Agenda and draft minutes

Resolved:

That Councillor Shah be appointed as Chair of the Shareholder Committee, for the remainder of the 2025/26 Municipal Year.

(Councillor Shah in the Chair).

There were no apologies for absence received.

To consider that the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business, pursuant to Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that discussions may involve the likely disclosure of exempt information, under paragraphs 1 and 3 as defined in the provisions of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, to the Local Government Act 1972 and public interest would not be served in publishing the information.

Resolved:

That in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting, for the following item of business, on the grounds that it contains exempt information under paragraphs 1 and 3, of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and it would not, on balance, be in the public interest to disclose the documents considered.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive attached

The Shareholder Sub-Committee considered a confidential report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Health and Social Care) advising Members on the outcome of a strategic review of the commerciality and sustainability of MioCare and which put a series of recommendations.

The Deputy Chief Executive (Health and Social Care) had commissioned an independent commercial consultant with a history of supporting Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (OMBC) on multiple commercial engagements to undertake a commercial and sustainability review on behalf of OMBC specifically by Adult Social Services of Miocare, one of its traded service companies.

The focus of the review, highlighted in the report, was an analysis of governance structures, strategic direction, financial sustainability and stakeholder dynamics, rather than the quality or effectiveness of front-line care provision, which would require a more specialist review.

The review was held as a result of a number of issues:

·       Concerns about a potential unmitigated liability on equal pay depending on the outcome of a case in Sunderland, affecting another similar organisations run by a Council elsewhere.

·       Concerns about rules changes by HMRC on VAT impacting local authority trading companies.

·       The need to understand MioCare’s capability and readiness to be able to absorb other areas of work.

·       Observations by the Deputy Chief Executive (Health and Social Care) about weaknesses in governance but no firm evidence to support those observations.

·       Concerns about financial impacts.

·       To consider the governance arrangements at MioCare.

The submitted report sets out the findings from that review work and presented a series of remedies for the Shareholder Committee to consider.

Options/Alternatives considered:

Various options and alternatives were detailed in the report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Health and Social Care).

Resolved:
That the Shareholder Committee approves the remedies as set out in the Deputy Chief Executive’s (Health and Social Care) report, to enact a more commercial and sustainable model for Miocare, including:

a.    Realining the goals and work programme of the Interim Managing Director.

b.    Restructuring the Corporate Board of Miocare to improve the Council’s relationship with this critical organisation,

c.     Re-setting the corporate goals and business and commercial strategy of MioCare, improving engagement with Oldham Council’s Senior management and political leaders.

d.    Preparing Oldham Total Care Ltd for future integration into MioCare.

e.    Ensuring that effective communication and change management strategies are in place to support the programme of work required.