Agenda item

To review the Committee’s recommendations tracker.

Declarations of interest:

None

Witnesses:

Helen Atkinson, Strategic Director for Adult Social Care & Public Health

Toni Carney, Team Manager, Adult Social Care

Tim Evans, Cabinet Associate Member

Sue Lewry-Jones, Chief Internal Auditor

Sheila Little, Director of Finance

Denise Le Gal, Cabinet Member

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    A18/15 (SEND Strategy) - The Chairman reported that report to Education & Skills Board had been emailed to Members of this Committee. He had spoken to the Chief Executive about the large sum of money being spent on transport and this would be looked at further.  Members were informed that the Head of Service would be working with, and be supported by, the Chief Internal Auditor over the coming year. It was reported that whilst costs per head were generally higher than other county councils, the outcomes were generally lower.

2.    A20/15 (Adult Social Care record-keeping) – this was discussed in conjunction with A43/15 below.

3.    A43/15 – (Internal Audit Report (Adult Social Care)) – It was reported that debt collection fluctuated between 95-96%.  Work had been undertaken to look at all areas and identified areas that were slowing up the process.   These areas were being worked on and communication between the different teams of staff involved was being improved.  The use of online collection for small debts was hoped to improve the collection rate.  It was reported that debt collection was very resource intensive and staff were looking at how to speed up processes.

There was some discussion about the deterrents for users getting into debt which did not hold the same punishments as say Council Tax debt.  Services could not be withdrawn. Users were now being charged more promptly than before so they knew how much was being expected for the service. 

A new IT system (Liquid Logic) was expected to go live in the Summer and officers expected a rise in collections following this.  It was explained how slow and inefficient the present IT system was.  Officers had undertaken a huge amount of work to improve the assessment process and ensure that it was near to the delivery of care. The new IT system would automate much of the financial assessments.  All data on the old system was to be cleaned before transfer to the new system.  The actual ‘go live’ date may change slightly depending on any unforeseen delays regarding testing and training of users.  Being part of a digital partnership with the NHS would be a significant change.  The Children’s department also used Liquid Logic and work was taking place to ensure the system would be interoperable with the NHS system.

The legal process was explained and that taking legal action was a last resort. 

An Annual Report was to go to the SCS Board in June.

In response to a query regarding morale on the frontline it was reported that whilst there were many challenges and changes occurring that morale amongst staff was quite good and that staff were very caring and passionate about their roles

4.    A1/16 – (Audit findings Surrey Choices- Business Plan) – The Annual Business Plan for Surrey Choices is being presented to the Shareholder Board in May 2016.  It was agreed that the Committee would also see the Business Plan at their May meeting, for information. The Chairman clarified that the Committee wanted to see any proposals for additional funding before it went for a final decision in order that the Committee could make recommendations on it.  The Committee were informed that the decision on any further investment would be a Cabinet or Cabinet Member decision.  It was recommended that the Committee’s role would be to ensure that the Audit Action Plan had been undertaken and that the Committee could make recommendations to the Council Overview Board to look at specific areas of concern.

5.    A2/16 – (Audit findings Surrey Choices – finance experts on Council’s trading companies) – Sheila Little explained that it was not appropriate for her staff to provide the financial expertise on the Council’s trading companies.  That it was vital that each had the right financial capacity and her staff were not necessarily skilled in commercial business accounting. The Surrey Choices appointment was changed swiftly as soon as problems became apparent.

Action/Further information to note:

1.    That the Chief Internal Auditor will look into how register of interests are recorded in the NHS, particularly GP interests in pharmacies and feedback on findings to Members.

2.    A1/16 – (Audit findings Surrey Choices- Business Plan) - To forward the Committee’s concerns about performance and the potential request for more funding  to the Council Overview Board with a request that they review this when looking at the Business Plan.

RESOLVED:

That the committee NOTES the report.