AAC purchases

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

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

I am an academic researcher, attempting to assess the provision of
augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices in
Education in the UK (devices used to aid communication, typically
 for people with difficulty speaking). Could you please send details of augmentative and alternative communication devices 
purchased by, within your Trust between 31st March 2006 
and 1st April 2012?
We would like the information broken down by both product name (So
for example Dynavox Xpress, iPod touch with TapToTalk, BigMack) and 
by year. Ideally you would include the price paid, but we can deduce that from the
 products if necessary.

 This is a follow up study - the first one consisted of several
 hundred freedom of information requests to trusts in England, Scotland, and Wales to find the 
provision of AAC. Our consolidated data is in the 
following format (This is comma separated, we can happily send
 excel documents and other examples):



Date Purchased, Supplier, Model, Number, Unit Cost, Total Cost

23/04/2007, Platon Medical Ltd, TRUTONE ELECTROLARYNX COMPLETE KIT,
1, £395.00 , £395.00

17/05/2007, Speechmark Publishin Ltd, FRENCHAY E-TRAN FRAME & A4
INSTRUCTION CARD IN WALLET, 1, £85.00 , £85.00

14/12/2007, Techcess Limited, TELLUS SMART (INC MIND EXPRESS
REALSPEAK & PCS SYMBOLS, 1, " £1, 795.00 ", " £1, 795.00 "

24/01/2008, Inclusive Technology Ltd, GO TALK 9+, 1, £99.00 ,
£99.00

14/02/2008, Kapitex Healthcare Ltd, SERVOX DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
AID, 1, £490.00 , £490.00

14/02/2008, Kapitex Healthcare Ltd, PRODUCTS UP TO 25, 6, £18.50 ,
£111.00

15/02/2008, Dynavox Systems Ltd, DYNAVOX V 512MB WITH CARRY CASE
WIFI USB BLUETOOTH, 1, " £5, 000.00 ", " £5, 000.00 "

15/04/2008, WINSLOW, SWALLOW REMINDER BROACH, 1, £57.95 , £57.95

25/07/2008, Kapitex Healthcare Ltd, SERVOX DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
AID, 1, £535.00 , £535.00

29/08/2008, SMARTBOX, THE GRID 2 SOFTWARE, 1, £360.00 , £360.00

29/08/2008, QUALITY ENABLING DEVICES, PING PONG SWITCH, 1, £195.00
, £195.00

29/08/2008, SMARTBOX, PRODUCTS BETWEEN 25 - 100, 1, £49.00 , £49.00


and this format would be ideal - although we are very happy to reformat 
anything that you send over…


Yours faithfully,



Dr Joseph Reddington

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[Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) request email]

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Sent request to Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) again.

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

Dear Joe

I acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information request below which was received by the Western HSC Trust today (11 June 2012). I will make some enquiries and contact you again soon with a Trust response.

Regards

Freedom of Information Office
Western Health & Social Care Trust
Email: [Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) request email]

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

Dear Dr. Reddington

I refer to your Freedom of Information request which was received by the Western Health & Social Care Trust on 11 June 2012. You asked for information about AAC devices (augmentative and alternative communication) purchased by the Trust.

In response, the Trust can provide some information as provided by the Speech and Language Therapy department special needs team, but information is not available as far back as 2006. In this case, details of devices purchased by Speech and Language Therapy is available from 2008.
Information regarding the supplier and price paid is not available. Please see below AAC devices purchased since 2008:

Springboard Lite (Liberator) x 2 – (both 2008) Purchased by Western Education and Library Board (WELB)

Springboard Vantage Lite Picture Word Power (Liberator) x 1 – 2008. Purchased by WELB

Liberator 14 Picture Word Power x 2 (both 2009) Purchased by WELB

Dynavox V x1 Purchased by WELB (2009)

Liberator 14 x1 purchased 2010 by Education

Eco 2 x1 purchased 2011 by Education

i-pad x1 (2010) purchased by WHSCT - Speech & Language Therapy (SLT)

I hope you are happy with this response, but please contact me again if you have further queries with this response.

Regards

Information Governance Office
Western Health & Social Care Trust
Email: [Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) request email]

Freedom of information (FOI):- If you are unhappy as to how this request has been handled, you have access to the Trust’s FOI complaints procedure. You should write to the FOI Office, Administration Building, Altnagelvin Hospital, Glenshane Road, Londonderry BT47 6SB within two months of the date of this response and your complaint will be considered and a response provided, usually within 20 working days of receipt. If you remain unhappy, you can write to our Chief Executive, who will reconsider your complaint and respond to you, again usually within 20 working days. If, after receiving a response from the Chief Executive, you remain unhappy, you can refer your complaint to the Information Commissioner. It is important to note that if you refer any matter to the Information Commissioner, you will need to show evidence of having gone through the Trust’s complaints procedure to try to resolve the matter with the Trust in the first instance.

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Dear Request, FOI,

Thank you very much for your response, I must confess that I made
an error in the request - the word 'inEducation' snuck in when I
should have been paying attention. Is it possible to open a follow
up request looking for *all* AAC purchases, not just educational
ones? I'm very sorry about any extra effort this might put you to,
and hope that you understand that this was entirely unintentional.

Yours sincerely,

Joe

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

Dear Joe

I acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information request below which was received by the Western HSC Trust today (16 July 2012). I will treat this as a new request and contact you again soon with a Trust response.

Regards

Freedom of Information Office
Western Health & Social Care Trust
Email: [Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) request email]

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

Dear Joe

I refer to your email below which is a follow up request to one you submitted recently. You asked to know details for "ALL" ACC devices purchased by the Western Trust since 2008 and not just those for "educational purposes".

In response, I have discussed this request again within the Trust and have asked them to revisit the original response based on your new request. I have been advised that the Department of Education purchase AAC devices for children in a school setting and assessment and recommendation is carried out by the Trust Speech and Language Therapy department. As Speech and Language Therapy is the only service who use AAC devices within the Trust, the previous response remains the same.

I hope this clarifies this matter, but please contact me again if you have further queries with this response.

Regards

Information Governance Office
Western Health & Social Care Trust
Email: [Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) request email]

Freedom of information (FOI):- If you are unhappy as to how this request has been handled, you have access to the Trust’s FOI complaints procedure. You should write to the FOI Office, Administration Building, Altnagelvin Hospital, Glenshane Road, Londonderry BT47 6SB within two months of the date of this response and your complaint will be considered and a response provided, usually within 20 working days of receipt. If you remain unhappy, you can write to our Chief Executive, who will reconsider your complaint and respond to you, again usually within 20 working days. If, after receiving a response from the Chief Executive, you remain unhappy, you can refer your complaint to the Information Commissioner. It is important to note that if you refer any matter to the Information Commissioner, you will need to show evidence of having gone through the Trust’s complaints procedure to try to resolve the matter with the Trust in the first instance.

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Dear Request, FOI,

Awesome. Thank you :)

Yours sincerely,

Joe