Data of how direct payments are being used by users

Dean made this Freedom of Information request to Conwy County Borough Council Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was partially successful.

Dear Conwy County Borough Council,

☆For the attention of Adult Social Services☆

Could you provide any data you hold regarding what direct payments are specifically being used for by users? The more comprehensive and specific this list is, the better. For example, data showing DPs being used for a gym membership would be more useful and insightful than data showing DPs being used for "leisure activities" which would be too broad and nonspecific.

If you require dates to extract this data could you extract it from the last five financial years as follows:

• 2018-2019
• 2019-2020
• 2020-2021
• 2021-2022
• 2022-2023

I appreciate that this data might be quite vast and could even prevent you from fulfilling this FOI request. If this is the case, then please refine my query even further as follows:

- Include data for adults aged 19 - 59 ONLY. Other ages can be disregarded/excluded from the data.

AND

- Include data for the previous 2 financial years ONLY - 2021/2022 & 2022/2023 respectively.

This should ensure a less intensive trawl and allow this freedom of information request to be fulfilled. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Dean

Uned Llyw-Gwyb / Info-Gov Unit, Conwy County Borough Council

Mae’r Uned Llywodraethu Gwybodaeth ar gau tan 30/05/2023; dylid anfon
unrhyw geisiadau am wybodaeth a/neu ymholiadau brys
i [1][email address]

 

The Information Governance Unit is closed until 30/05/2023, any
information requests and/or enquiries that cannot wait should be sent
to [2][email address]  

 

Os ydych yn gwneud cais am fynediad at wybodaeth o dan delerau Deddf
Rhyddid Gwybodaeth 2000 neu Reoliad Gwybodaeth Amgylcheddol 2004, byddwch
yn derbyn ymateb cyn pen ugain diwrnod gwaith.

 

Os yw’ch ymholiad yn ymwneud â galw’ch hawliau i rym fel y’u nodir yn y
ddeddfwriaeth Diogelu Data, byddwch yn derbyn ymateb cyn pen un mis
calendr.

 

If you are requesting access to information under the terms of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulation 2004
you will receive a response within twenty working days.

 

If your enquiry is related to invoking your rights as set out under Data
Protection legislation, you will receive a response within one calendar
month.

 

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Dear Conwy County Borough Council,

To compliment the core request, could you also provide your practice guidance policies on direct payments, personal budgets and any other policies which you feel are relevant to this request.

Yours faithfully,

Dean

Conwy County Borough Council

Dear Dean

Thank you for your enquiry 11337.

If you are requesting access to information under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulation 2004 you will receive a response within twenty working days. If your enquiry is related to invoking your rights as set out under Data Protection legislation, you will receive a response within one calendar month.

Please ensure you send all correspondence to the [Conwy Council request email] email address quoting reference number 11337.

This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and are solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this email. For details of our privacy notice click here Privacy-Notice

Dear Conwy County Borough Council,

I have further refined my request which I have included in full below. I hope this helps.

☆For the attention of Adult Social Services☆

The term data in the heading above refers to the actual activity/service/goods that a direct payment was/is used for and not just the broader category that it falls within. Of course, the broader category can be included as well. Where direct payments are used for personal assistants (PA), these can be excluded from the dataset.

The primary purpose of this request is to receive a full breakdown of how individual users spend their direct payments. The amount of each payment would be very useful but not essential. The total direct payment amount each person receives is useful though and this can be displayed weekly or monthly or whichever is easiest for you.

So, to re-iterate, please provide all data in relation to how direct payments are specifically being used by users aged 24 - 54 and all other age groups can be excluded. The more comprehensive and detailed this list is, the more useful it will be for this FOI request. For example, data showing DPs being used for a gym membership (including how much it costs) would be far more valuable than data showing DPs being used for "leisure activities" which would be too broad; nonspecific and unhelpful.

If you require dates to extract this data could you extract it from either of the following financial years (preferably both):

• 2018-2019
• 2022-2023

I appreciate that this data can be quite laborious at times, especially if extracting the data from a manual trawl of individual care and support plans. It may or may not be easier to consider past audits and current monitoring systems to extract the same data and always remember to keep it within the age parameters of 24 - 54 which should exclude the majority of users.

To compliment the core request, could you kindly send me your direct payments policy including your practice guidance for practitioners. Could you also send me your Care and Support Planning Policy along with your practice guidance for practitioners. Please send any other policies you feel are relevant or related to the policies and practice guidance documents requested above.

Yours faithfully,

Dean

Uned Llyw-Gwyb / Info-Gov Unit, Conwy County Borough Council

Diolch am eich neges e-bost/ Thank you for your email.

Os ydych yn gwneud cais am fynediad at wybodaeth o dan delerau Deddf
Rhyddid Gwybodaeth 2000 neu Reoliad Gwybodaeth Amgylcheddol 2004, byddwch
yn derbyn ymateb cyn pen ugain diwrnod gwaith.

Os yw’ch ymholiad yn ymwneud â galw’ch hawliau i rym fel y’u nodir yn y
ddeddfwriaeth Diogelu Data, byddwch yn derbyn ymateb cyn pen un mis
calendr.

If you are requesting access to information under the terms of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulation 2004
you will receive a response within twenty working days.

If your enquiry is related to invoking your rights as set out under Data
Protection legislation, you will receive a response within one calendar
month.

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socialcarefoi, Conwy County Borough Council

Dear Requester,

 

Please find below (within your request) information in response to your
Freedom of Information request. Please accept our apologies for the delay
in getting back to you.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review.  Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of this response, and
should be sent to the e-mail address below.

 

Please ensure all correspondence is sent to this email address: 
[1][Conwy Council request email].

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, or if you
are unhappy with this response you may appeal to the:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office – Wales

2nd Floor, Churchill House

Churchill Way

Cardiff

CF10 2HH

Yours sincerely,

 

Vicky Owen

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth/Freedom of Information

Gwasanaethau Gofal Cymdeithasol ac Addysg/Social Care & Education Services

Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy County Borough Council

PO Box 1, Conwy, LL30 9GN
Gwe/Web: [2]www.conwy.gov.uk/freedomofinformation  

 

From: Dean <[FOI #982321 email]>
Sent: 07 June 2023 23:29
To: Uned Llyw-Gwyb / Info-Gov Unit <[Conwy Council request email]>
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - Data of how direct payments
are being used by users

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Dear Conwy County Borough Council,

 

I have further refined my request which I have included in full below. I hope this helps.

 

☆For the attention of Adult Social Services☆

 

The term data in the heading above refers to the actual activity/service/goods that a direct payment was/is used for and not just the broader category that it falls within. Of course, the broader category can be included as well. Where direct payments are used for personal assistants (PA), these can be excluded from the dataset.

 

The primary purpose of this request is to receive a full breakdown of how individual users spend their direct payments. The amount of each payment would be very useful but not essential. The total direct payment amount each person receives is useful though and this can be displayed weekly or monthly or whichever is easiest for you.

 

So, to re-iterate, please provide all data in relation to how direct payments are specifically being used by users aged 24 - 54 and all other age groups can be excluded. The more comprehensive and detailed this list is, the more useful it will be for this FOI request. For example, data showing DPs being used for a gym membership (including how much it costs) would be far more valuable than data showing DPs being used for "leisure activities" which would be too broad; nonspecific and unhelpful.

 

If you require dates to extract this data could you extract it from either of the following financial years (preferably both):

 

• 2018-2019

• 2022-2023

 

2018-2019
Costs Period
Total No
Recipients 
24-54 107    
Using PA's so
excluded 90    
Using a
Domiciliary
Care Agency 2    
Football Club
Annual
Membership 1 £120.00 Annual
Gym
Membership 4 £20 Monthly
Driving
Lessons
(Carers
Package) 5 £40 Weekly
Support Dog
purchase and
training  1 £2,582.00 Annual
Attend
activities
holiday
independently 1 £2,881.52 Annual
Purchase of
Educational
Software and
Licence 3 £120.00 Annual
2022-2023
Costs Period
Total No
Recipients 
24-54 95    
Using PA's so
excluded 75    
Using a
Domiciliary
Care Agency 3    
Football Club
Membership 2 £155.00 Annual
Gym
Membership 3 £32.00 Monthly
Driving
Lessons
(Carers
Package) 2 £50.00 Weekly
Support dog
refresher
training and
ownership
costs  1 £1,550.00 Annual
Purchase of
riser chair
(Carers
Package) 1 £400.00 Annual
Pooling of
funding to
social
activity
group 5 £3,088.00 Annual
Attend
activities
holiday
independently 1 £3,144.00 Annual
Joining day
trips with
local coach
firm 1 £200.00 Monthly
Purchase of
Educational
Software and
Licence 1 £200 Annual
*Costs are
calculated on an
average basis as
required

I appreciate that this data can be quite laborious at times, especially if extracting the data from a manual trawl of individual care and support plans. It may or may not be easier to consider past audits and current monitoring systems to extract the same data and always remember to keep it within the age parameters of 24 - 54 which should exclude the majority of users.

 

To compliment the core request, could you kindly send me your direct payments policy including your practice guidance for practitioners. Could you also send me your Care and Support Planning Policy along with your practice guidance for practitioners. Please send any other policies you feel are relevant or related to the policies and practice guidance documents requested above.

 

Conwy Direct Payments services are currently being re-branded; this
includes the review and re-drafting of current policy and guidance. Once
ratified these will be published on the [3]Conwy County Borough Council
website.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Dean

 

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