Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George, has called on the Welsh Government to initiate an independent inquiry to find out what went wrong with the transfer of Powys County Council’s adult domiciliary care service.
The AM took the opportunity to raise the issue with the Minister for Local Government, Lesley Griffiths AM, during yesterday’s (18 June) Ministerial Questions in the National Assembly, as she has responsibility for the performance and accountability of local authorities in Wales.
Mr George told Mrs Griffiths that he had been ‘inundated’ by correspondence, as local people complained about how they or their loved ones had been ‘deeply affected’ by the changes the authority made because the process was so badly handled.
He went on to say that given Powys Council was ultimately accountable for the performance of their service contractors, would she be prepared to initiate an external audit investigation of their adult service provision and procurement processes, so that everyone could understand why this chaotic incident took place.
Mrs Griffiths said that she had been made aware of the issue and had imitated discussions with the Deputy Minister for Social Care.
Commenting, Mr George said:
“I hope the Welsh Government does act on this issue and launch and independent inquiry because we need to get to the truth regarding why this chaotic incident took place.
“The Minister for Local Government has ultimate responsibly for the performance of local authorities in the way they go about delivering their public service functions and therefore I think an inquiry must be initiated so that the Council is brought properly to account.
“I don’t believe that such a comprehensive inquiry which is required for this matter can just be conducted internally within the Council because those affected simply won’t have confidence in the process.
“I hope Ministers will react to this issue, as lessons must be learned to prevent this sorry state of affairs from happening again.”
