Tri borough Adult Social Care Director named

Friday October 14, 2011

Britain’s first tri-borough Director of Adult Social Care is set to be appointed as part of ambitious plans to combine services across three flagship councils.

Andrew Webster will take up the post of Executive Director of Adult Social Care – covering Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea – from December, subject to confirmation processes within each council.

The councils expect the appointment to improve Adult Social Care in the three boroughs further by helping residents to live even more independent lives.

By aligning healthcare and social care more closely and having more integrated care management the councils also expect to be able to provide a more efficient, streamlined and responsive service.

The appointment will produce savings of around £120,000 a year for each council as the three inner London boroughs report that they are on track to save their first £1million by cutting duplicated senior management roles.

“I am proud and privileged to serve three councils working together to sustain excellent front line social care services and making life better for people who need care and support,“ says Andrew. “My goal is to deliver better outcomes in each borough by pulling together the best from across all three. While we face unprecedented financial challenges, we start from a strong position and I am looking forward to working with colleagues to develop a great tri-borough team.”

Andrew has served in senior Adult Social Care roles for both Lambeth Council and Surrey County Council and for the last year was the Department of Health’s National Director for Joint Commissioning.

As the nation’s first tri-borough Director of Adult Social Care Andrew will manage a budget of £306million pounds.

Andrew’s appointment is part of wider proposals to combine council services across the three boroughs in a bid to save £35 million a year by 2014/15.

The proposals will protect vital front line services during the age of austerity and lead to a 50% reduction in the number of middle and senior managers. Collectively the three authorities must save £100 million by 2014/15 and around 500 jobs are expected to go in management, back office and support roles.

Andrew will report to Cllr Joe Carlebach in H&F, Cllr Daniel Astaire in Westminster and Cllr Fiona Buxton in Kensington and Chelsea who all welcomed the appointment. Speaking on behalf of the three councils Cllr Colin Barrow, Westminster Council Leader Cllr Colin Barrow said: "In these tough times, sharing back office functions and management with our neighbouring councils to drive out needless cost is the sensible and practical course of action to deliver savings to local taxpayers and protect frontline services such as adult social care.”

Each of the councils has signed a ‘Sovereignty Guarantee’ to safeguard local autonomy, responsiveness and identity and all three are retaining their own councillors and decision making processes. Services key to local areas, such as housing management, licensing and planning are not being combined.

Earlier this month, the three councils agreed savings that include:

• £320k by sharing a single Director of Adult Services (Andrew Webster)
• £320k by sharing a single Director of Children’s Services (Andrew Christie)
• £100k by sharing a single Director of Libraries (David Ruse)
• £150k by combining environmental services across Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) and Kensington and Chelsea (Lyn Carpenter); and
• £120k by combining making a joint appointment to the Director for Schools’ Quality and Standards between H&F and Kensington and Chelsea (Ian Heggs).

H&F and the Royal Borough have agreed to share a ‘bi-borough’ chief executive and the appointment of Derek Myers, who is currently the Royal Borough’s Chief Executive, will be discussed at an H&F Full Council meeting on October 19.