Hand held magnifiers for Visually Impaired residents

** Low Priority **

Dear Ms Moore,
Please can you provide me with some information related to your
request?.
I believe that Rehabilitation Officers are not employed by Sefton , but
a small amount are by New Directions,who are commisssioned by Sefton to
carry out some care tasks on behalf of Sefton.
Can you tell me if any Service User has been refused a hand held
magnifier, and in what cirumstances,as it may be the case that this
refusal was by another organisation, such as a PCT?
regards
John Rowlands F.O.I Offficer.

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I am currently on leave until Monday 11th August and I will respond to
your message as soon as I return. Please Refer any DPA/FOI emergencies
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Catherine Larkin (Childrens Services)
John Rowlands (Social services)
Dave Mackey (Legal, Wednesday to Friday).

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Dear John Rowlands,

Rehabilitions Officers for the Visually Impaired are members of the
Occupational Therapy and Sensory Impairment team, Social Care
Directorate and employees of Sefton Council. A rehabillitation
officer (VI) announced at a meeting of the Visual Impairment
Consultation group (possibley in April) of this year, that the
issueing of hand held magnifiers had been withdrawn. No explanation
was given for this withdrawal. If you could inform me of the
authorising body it would enable me to write requesting the reasons
and may appeal for the re-issuing of the hand-held magnifiers.
Could you clarify the people you refer to in the PCT, who may be
issuing hand held magnifiers.

Yours sincerely,

Christine Moore.

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Dear Christine,

I can confirm that your request (request-1251-941ed84d) was originally
received on 23/7, but the text of this request was altered completely on
31/7. Whenever this occurs we have to reassign the start date of the
request to the latest version, the due date is the 28/8 and Sefton
Council have not yet broken the Law.

Having said this, I have to apologise that you have apparently not yet
received a response to such a simple question. I have spoken to the
department concerned and they will endeavour to provide you with an
answer by the end of this week.

Regards,
Richard Roscoe.

Richard Roscoe.
Data Protection and Information Security Officer.
Sefton Council,
1st Floor, Balliol House,
Balliol Road,
Bootle, Merseyside.
L20 3FF
Tel: 0151 934 4416
Fax: 0151 934 4157
e: [email address]

Please don't print this e-mail unless you have to. It wastes paper and
it can create a security risk.

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15/09/2008 19:52 >>>
Dear Richard Roscoe,

I would like to bring to your attention that in law you should
have
responded by the 19th August, under the Freedom of Information
Act
your are breaking the law. I would appreciate a response to my
original request.

Yours sincerely,

Christine Moore.

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Dear Christine,
You are correct and I am sorry for any confusion, and for the delay. The
answer to your question will follow as soon as I have it.
Regards,
Richard.

Richard Roscoe.
Data Protection and Information Security Officer.
Sefton Council.
1st Floor, Balliol House,
Balliol Road,
Bootle, Merseyside.
L20 3FF

Tel: 0151 934 4416
Fax: 0151 934 4157
e-mail: [email address]

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8:14 PM >>>
Dear Richard Roscoe, I am unsure of what you mean by the due date
being the 28/8/2008 as it is now 16/9/2008, surely this means its
overdue.

Yours sincerely,

Christine Moore

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** Low Priority **

Please see the attached email response to the recent emailed Freedom Of
Information Request.
John Rowland
Access to Files/F.O.I Officer.

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confidential,
privileged or commercially sensitive information. If you are not a named
addressee
and this message has come to you in error you must not copy, distribute
or take any action
on its content. Please return the message to the sender by replying to
it immediately
and then delete it from your computer and destroy any copies of it.

All e-mail communications sent to or from Sefton Metropolitan Borough
Council
may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in accordance with
current legislation.

This message does not create or vary any contractual relationship
between Sefton
Metropolitan Borough Council and you.

Internet e-mail is not a 100% secure communication medium and Sefton
Metropolitan
Borough Council does not accept responsibility for changes made to this
message
after it was sent.

Whilst all reasonable care has been taken to ensure that this message is
virus-free,
it is the recipient's responsibility to carry out virus checks as
appropriate and ensure
that the onward transmission, opening or use of this message and any
attachments will not
adversely affect their systems or data. Sefton Metropolitan Borough
Council does not
accept any responsibility in this regard."

** Low Priority **

Dear Ms Moore,
Thank your for comments related to your Freedom of Information request.

I have attached the minutes I extracted quotes from.
I am now aware that Carl Moore was not referring to hand held
magnifiers in the minutes dated 13.07.07.
This was a misunderstanding on my part, for which I apologise.

It is mentioned in t the minutes dated 6.11.06 that magnifiers are the
responsibility of health,and that discussions were to take place with
the O.T.Managers and health regarding this.
I believe that as the supply of handheld magnifiers was seen as the
responsibility of health ,this is why Sefton no longer supplies hand
held magnifiers.

Yours sincerely,
John Rowlands Access to Files/F.O.I Officer.

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September 2008 10:24 >>>
Dear John Rowlands,

you have not addressed my original request. My query was about
hand
held magnifiers, they are not electrically operated - they are
either battery operated or no power is needed. These magnifiers
are
mobile, unlike electrically powered ones which are not. It is the
issuing of hand held magnifiers that have been withdrawn.

Will you post me copies of both the minutes you quote from
please?

Yours sincerely,

Christine Moore.

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** Low Priority **

Dear Ms Moore
Thank you for your questions.
I have not stated that the decision to withdraw the handheld magnifiers
was made by an O.T. manager.

As I have mentioned to you in my previous email of the 17th September,
if you are unhappy with the management decision that was made, you may
wish to contact Margaret Milne, Principal Manager.
Her are her contact details:
Margaret Milne, Principal Manager
Sefton Health & Social Care
8th Floor
Merton House
Stanley Road, Bootle
Merseyside L20 3UU.

You will,l I am sure recall,that I have also mentioned that the Freedom
of Information Act only applies to information that has been recorded.

Yours sincerely,
John Rowlands Access to Files/F.O.I Officer.

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October 2008 14:54 >>>
Dear John Rowlands,

thank you for the explanation, however, I would like to question
the OT manager who took the decision to withdraw the issuing of
hand held magnifiers, is this person qualified in the needs of
the
visually impaired and who did the OT manager consult with prior
to
making the decision?

Is this person conversant with the knowledge that it is most
important to some household activities, and indeed mobility
issues,
that a qualified RO is able to make home assessments that is
impossible to obtain from other sources. Choosing the appropriate
hand held magnifier to the task in hand involves assessing light
levels, strengths, situation of task ect and goes much further
than
reading text in a shop or low vision clinic.

As an example I need the use of a hand held magnifier to view
radiator settings, likewise in the past I have been able to use a
stronger hand held magnifier in my use of public transport, to my
knowledge no other qualified person is able to perform this
valuable service. In a time of heightened independence I am
surprised and alarmed that the council sees fit to withdraw a
service that enabled some service users to maintain a degree of
ability and dignity.

Yours sincerely,

Christine Moore

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** Low Priority **

Dear Ms Moore
Thank you for your email which was received on the 21st November.
I believe that all available information related to your questions made
using the Freedom of Information Act, has been supplied to you.
However, we are responding to your last email as a matter of good
practice.
The decision not to supply hand held magnifiers was not made by an
individual but was made at a meeting , by the persons present at that
meeting.
You are correct in stating that not all decisions are recorded.
This does not show disregard for any vulnerable group , to record
every decision which was made would be impractical.
I cannot speak for Sefton Council and do not intend to do so.
You have been given contact details for Margaret Milne ( Principal
Manager) whom you may wish to contact if you remain unhappy with the
decision made regarding hand held magnifiers.
Your sincerely

John Rowlands Access to File/F.O.I Officer.

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November 2008 12:01 >>>
Dear John Rowlands,

My last email to you was on the 14th October. As yet I have
received no reply. Could you please rectify this?

Yours sincerely,

Christine Moore

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