Our Ref RQST00002731769

24 December 2009

Ms Kate Higgins

[FOI #23841 email]

Dear Ms Higgins,

Request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

I refer to your request dated 25 November 2009 requesting information be provided to you with regard to respite care.

I can confirm that the Council holds some of the information that you are requesting. The Council is treating your request as a request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Your questions, together with the Council's response, are listed below.

Qu 1. Please tell me how much funding your local authority received in 2008-09 and in 2009-10 from the Scottish Government towards meeting its policy of providing an additional 10,000 weeks of respite care/short breaks across Scotland by 2011. Please tell me how much your local authority will receive in 2010-11 towards meeting this policy.

Ans 1. The council received an amount which should have been equal to 12% of the overall allocation.  Of this Social Work received in 2008/09 no allocation, in 2009/10 £165,000 and in 2010/11 no funding has been notified as yet.   

Qu 1.a Please tell me how much of that allocation your local authority spent, is spending and intends to spend on providing additional hours and nights of respite care/short breaks in 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010 -11.

Ans 1a. Of the additional allocation Social Work intends to provide an additional 1,200 weeks over the three years from 2008/09 to 2010/11. In 2008/09 Social Work provided 22,959 weeks of respite; we are unable to calculate the number of weeks for 2009/10 until after closure of the accounting year end of 31 March 2010.   For 2010/11 Social Work are looking to increase the figures from previous years. Social Work also working to improve the quality of their data collection through improved recording procedures which will allow the inclusion of all provision not previously recorded. In 2009/10 Social Work spent the full allocation of the £165K. 

Qu 2. Please tell me how much funding your local authority allocated from within existing GAE monies for the purpose of providing hours and nights of respite care/short breaks in 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 and how much it intends to allocate from within existing GAE monies in 2010-11.

Ans 2. Social Work are unable to provide this information without a great deal of joint work being undertaken by finance and operational staff as only a few of the Social Work budgets are set aside purely for respite care and the vast majority of respite provided is integrated into some other form of service provision. For example a primary outcome for day care for older people is the need to provide respite for the carer. 

Qu 2a. Please tell me how much your local authority spent, is spending and intends to spend from within existing GAE monies for the purpose of providing hours and nights of respite care/short breaks in 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Ans 2a. As above    

Qu 3. Please tell me to which budget head and purpose your local authority allocated the additional monies it received from the Scottish Government towards meeting the policy of providing 10,000 weeks of respite care/short breaks by 2011 in 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Ans 3. In 2009/10 the monies were put into care homes respite.

Qu 3a. Please also tell me to which budget head and purpose your local authority intends to allocate its share of the additional funding in 2010-11.

Ans 3a. See answer to 5a.     

Qu 3b. Please tell me how the allocations to each budget head and purpose were actually spent and are being spent in 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Ans 3b. No allocation was received in 2008/09 and in 2009/10 the full £165k allocation was fully exhausted.     

Qu 4. Please tell me, In relation to your local authority's commitment to achieving an additional 10,000 weeks of respite care/short breaks provision across Scotland by 2011, how many of these hours and nights have been and are being provided for disabled children and young people in 2008-09 and in 2009-10? Please also tell me how many hours and nights of respite care/short breaks were provided by your local authority for disabled children and young people in 2007-08. Please also tell me how many hours and nights you intend to provide in 2010-11.

Ans 4. As in the answer to 2 above the Council is unable to provide figures which it can reasonably rely upon without a considerable amount of work.       

Qu 5. Please tell me how much money has been and is being spent on providing respite care/short breaks for disabled children and young people in your area in 2007-08, 2008-09 and in 2009-10.

Ans 5. Information is not available at the time of writing.

Qu 5a. Please also tell me what you intend to spend on respite care/short breaks for disabled children and young people in your local authority in 2010-11.

Ans 5a. Expenditure in 2010-11 will depend on the budget allocation which will be decided in February 2010.     

If you have any queries regarding the content of the answers please contact Mr Robert Gibson, Senior Officer Rights & Enquiries Section, Social Work Services, Wheatley House, 25 Cochrane Street, Glasgow G1 1HL; telephone 0141 287 8787

If you are dissatisfied with the way Glasgow City Council has dealt with your request you are entitled to require the Council to review its decision. Please note that for a review to take place you must:

Executive Director of Corporate Services

Glasgow City Council

City Chambers

George Square

Glasgow G2 1DU

Email: [email address]

You will receive notice of the results of the review within 20 working days of receipt of your request. The notice will state the decision reached by the reviewing officer as well as details of how to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner if you are still dissatisfied with the Council's response. You must request an internal review by the Council before a complaint can be directed to the Scottish Information Commissioner.

If you have any further queries regarding this process, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Marsh[Author ID1: at Fri Nov 20 16:36:00 2009 ]
[Author ID1: at Fri Nov 20 16:36:00 2009 ]

Head of Audit & Inspection

City Chambers, [Author ID1: at Fri Nov 20 16:36:00 2009 ]

George Square, [Author ID1: at Fri Nov 20 16:36:00 2009 ]

Glasgow, G2 1DU [Author ID1: at Fri Nov 20 16:36:00 2009 ]

Contact details  0141 287 4053

 0141 287 7007 (fax)

 [email address]