Councillor disappointed to lose health and care chair
A senior councillor has said he is “disappointed” not to be able to finish the work of helping reform social services at Powys County Council.
For the last three-and-a-half years, Councillor Gwilym Williams has been the chairman of a scrutiny committee, which looked at social services and social care.
Ahead of the council’s annual meeting on November 26, the Conservative group held their own annual meeting, and re-jigged some of the chairs due to political balance.
The changes included voting Councillor Williams out of his role, with Councillor Amanda Jenner now the Conservative group nomination to be chairman of the health and care scrutiny committee.
Councillor Williams said: “I am disappointed that I have not been allowed to continue my role to a finish, as there is still work to be done mainly to reduce the cost of the service.”
He started out as chairman of Scrutiny Committee A but following recommendations from the Welsh Audit Office, it became the health and care scrutiny committee.
Critical
Just after Councillor Williams started in the role, Children’s Social Services were rocked by a highly critical report by Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW).
Councillor Williams said that he saw his role and that of the committee to “try and improve the service”.
“Many ideas were put forward by myself and the scrutiny committee such as reducing agency staff, also bringing children from out of county back within Powys and providing facilities for children and the elderly in the county,” he said.
Many of these ideas have now been taken up and implemented by the service.
CIW has now said the situation is improved in Powys, and brings an end to the “enhanced monitoring”.
Councillor Williams added: “CIW said there’s been significant improvement throughout the service.”
He thanked all the councillors on the scrutiny committee as well as the staff for playing their part in helping Social Services turn things around.
