AAC Provision

Dear Sir,

I am an academic researcher, attempting to assess the provision of
augmentative and alternative communication devices by the
NHS. Could you please send me details of augmentative and
alternative communication devices purchased by, or on behalf of
your trust between 31st March 2006 and 1st April 2011?

I would like the information broken down by both product name  (So
for example Dynavox Xpress, iPod touch with TapToTalk, BigMack)
 and by year.  I would like information for both children and
adults, but I don't require a breakdown by age.

Deven PCT have helpfully given examples on a previous request. The
format they used was

2005/06
4 X Digital Electronic Larynxes (Servox)
2 x Listen To Me
2 x Lightwriters
1 x Dynawrite
1 x Dynamo
1 x Falck Voice Amplifier
1 x Lions Speech Aid
1 x Go Talk
1 x Little Mack

2006/07
9 x Digital Electronic Larynxes (Servox)
2 x Lightwriters
1 x mini Printer
2 x The Grid software
2 x Falck Voice Amplifiers
1 x Listen To Me
1 x Textphone
1 x Talking Symbols Notepad

and this would do nicely for me. Other excellent formats were
provided by:
Bradford and Airedale Teaching PCT
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...)
Bromley PCT
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...)
Bristol PCT
( http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...)
and Central Lancashire PCT
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/au...)

Just to make the process more efficient for you guys - it would be
great to clarify a couple of things at this stage - I am aware that
some trusts make use of commissioning trusts to do the actual
purchase of the devices; when I have contacted the commissioning
trusts I've been often redirected back to the PCT because the
paperwork for previous years have been stored at the PCT - this
redirection must be causing additional work for both trusts in the
long run and it would be great to avoid it
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/au...
is an example of the problem)

Also, and again to make life easier for you, I should point about
that since this request is being made via whatdotheyknow.com -
email addresses are stripped out of replies to protect your privacy
(because the responses are all available to public view- if you are
to redirect my request to another body then it's ideal to just give
the name of the body rather than just an email address

Yours faithfully,

Dr Joseph Reddington

Dear PCT Freedom of Information,

Hi there,

Excellent data - but its appears to only go far as back as 2009 and
include only adults - was there any provision before 2009 and also,
was there any provision for children?

Yours sincerely,

Joe

Dear PCT Freedom of Information,

Thank you very much for the clarification - would you mind getting
back to me regardless what the response is? I'm putting together a
report at the moment and it would be awful if my data was out
because an email had been eaten by the system... :)

Yours sincerely,

Joe

Dear PCT Freedom of Information,

That is an outstandingly positive attitude and it's great to hear -
I look forward to your response :)

Yours sincerely,

Joe

Dear PCT Freedom of Information,

That's excellent, thank you - what sort of timescale are we looking
for in terms of the data for adults?

Yours sincerely,

Joe

Dear PCT Freedom of Information,

Apologies - absolutely my fault, I got you confused with another
trust I'd just been speaking to on the phone - thank you so much
for your hard work on this :)

Yours sincerely,

Joe