Please read to the end of this post. A very dangerous situation is developing on Wirral.
The following is an FoI request I placed with Wirral Council back in January 2012:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/dass_recent_departure_of_two_sen
It’s been attracting so many hits lately, if you type into Google the two word phrase “Officers Departure”, it comes out top.
The background to the request is a very controversial and rather sad one. Wirral Council has now been exposed as an abusive and failing organisation and its current Chief Executive Jim Wilkie even had to admit publicly that this was the case – after a whistleblower, former Wirral social worker Martin Morton, blew the whistle on outrageous conduct by senior Department of Adult Social Services staff. This involved in part, the taking of £500,000 over a period of up to 9 years from learning disabled tenants of Council Supported Living accommodation in the Moreton area of Wirral. Reportedly, five of the recipients of this financial abuse have since died. Martin Morton had been trying for years to have the unlawful process stopped, but to no avail. He quickly became the target of intense bullying and alleged mobbing. There were also suspicions of a similar unlawful process applied to council tenants in Birkenhead, although this is yet to be confirmed. Jim Wilkie admission here; see clause 7.1:
http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=21125
Two independent investigations followed; the first into bullying and abuse of power (by Martin Smith of North West Employers), and the second, far more wide ranging, looking into corporate governance, the way the Council had set up and monitored Social Services’ contracts within its own jurisdiction, and much more, within a broad remit. It seems that neither of these investigations were documented adequately and that interviews were not tape recorded or minuted. Link to Anna Klonowski Associates report:
The findings of the AKA report will not be explored here, suffice to say they uncovered serious failings in Corporate Governance and outrageous, abusive conduct by senior officers of the council and some of the appointed care contractors. The public have yet to see a fully open and unredacted copy of the report. Despite hollow assurances of a new found “openness and transparency”, only a limited number of officer, councillor, contractor and advisory bodies’ names have been made viewable within it.
Many months on, the Wirral public are also patiently waiting for some semblance of accountability. It would normally follow that proven abuse, carried out over a period approaching a decade, thoroughly investigated, and exposing the known perpetrators…. would be acted on. However, it seems things are done differently on Wirral, and they may not be prepared to satisfy the growing public desire for accountability. The detailed findings of the 250 page report seem to be clear and conclusive, but there’s no willingness as yet to follow through on previous promises to discipline the guilty, clear out the abusers and start afresh.
So nothing much has happened, save the issuing of strings of empty words, and the calling in of LGA / SOLACE colleagues at massive expense, to ‘put things right’. And the Wirral public are becoming concerned that 1. They’re being taken for fools and 2. That those in power are not going to risk letting go of that power without a fight.
The above FoI request aims to get under the skin of the reasoning for the council doing what they did. Here’s what they did:
1. Suspended two senior officers named by the whistleblower in 2008.
2. Investigated them under the pseudonyms “Employee A” and “Employee B” (See this link to another website):
http://blowingthewhistleonareallyrottenborou.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/%22Employee%20A%22)
3. Exonerated one, sent a letter to the other, before reinstating both. The recently new in post Council Leader, Phil Davies chaired the meeting which did this.
4. Suspended them again in 2011 following the release of the supplementary AKA report.
5. Came to an agreement with both of them, then allowed them to leave by “mutual consent” a couple of days before the full AKA report was released to the waiting public.
Absolutely no disciplinary process was followed by those with the power to level gross misconduct charges. Instead they deviated from the norm and followed a strange course, allowing the pair to leave, perhaps with a “clean bill of health”, all wrapped up in a compromise agreement, potentially with a “gagging clause”. This clause will almost certainly specifically disallow the signatories (including potentially the issuing body) from talking about any of the reasons for the issuing of the agreement, beyond a close knit circle including legal advisers, unions, the tax people and members of their immediate family.
The wider effect of this is that any and all references to learning disabled abuse as regards these two are very effectively concealed and put to bed here – inside a legal document. The legitimate public interest into the workings and the abuse of the local council is therefore frustrated and stifled.
Perhaps one has to approach this from a different angle and ask, “If they weren’t directly involved in proven disabled abuse, why were they hurried out of their jobs days before the full version of a damning independent report was to be issued?”
Those with the power to time the issuing of the report, and those with the power to time the disposal of “Employee A” and “Employee B”… are the very same people. Those at the very top.
Although this could very easily have been predicted, it’s now become clear that one of the employees doesn’t want to rest on his/her laurels and go into early retirement, despite the strong suspicion he/she’s been handed a tidy sum of public money. He/she is now setting out a well-stocked stall on the “LinkedIn” website, hoping perhaps to pick up a senior role at another public organisation e.g. another council; a health trust; a private care provider?
Wirral Council continue to drag their feet with the above FoI request and there’s no end in sight. The Information Commissioner knows the dangers; Tim Kelsey, the Cabinet Office Transparency and Open Data Czar knows the dangers – these people and organisations have been informed. I’m waiting.
I hope to hear from them soon, before it’s potentially too late……..
