Dear Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland),

On 20 Oct 2016, journalist Meadhbh Monahan reported the following;

"A spokeswoman from the Department of Health told The Impartial Reporter: 'At the meeting with the Health Minister, it was explained that, based on financial data provided by the Health and Social Care Board, the average variance between the expected capitation investment in community learning disability and the actual spend in the Western Trust area for learning disability over the past six years has recently been quantified at around £7 million per annum.'

Learning disability services across the Western Trust have been underfunded by £42 million over the past six years.
Health Minister Michelle O’Neill met with local carers groups last Tuesday to discuss the underspend – which has been calculated at £7 million per annum for six years"

Can WHSCT please advise me when CEO Elaine Way intends to make a public statement about this underspend and give a full account to all families who are affected by this in the WHSCT area, given that this money is all public money and should be fully accounted for?

Yours faithfully,

Joan Corrigan

FOI Request, Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland)

This e-mail is covered by the disclaimer found at the end of the message.

Dear Ms Corrigan

We acknowledge receipt of your email (below) which you sent to the Freedom of Information (FOI) office at the Western Health and Social Care Trust. 

Under the Freedom of Information Act you have a right to request any recorded information held by a public authority. Your request can be in the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, but the authority does not have to answer your question if this would mean creating new information or giving an opinion or judgment that is not already recorded. For further information on this please see https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici....

As your email is a request for comment rather than a request for recorded information held by the Trust, we do not consider this to be a valid request requiring a formal response under the Act. We have therefore not logged this as an FOI request.

However your email has been forwarded on to the office of the Chief Executive for response.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Office
Western Health and Social Care Trust

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