Agenda item

The Committee considered a report on progress being made implementing measures, following a review of the Safeguarding Adults Personal Assets Team (SAPAT), part of the Adults Health and Wellbeing Directorate, following concerns raised by senior managers about the level of funds held by SAPAT service on behalf of vulnerable clients and the level of any housing benefits and financial support that some clients were receiving which was at odds with the values held in their bank accounts.

Members noted that a full review had been undertaken of the team and its operations.  The review had identified serious failings by SAPAT which meant that in some cases there was insufficient attention paid to the amount of monies accumulated in people’s accounts leading to incorrect financial assessments and incorrect payments of relevant benefits. The failings of the review were set out in paragraph 3 of the report and the results of the findings were detailed in Appendix 1.

Karen Johnson, Assistant Director of Communities, Gill Scrimshaw, Programme Manager, Improvement Team, Safeguarding Adults Personal Assets Team (SAPAT) and Tony Sanderson, Project Manager, Adults and Communities were in attendance and responded to Members questions and concerns on this matter.

Karen Johnson reported that she had taken over the service when the Assistant Director went on secondment.  Members were informed that better systems were now in place to address the areas of concern.  It was noted that there had since been a significant number of families now taking responsibility to manage their relative’s affairs, rather than the Council taking on this role.  A lot of training had been undertaken with the financial assessment team to ensure that the SAPAT service understood the processes and the benefits criteria.   All cases had now been reviewed to ensure that service users were claiming the correct benefits and were being paid the appropriate monies.  It was reported that good progress had been made to date, however further work was required in relation to families and wealthy clients.

At this point of the meeting, in order to enable the Committee to consider the contents of Appendix 1 to the report, which contained exempt information, it was:-

RESOLVEDthat the public and press be excluded from the meeting in accordance with Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, as amended, on the grounds that exempt information within Paragraph 3 (Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person, including the Authority holding that information) of Schedule 12 A to the Act may be disclosed upon consideration of Appendix 1 to the report.

The Committee discussed the exempt information contained within Appendix 1, and Officers responded to questions from Members.  

Members acknowledged the corrective action and improvements being made to the service to address the areas of concern, including regular reporting to the Health and Wellbeing Improvement Board to minimise the likelihood of this happening in the future. 

The Committee requested that when Internal Audit had completed its Review of the SAPAT service, the final report would be considered by this Committee.

Following consideration of the exempt appendix, the meeting re-opened to the public and press in order to consider the final outcome of the report.

RESOLVED

(1)        to note the progress of the audit review, the issues within SAPAT and the progress made to ensure that the team and its associated processes and procedures are fit for purpose going forward; and

(2)        that following the completion of Internal Audit’s review, a report be brought back to the Committee.