A panel to look into Social Services charges for adults was set up by Ealing Council's Individual Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday last week.

The panel, called a Task Group, which will review the criteria used to determine who should pay for services and how much should be charged, was the first to be set up since the Scrutiny Committee started last month.

Barbara Yeromelou, Conservative spokeswoman for Social Services, said a review was long overdue.

'I put myself on the task group because it's an important issue and the last time the charging policy was set was five years ago.

'And every borough seems to have its own set of regulations.' The level of charges for adult users of social services, some of which are means tested and some flat rate, is set by the council, although the director of social services is allowed to make annual increases up to two per cent above inflation.

The task group will be reporting back in October.