Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee update, January 2026
Proposals to transform services for people receiving day care in Wirral is one of the items set to be considered by councillors this month. (January)
The meeting of the Adult Social Care and Public Health (ASC & PH) Committee to due to take place on Tuesday January 20.
This is the first meeting of the Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee in 2026. In addition to their usual business overseeing and scrutinising council service delivery the council’s committee meetings over the coming months will also be focusing additional attention on the authority’s budget and how each part of Wirral Council can contribute the addressing the anticipated budget gap for 2026-27 financial year.
At the meeting elected members will be asked to agree to consultation taking place on options for redesigning day services to promote better outcomes, choice, independence and dignity for the people requiring care and support.
If agreed the consultation would be for a period of up to 12 weeks to gather views from stakeholders, with a report on the outcome brought back to a future ASC & PH Committee.
Further details of the proposals are available in the report on the committee agenda, available on the council website here and the appendix here.
The Committee will also be asked to look at proposals to establish a Wirral Framework to give the Council more control over how care services will be commissioned and ensured those services are better tailored to local needs rather than relying on a regional system like the Liverpool City Region Flexible Purchasing System.
The report on the Establishment of Commissioning Frameworks For Adult Social Care is item 7 on the committee agenda, available online here.
Feedback on the recent consultation on the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) and recommendations for changes to the subsidy provided will be presented to members of the committee.
Members will be asked to cease the current discretionary subsidy and approve the application of the national Minimum Income Guarantee from 1 October 2026 after the full re-assessment of all affected people. A Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) is a financial safety net designed to ensure that individuals have a basic level of income to cover their living costs.
The report says that currently Wirral taxpayers through the council are contributing £2.2m towards the non-residential care for people who are deemed capable of contributing from their own finances according to national policy. The report says some people will be asked to pay more towards the cost of their non residential care.
Details of the proposals, the consultation response and the full recommendations are included in the report at agenda Item 8 on the committee agenda here, long with the appendices.
A report on AbleMe asks councillors to consider the cessation of the service by 31 March 2026 and to authorise the Director of Adults, Health and Strategic Commissioning to consult with affected staff and mitigate the impact of the service cessation on those affected including starting a formal process of consultation with staff who are at risk of redundancy.
AbleMe is a local service set up to help people to stay independent and active as they age. The report says that reablement services assist in diverting, reducing and delaying the demand on health and social care services but that the existing community care market is sufficiently well established and capable of delivering the services needed.
The full report being presented to councillors is available online at agenda item 9 together with the appendices.
Item 10 on the committee agenda is a report on a review of charges for Adult Social Care services which proposes increasing them to ensure that Wirral Council recovers the direct costs incurred in their provision, as well as revising charges for Technology Enabled Care (TEC), Day Services and Transport which have not been updated for a number of years.
The proposals being put to councillors is for an increase in the charges for technology enabled care, adult transport and Day Services.
The report says that on average the Council provides transport to 235 passengers per day, the majority of these adults with learning disabilities, plus some older people and those with physical disabilities with a total of just under 118,000 journeys in a year.
Wirral Council also provides a universal day care offer for 347 adults with an assessed need under the Care Act 2014, operating from eight locations and delivering up to 122,000 sessions per annum.
The full agenda for the meeting of Wirral Council’s Adult Social Care and Public Health Committee is available online. The meeting will take place from 6pm on Tuesday January 20 at Wallasey Town Hall. It is also webcast and can be viewed by following the “View the Webcast” link on the agenda web page.
