PROGRESS is continuing in the attempt to control States expenditure on off-island placements, according to the latest Public Accounts Committee report. The committee first reviewed them in 2004 and has since looked to see what measures have been introduced.
In its latest review, the committee has proposed that Health and Social Services, which has been given responsibility for the placements, activates recommendations as early as practicable to ensure that greater value for money is achieved.
PAC said slow progress had been made in implementing the recommendations from the first review.
It believed that this might have resulted in the States spending more, but acknowledged this might have been partly attributed to the increased cost of providing placements.
‘There will always be a need to care for some local residents off-island due to the nature of their illness or the lack of appropriate, available or suitable facilities and other resources in the island,’ said PAC vice-chairman Deputy Chris Brock.
‘But in other instances, cases are sent off-island which could be cared on-island if adequate resources and facilities were developed.’
However, Health minister Peter Roffey has taken offence at some of the suggestions in the report that the recommendations had been implemented slowly.
‘To imply that we have been tardy in our efforts is both unfair and unacceptable as, despite the aforementioned commitment, the additional resource constraints of a capped budget - through the staff number limitation policy - was always going to be a barrier to meeting the challenges outlined in the recommendations.’
Deputy Roffey added that the change in government in 2004 and within Health had also impacted on the attempted improvements.
He said HSSD found the PAC report unbalanced.
‘It fails to recognise the size of the task in changing the culture from one where clinicians could make unilateral decisions regarding off-island placements to one where they are challenged and a more corporate approach is taken.’
HSSD, with some assistance from Education in relation to young people, deals with off-island placements encompassing adults, young people and children with mental health and learning disabilities and children with disruptive, learning or behavioural problems.
The PAC report said the setting up of the multi-discipline panels had helped achieve some of the National Audit Office recommendations from 2004 and that progress had been made to improve the scrutinising and direction of expenditure on placements.
A review jointly commissioned by Treasury and Resources and HSSD will identify further areas where better value for money can be achieved.
The States will be asked to note the report at its meeting later this month and be asked to direct that HSSD continues to progress the recommendations in the report and for PAC to monitor and review the action taken by the department, with a full assessment again in 2010.
Loading ...
Share this article:
What are these?