Report of the Executive Director Strategic Commissioning and Director of Adult Social Services

This report provides Members of the Health Scrutiny Committee with some background information regarding Prepaid cards, an update on the Procurement process and an outline of the Implementation process of Prepaid Financial Cards within adult social care, now delivered through Manchester Local Care Organisation.

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Strategic Commissioning and Director of Adult Social Services that provided Members with some background information regarding Prepaid cards, an update on the Procurement process and an outline of the Implementation process of Prepaid Financial Cards within adult social care, now delivered through the Manchester Local Care Organisation.

The Strategic Lead referred to the main points of the report which were: -

·                A description of the rationale for the introduction of Prepaid Financial Cards in the context of The Care Act;

·                A description of how the cards would work and what they could be used for;

·                A list of benefits to both the Council and to the citizen;

·                An update on the procurement process and the implementation process;

·                Information on citizen engagement and communication           ;

·                How pre-paid financial cards were important enablers for moving to a broader strength-based model of social care, noting that the Personalisation of Adult Social Care Services was vital to ensure that Manchester citizens could exercise choice and control over how their care and support needs could be met. 

A Member commented that an individual on occasion may wish to purchase a costly one off item, and gave an example of a season ticket for a favourite football team and enquired if the payment cards would be flexible enough to accommodate this type of purchase. The Strategic Lead acknowledged the comment from the Member and said that this type of purchase was acknowledged and it was important that the citizen had improved choices. She said that this would also help address social isolation and that the scheme was flexible to accommodate that type of request. 

In response to a question from a Member who asked if the money that was paid weekly onto the card was not spent would that be clawed back, the Strategic Lead said this would not be done immediately, however if there was a pattern of money not spent over a period of time this would prompt a conversation with the citizen to review what their level of award was. 

The Strategic Lead informed the Members that the prepayment card would be offered to ‘new’ users of the service and it was envisaged that this would be approximately 500 citizens in the first year, with a view to rolling this offer out once it was embedded. She said that consideration also needed to be given to ensuring that the market place was aware of this system and work was underway to address this. She said that the company who had been procured to deliver the card service had a lot of experience with other Local Authorities and commented that the delays with introducing the scheme had been as a result of GDPR requirements. She further commented that Manchester had worked closely with other Authorities who had successfully introduced prepayment cards to share their knowledge and understand the lessons they had learnt.

A Member commented upon the important issue of safeguarding and sought an assurance that this was being addressed. The Strategic Lead informed the Members that work had been done with safeguarding colleagues to ensure that this was embedded in the approach and the Cards offered a new feature around tackling suspected financial abuse. She said that spending was audited to identify any anomalies and that she would provide the Committee with information on the Risk Register that had been developed that highlighted any associated risk around implementation.

Decisions

1. The Committee note the report; and

2. Request that information on the Risk Register be circulated to the Committee.