Mr £410,000 CHELSEA CARE .....STEVEN FORBES EXPOSED

The Dame shines a light....thanks to an 'insider'

 

Some time ago the Dame posed the vital question “why was consultant Steven Forbes paid £410,000 by the Council over a four year period?”. The Dame’s assiduous researcher/walker disgraced ex Mayor 'Bazza' Phelps can now reveal all.

Some five years ago it became evident, with people living longer and wishing to stay in their own homes, that the Council would become responsible for obtaining decent home care services for older and disabled residents. A senior officer was duly hired to do the job. Sadly, she proved unequal to the task and chaos reigned. Enter the Forbes Hewlett consultancy. 

 Left: Half a million £ man Forbes

Although Steven Forbes was not appointed as a member of staff, he was given the title of “Director” within the Health, Housing and Adult Social Care business group. His role was to sort out the problems within the Home Care service. It was also at this stage that the concept of Chelsea Care was revived.

As “commissioner and purchaser” [i.e. identifying residents’ needs and then finding companies able to meet them], Steven Forbes’s role was to “commission” home care services, including from Chelsea Care. So for the 15 months when Chelsea Care was dysfunctional, he was the person at the Council overseeing this shambles while at the same time failing to organise the Council’s internal home care commissioning structure. 
So a senior officer from a different Council business group was parachuted in for a couple of months. He sorted out the mess and then returned to his day job. 

Residents, however, were now paying not ONE , not TWO, but THREE people to do this ONE job – justified on the grounds that all Executive Directors have a budget for consultancy advice as and when they feel it is needed.

But the problem did not end there. With growing realisation of the fiasco that was Chelsea Care, Cabinet members decided that the ideal person to sort all this out was Steven Forbes! So in November 2010 he became interim Managing Director of Chelsea Care Limited. 

In January 2011 he was forced to go cap in hand to the Council for further funding to keep Chelsea Care afloat. Despite all the signs now indicating that the Council should cut its losses and close Chelsea Care and contrary to officer advice, the Cabinet decided that Forbes was their man and gave him the money. 
Two months later the organisation collapsed – leaving the Council with a loss far greater than the £300,000 of taxpayers’ money that they are prepared to admit.

And the epilogue? The incompetent Council officer who could not do her job remains in post, while both her boss and the officer who finally got the internal structure to work are to go, both victims of the Tri-borough folly. Mr. Forbes has thankfully now also gone, but has resurfaced in the neighbouring London Borough of Brent.