disability' such as:

Improvement Area 9 – Ensure that people with learning disabilities and their carers have access to appropriate advice, information and support.

Improvement Area 10 – Ensure people’s needs are holistically assessed and supported by effective partnership working

Improvement Area 11 – Transform support planning to provide a clear focus on the future, on risks to individuals, on the promotion of their independence and outcomes.

Improvement Area 12 – Address gaps in awareness of the needs of and support to carers.

Improvement Area 13 – Ensure that reviews are appropriately timed and focused.

Improvement Area 14 – Strengthen arrangements for management and learning from complaints and compliments.

For those individuals with a learning disability who have failed to have their services reviewed or had inappropriate risk assessment and failed to have their independence promoted, those carers who have failed to be supported with appropriate advice, those individuals who have been denied services due to failures in joint funding, and to every individual who has made a complaint which has failed to be dealt with, I would assume improving its performance would be very relevant.

You state in your response:

'Where timescales have slipped, authorisation to amend to new dates have been granted by the Monitoring Group following discussion with the Responsible Officer.'

Thus it can be assumed that the monitoring group and responsible officers would be aware of slipping time frames and new dates being set to complete milestones. In discussion the reasons why such changes to dates must have been discussed. You are failing to disclose information which must be available in minutes of such meetings with the monitoring group or in statements from the monitoring group.

Additionally the original plan compared with the latest version(s) would illustrate which milestones time frames were different and thus altered.

It is disappointing that Wirral Borough Council, with particular mention of DASS consider it acceptable that information be late, answer only paying lip service to the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act, fail to embrace transparency in its conduct,fail to see their responsibility and accountability as public servants, fail to see the impact of it poor performance and the urgency of improvement in its duty.

Yours faithfully,

Pete Sheffield

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your email below, I have forwarded it to our Legal
Department and I will contact you again with a response shortly.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

show quoted sections

Pete Sheffield

Dear Corrin, Jane,

Following my previous request, could you please disclose which officer(s) drafted the response to me, dated the 8th March 2011.

Yours sincerely,

Pete Sheffield

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Morning,
Thank you for your email below. Your original question, received on
29th March 2011 regarding "...which officer(s) drafted the response...",
was passed to our Legal Department, who will respond within the 20
working day time period.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

show quoted sections

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Your Internal Review is being handled by Rosemary Lyon, one of our
Solicitors.
Rosemary has reviewed your request and has organised to speak with the
project officer who has access to the Second Improvement Plan, any
amendments to the plan and updated milestones.

Rosemary believes it is likely to be reasonable, to go behind the
milestone percentages, unless a specific exemption applies, but she
needs to clarify this once she has spoken with the relevant DASS
officer.
The officer in question is on leave until next week but Rosemary will
speak to him next week and then prepare a response for you. I hope you
find this acceptable and I thank you for your patience.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager

show quoted sections

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

Thank you for the update.

Yours sincerely,

Pete Sheffield

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

This request was made on the 27th January 2011. It is wholly unacceptable that this request is still outstanding at this point.

In your response on the 8th March 2011 failed to answer the request.

The internal review was requested on the 29th March 2011. This is still outstanding.

You stated on the 30th March 2011 that you would contact me again shortly.

You made contact 27 days later on 26th April 2011 to update me that Rosemary Lyon, one of your solicitors is dealing with the request and has organised to speak with the project officer who has access to the second improvement plan, any amendments to the plan and updated milestones. I would not define 27 days as 'shortly' but rather as 'the time it takes to conclude an internal review.'

Since this time 3 months and 16 days have now passed. This could be interpreted as a stalling exercise by DASS to hide their failings and poor progress in paying lipservice to a damning CQC report and action plan.

I can only be dismayed by the complete lack of transparancy of a poor performing department that has been failing in its responsibilities and now failing to authenticate its progress.

It is completely unsatisfactory that it is passed to your named solicitor, and even they cannot attain the information. It erodes what little confidence the public may have in the Department of Adult Social Services.

It truly makes a mockery of a local authority.

I have passed this matter to the ICO and the media whom you may be more inclined to answer.

Yours faithfully,

Pete Sheffield

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

The ICO has asked you to action this within a time frame shared with you in correspondence. That time has now passed.

It is disappointing that you fail to follow the direction of the ICO and I will be complaining further at your lack of transparency.

The people whom you serve have a right to see your performance in running the services of which they rely on.

It does beg the question that if you fail to follow legislation and fail to follow the regulator - what authority apart from your own do you acknowledge?

Yours faithfully,

Pete Sheffield

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

The Council is now seeking to recruit more solicitors. Whether this is being done in good faith, or to further prop up an embattled organisation, is open to question.

http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgConvert...

The fact remains, nobody has faced any accountability in connection to the bullying, abuse of power, financial abuse and disability discrimination that has been uncovered by external independent parties. In fact, accountability itself was been seen to be at odds with the reality, when the original whistleblower was forced out of his job - using a compromise agreement that prevented him from talking to any third party about the council's deplorable conduct.

The people who failed and are complicit in all the above remain in stubbornly in situ.

Pete Sheffield left an annotation ()

Interestingly this had been refered to the ICO who had suggested actions within a tight timeframe.

That timeframe has passed long ago, and further complaints to the ICO has resulted in the ICO informing their enforcement team - yet still no answer.

There can be only one reason why this information is not transparent. It can only reflect badly on the performance of the department which serves its own interests.

How there cannot be transparency regarding improvement is outrageous and the elected members should have insisted on the plan being puclished on a month by month basis to instil confidence in the departments performance in serving the most vulnerable of Wirrals residents.

The question has to be asked - what is the big secret?

Pete

Pete Sheffield left an annotation ()

As per your annotation Paul, is that the need of solicitors should be minimal on FOI requests unless you are doing everything you can not to be transparent.

If you are a local authority who does not manage to fulfil its legal duties or makes poor decisions based on the senior officers prejudices, ineptitude and poor performance then it will have to fight tooth and nail to defend itself.

Pete