Response issued under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
Our Reference: CQC IAT 1920 1034
Date of Response: 5 March 2020
Information Requested:
“Please can CQC provide information related to Elysium Healthcare
regulated MH Services:
A. By financial year (starting with partial 16/17 and up to completion of
18/19), how many notifications of deaths were received by CQC from
Elysium
B. How many of each of Notifications of Death , Preventing Future Deaths
Reports, Safeguarding investigations & Serious Incident Investigations are
CQC aware of for Elysium and have informed CQC inspections ?
(Preferably identified by FY of receipt of the documentation by CQC)
C. How many Elysium Healthcare Units are rated as a) Unassessed (or
provisional assessment before initial assessment) b) Inadequate c)
Requires Improvement d) Good e) Outstanding (noting that online info does
not give a list of all Elysium Healthcare Units , so this info is not already
published by CQC)”
The Information Access team has now coordinated a response to your request.
CQC has considered your request in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Our first obligation under the legislation is to confirm whether we do or do not
hold the requested information.
In accordance with section 1(1) of FOIA we are able to confirm that CQC does
hold some recorded information in relation to this matter. However, we consider
that the cost exemption set out at section 12 of the Act is engaged. This is
because extensive manual searches would be required to locate, retrieve and
extract the information requested. This exemption is explained in full in the
‘Exemptions on disclosure’ section below.
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Where the cost exemption is engaged a public authority is not required to comply
with any part of a request.
However, some of the information you have requested is publicly available, so
we have provided information on where to locate it on our website. We have also
provided further advice and assistance on how you could rephrase a new request
– please see the ‘Advice and assistance’ section below.
Reporting on statutory notifications of death
We consider that limbs A and B of your request would require extensive manual
searches of our records. We have outlined the reasons for this below.
We have two statutory notifications under the CQC (Registration) Regulations
2009.
• Regulation 16 and 20: Death of a person using the service – notification
form
o
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/notifications/death-
person-using-service-notification-form
• Regulation 17: Death of a detained mental health patient – notification
form
o
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/notifications/death-
detained-mental-health-patient-notification-form
We can only report centrally on Regulation 17 notifications from 1 January 2019.
Prior to that, we would have to conduct manual searches against each provider
and location.
We can report centrally on Regulation 16/20 notifications for the period of your
request, but we would have to manually interrogate each notification and
associated records, in order to answer limb B of your request.
Identifying MH Provisions: Primary Inspection Category
We have identified over 75 locations with a Brand, Provider or Location name
containing "Elysium".
To identify the services offering mental health provisions we search against the
primary Inspection Category (PIC). PIC can be different for a Provider and some
of its locations. A provider may have some locations with a PIC of 'Mental health
- community & hospital - independent' and some with other types.
While we can find notifications attached to a location with a particular PIC, where
notifications have been attached to a provider, we cannot determine from the
database the location it relates to or whether the location has a PIC of 'Mental
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health - community & hospital - independent' or something else, e.g. 'Residential
social care'; extensive manual searches would be necessary.
We have identified the following Mental Health provisions with the Location PIC
of Mental health - community & hospital – independent, offered by Elysium.
1.
Ballington House
2.
The Limes
3.
The WoodHouse Independent Hospital
4.
All Saints Hospital
5.
The Farndon Unit
6.
Field House
7.
Bradley Complex Care
8.
Healthlinc House
9.
Arbury Court
10.
Brierley Court Independent Hospital
11.
Bromley Road Hospital
12.
Rhodes Wood Hospital
13.
Rosebank House
14.
Spring Wood Lodge
15.
The Copse
16.
The Spinney
17.
Wellesley Hospital
18.
Three Valleys Hospital
19.
Brighton & Hove Clinic
20.
Chadwick Lodge
21.
Farmfield
22.
Gateway Recovery Centre
23.
Potters Bar Clinic
24.
St Neots Hospital
25.
Sturt House
26.
Thornford Park
27.
Victoria Gardens
28.
St Marys Hospital
Publicly available information
With regards to limb C of your request, you can find information on published
ratings for Elysium Healthcare on our website. Please follow the link below:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/transparency/using-cqc-data
Scroll down until you come to the ‘care directory with ratings’ the filter for the
Brand Provider. Which can be found at column Z on the locations tab.
Archives going back to 2015 are available just below this link.
A link to deactivated locations can be found at the bottom of the page.
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Please note: these spreadsheets would show core service reports at location
level; however, they don’t show a core service UNTIL there has been a rating.
Advice and assistance
Under section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (and in accordance
with the section 45 code of practice) we have a duty to provide you with
reasonable advice and assistance.
CQC use data collated by NHS Digital in relation to deaths in Mental Health
Services. You can find out more on their website
https://digital.nhs.uk/
Mental Health datahub:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-tools-and-services/data-
services/mental-health-data-hub
You may wish to resubmit a new request, either for all Elysium services, or
focused on the list of locations with a PIC of Mental health - community &
hospital – independent, provided above, for the following information:
• regulation 16/20 notifications for 2016/2017 onwards, and
• regulation 17 notifications from 1 January 2019
We hope this information is of assistance to you.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and exemptions to the right to know
The purpose of FOIA is to ensure transparency and accountability in the public
sector. It seeks to achieve this by providing anyone, anywhere in the world, with
the right to access recorded information held by, or on behalf of, a public
authority.
The main principle behind FOIA is that people have a right to know about the
activities of public authorities, unless there is a good reason for them not to.
A disclosure under FOIA is described as “applicant blind” meaning that it is a
disclosure into the public domain, not to any one individual.
An applicant does not need to give a reason for wanting the information. On the
contrary, the public authority must justify refusing the information.
Public authorities are required to treat all requests equally, except under some
limited circumstances. The information someone can access under FOIA should
not be affected by who they are, whether they are journalists, local residents,
public authority employees, or foreign researchers.
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FOIA also recognises that there may be valid reasons for withholding information
by setting out several exemptions from the right to know, some of which are
subject to a public interest test.
Exemptions exist to protect information that should not be disclosed into the
public domain, for example because disclosing the information would be harmful
to another person or it would be against the public interest.
A public authority must not disclose information in breach of any other law.
When a public authority, such as CQC, refuses to provide information, it must, in
accordance with section 17 of FOIA, issue a refusal notice explaining why it is
unable to provide the information.
Section 12 – where the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit set
out in the Act
We consider that the information requested is currently exempt under section12
of the FOIA. This is because we would have to conduct manual searches of all of
our records for Elysium locations with 'Mental health - community & hospital -
independent' primary inspection category to identify the information requested at
limbs A and B.
Section 12 of FOIA applies where the cost to CQC of complying with any
individual request would exceed £450. In such cases, CQC is allowed to refuse
to comply with the request for information.
Section 12 states:
“(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for
information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request
would exceed the appropriate limit.”
As a public authority we wish to be transparent and open about our work, but we
have a statutory responsibility to use our resources effectively.
Section 2(3) of schedule 1 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 states that “It
is the duty of the Commission to carry out its functions effectively, efficiently and
economically.”
A public authority, such as CQC, is not obliged to comply with a request for
information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request
would exceed the appropriate limit.
In calculating whether this appropriate limit is exceeded, regulation 4(4) of the
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004 requires that the time taken in responding to requests
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(locating, retrieving and extracting the information) must be calculated at a rate of
£25 per person per hour.
We have identified over 75 locations with a Brand, Provider or Location name
containing "Elysium".
Primary Inspection Category (PIC) can be different for a Provider and some of its
locations. A provider may have some locations with a PIC of 'Mental health -
community & hospital - independent' and some with other types.
We can find notifications attached to a location with a particular PIC, however
where notifications have been attached to a provider, we can't determine from
the database the location it relates to or whether the location has a PIC of 'Mental
health - community & hospital - independent' or something else, e.g. 'Residential
social care'; a manual searches would be necessary.
We would also have to conduct manual searches to identify which Preventing
Future Deaths Reports, Safeguarding investigations & Serious Incident
Investigations that CQC are aware of and have informed CQC inspections.
These searches would entail manual searches of hundreds and potentially
thousands of records.
The time it would take to conduct these searches would far exceed the cost limit
set out in the Act, and we are therefore, unable to comply with your request for
this information.
Given the scope of your request we estimate it will take far longer than 18 hours
and cost more than £450 to perform an interrogation of all of the records held to
gather the requested information and formulate a response to your request.
In fact, to conduct such an exercise would far exceed the appropriate limit;
currently £450 or 18 hours, as defined under regulation 3(3) of the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
CQC does not consider conducting such a search of our records to be an
effective and efficient use of our limited resources.
In accordance with section 12 of FOIA, CQC chooses not to conduct such an
exercise because of the high cost involved.
This response acts as a refusal notice in accordance with FOIA.
Use of this exemption does not require a public interest test.
In making the decision we have referred to guidance published on the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website:
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www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/freedom_of_information/guide.aspx
CQC Complaints and Internal Review procedure
If you are not satisfied with our handling of your request, then you may request
an internal review.
Please clearly indicate that you wish for a review to be conducted and state the
reason(s) for requesting the review.
Please note that it is usual practice to accept a request for an internal review
within 40 working days from the date of this response. The
FOIA code of practice
advises that public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this
date.
Please be aware that the review process will focus upon our handling of your
request and whether CQC have complied with the requirements of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000. The internal review process should not be used to raise
concerns about the provision of care or the internal processes of other CQC
functions.
If you are unhappy with other aspects of the CQC's actions, or of the actions of
registered providers, please see our website for information on how to raise a
concern or complaint:
www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us
To request a review please contact:
Information Access
Care Quality Commission
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA
E-mail
: xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Further rights of appeal exist to the Information Commissioner’s Office under
section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 once the internal appeals
process has been exhausted.
The contact details are:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
7
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website
: www.ico.org.uk
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