Two Northern Ireland health trusts have each paid more than £200,000 to a private consultancy firm brought in to review social care packages for vulnerable adults and the elderly.

Freedom of Information disclosures show the Northern Health Trust paid £202,000 and the South Eastern Health Trust paid £213,000 to Liaison Care. The England-based company carried out assessments of 130 people receiving social care packages through a remote online method.

The Western, Belfast and Southern trusts said they had engaged with the firm but had not yet paid it any money. The Belfast trust added it had not reached a stage of implementing or agreeing outcomes recommended by Liaison Care.

In March, the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority ordered Liaison Care to stop operating in Northern Ireland. The order followed complaints from families of patients whose cases had been reviewed. That order has since been lifted after the RQIA concluded the company did not need to register with it.

The care packages of adults transferred from Muckamore Abbey Hospital were among those reviewed. Two families whose relatives were in Muckamore made complaints about how the assessments were conducted. The Belfast Health Trust apologised to both families.

Department of Health officials previously raised concerns about oversight of the company. In correspondence with then-Health Minister Mike Nesbitt, officials noted that assessing people remotely from England meant Liaison Care staff could fall outside the regulatory authority of the Northern Ireland Social Care Council. The NISCC later confirmed no social care workers employed by the firm had registered with it.

The officials wrote that this gap could mean the council cannot hold those workers to Northern Ireland's code of practice, cannot investigate their conduct, cannot apply fitness-to-practice sanctions, and that service users would have no recourse through Northern Ireland's regulatory system.

Liaison Care said it provides person-centred recommendations that help trusts complete reviews more efficiently. The company stated that all reviews are undertaken by qualified professionals with required registrations in place and said it continues to work with the RQIA, the trusts and the NISCC on governance and professional registration.

The Department of Health said any engagement with Liaison Care must operate within appropriate governance arrangements and must not diminish the statutory responsibilities of trusts for assessment and care planning. Trusts paused their engagement with the firm in March but have since restarted it, and are working to agree a standard operating procedure for any future work.

The deal between the trusts and Liaison Care allows the company to make a profit of up to 33 percent of the amount it reduces from a person's social care package costs.