Wirral council has launched an inquiry into how more than £630,000 was spent on supporting 78 vulnerable adults to live independently, without appropriate financial checks being made.
The revelation came to light after a request was put to cabinet for the transfer of £632,928 from one department to another to cover overspending, according to Wirral cabinet board papers.
The overspend occurred after the adult social services department included money from the regeneration and housing department's Supporting People budget in the new personal budgets, used by individuals to support their care.
Supporting People funding is designed to help vulnerable people live independently. But the introduction of personal budgets led to the outsourcing of a number of services previously provided in-house by the council. The board papers say it was agreed that the cost and function of the outsourced services would not include funding for supported people However, the document says this agreement was not upheld, leaving the department for adult social services with a large bill.
"Providers have continued to provide housing-related support to individuals. It is proposed that the council should honour the value of the original service level agreement in order to meet its financial obligations on behalf of the individuals supported. Contract review will ensure that from April 2012 appropriate contracts will be in place and agreed directly with the providers in respect of the individuals affected," says the document.
It goes on to say that the council has "no other viable option" but to pay the money as agreed by the department for adult social services on behalf of the council. It adds that if it did not honour the agreement, "individuals with learning disabilities could possibly be sued for breach of contract" by providers of support or care services.
An inquiry has now been launched by the council to find out how the situation came about. Jeff Green, council leader at Wirral, said he was incredibly concerned about what had occurred.
"It appears that someone from the department for adult social services has gone out and offered this money when they shouldn't have. I want to know who authorised these payments and how they were authorised," he said. "What concerns me is that people within the council are agreeing to payments without any contracts, and that really is worrying."
Green said he expects an internal audit report to be completed by Friday, which he believes will shed some light on how the payments were able to be made.
The latest failure follows revelations of major safeguarding concerns in adult social care at the council. A review published in January highlighted "serious and long-running failures" at Wirral, including people with learning disabilities being overcharged for services and issues raised by employees being ignored.
Since the report, new leadership has been appointed. The Local Government Association has also stepped in to help tackle issues at the local authority.
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