We asked, you said, we did

We asked

We asked for your views on Barnet’s approach to managing adult social care debt that arises due to non-payments of care contributions. Like other councils, Barnet charges customers for a range of adult social care services in accordance with statutory requirements and local charging policies.

We asked for views on an overarching debt management policy for adult social care in the borough, to ensure a consistent, transparent and fair approach to recovery of monies owed to the council.

You said

We received a total of 104 questionnaires, 89 were online and the remaining 15 were written responses. The responses included:

• the majority of respondents were in favour of the key principles set out in the policy, though many respondents asked that we make every effort to help prevent debt by engaging early and giving opportunity to pay, before the council started any legal proceedings
• the majority agreed that Direct Debit was the best way to avoid debt
• one-third of respondents strongly agreed that nominated persons’ failure to make regular payments should be chased by the council
• about a quarter strongly agreed that the council should ask for Power of Attorney documentation before allowing a nominated person to manage someone’s financial affairs.

You can read the full consultation report here.

We did

All the feedback from the consultation was given due consideration. The final policy has been approved and published on the council’s website along with other Adult Social Care policies. Officers have proceeded with appropriate debt management and recovery actions following the Adult Social Care Debt Recovery and Management Policy.