Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Head of Business Management & Challenge.

David Laycock, Project Manager (Business Management and Challenge) attended to present the vision and future direction for the Adult Social Care financial systems.

David Laycock explained that the financial arrangements supporting the Adult Social Care Department were complex with a range of payment and charging arrangements, including Empower, traditional Direct Payments, directly commissioned services and internal provision. These arrangements relied on a variety of IT systems and processes which were no longer considered viable due to a range of issues including obsolescence, lack of interfacing and insufficient audit trail production.

The Council was proposing therefore to purchase the following three systems to improve the ‘social care offer’ to Adult Social Care service users:

·         A replacement customer record system

·         A new contract management system

·         A new banking product

Expanding on the latter product, David Laycock noted that this would allow Cheshire East to have viewing access to service users’ accounts in order to assist with auditing.

In terms of implementation dates, David Laycock reported detailed plans had yet to be developed as the decision on what systems to purchase had not been made. Having said this, the Council’s intention was to keep the procurement timescale as short as possible with a proposed implementation date proposed for 2013/14.

In terms of the proposed new banking product, it was queried whether the Council had explored the legal implications of gaining viewing access to people’s accounts. Dominic Oakeshott explained that when the Empower account was offered to the service user they would be asked to sign for the Council to have viewing access.

In light of the issues that the Council had encountered with the implementation of the original Empower product, it was questioned whether lessons had be learned for the roll out of the proposed new systems. Dominic Oakeshott reported that lessons had been learned and the implementation for the new systems would be phased. This gradual implementation would allow for the resolution of any ‘teething’ problems without major impact. Lorraine Butcher added that the Committee could be reassured that rigorous challenge would be applied to the implementation process.

RESOLVED:

a)    That the reasons justifying the need to purchase new systems be noted.

b)    That the Committee supports the vision for commissioning, delivery and payment of Adult Social Care