Business case for separate memory service
Peter C. Bell made this Freedom of Information request to Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Dear Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust,
Please provide a copy of the Business case which was presented to the Lincolnshire system in March 2024 to look at establishing a memory service separate from the CMHTs and to secure funding to increase the number of roles in order to reduce waiting times.
Please redact where necessary any information which is confidential and which reasonably ought not to be placed in the public domain.
Please provide your response in electronic form.
Yours faithfully,
Peter C. Bell
Dear Peter,
Thank you for your email below requesting information from Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be answered within twenty working days.
If you have any queries about this request, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards
FOI Department
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Trust Headquarters, St George’s, Long Leys Road, Lincoln, LN1 1FS
CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Therefore if the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this E-Mail is strictly prohibited. Any views or opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust unless otherwise explicitly stated. The information contained in this e-mail may be subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is legally exempt from disclosure, the confidentiality of this e-mail and your reply cannot be guaranteed.
Dear Peter,
Further to your Freedom of Information Request, as per your original email, your response from Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is as follows:
The Trust has declined to provide you with the information requested under exemption 43, section (2) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states that: 2) Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it) Under Section 2, information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person; in this instance the Trust considers that it would compromise the company concerned, and in turn the Trust itself. Therefore, your request is refused under S.43 of the Freedom of information Act 2000.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to request for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to: FOI Department, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Trust Headquarters, Long Leys Road, Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN1 1FS. If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Kind regards,
FOI Department
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Trust Headquarters, St George’s, Long Leys Road, Lincoln, LN1 1FS
CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Therefore if the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this E-Mail is strictly prohibited. Any views or opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust unless otherwise explicitly stated. The information contained in this e-mail may be subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is legally exempt from disclosure, the confidentiality of this e-mail and your reply cannot be guaranteed.
Dear Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust's handling of my FOI request 'Business case for separate memory service'.
The Trust has claimed that the exemption in s43 applies to my request.
However, the Trust has not provided details of how and why its disclosure has the potential to prejudice someone’s commercial interests.
Further, the ICO guidance requires the Trust to decide the likelihood of prejudice arising on the facts of each case and the Trust has not stated in its response its assessment of the likelihood.
Finally, the Trust has not indicated that it has considered the Public Interest Test which it is required to do in this case.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/b...
Yours faithfully,
Peter C. Bell
Good morning Peter,
Thank you for your email.
I can confirm that your request has been received and this will now progress to internal review.
Once this review has concluded, I will provide you with the findings of this review.
Thank you,
FOI Department
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Trust Headquarters, St George’s, Long Leys Road, Lincoln, LN1 1FS
CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Therefore if the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this E-Mail is strictly prohibited. Any views or opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust unless otherwise explicitly stated. The information contained in this e-mail may be subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is legally exempt from disclosure, the confidentiality of this e-mail and your reply cannot be guaranteed.
Dear Peter,
Further to your request for an internal review into the Trusts original response, our conclusion of the review is as follows:
At the time of your original request, the Trust was in the final stages of procurement of the Memory Assessment services (MAS) referenced in your request. We can now confirm that these procurement proceedings have been completed, and the business case has now begun.
The sharing of the MAS business case could potentially impact on the quality-of-service delivery for our patients. The service development is an important element of the shaping of future dementia services. As a result, whilst service specification and operating procedures continue to be finalised it is not felt appropriate to share the business case for the service until potential refinements are confirmed and agreed between the Trust and the ICB.
As such, we are unable to provide any more information in these early stages of the business case.
Once this business case has been agreed with the ICB and the Trust, we will be able to provide this to you.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to request for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to: FOI Department, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Trust Headquarters, Long Leys Road, Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN1 1FS. If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Kind regards,
FOI Department
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Trust Headquarters, St George’s, Long Leys Road, Lincoln, LN1 1FS
CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Therefore if the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this E-Mail is strictly prohibited. Any views or opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust unless otherwise explicitly stated. The information contained in this e-mail may be subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is legally exempt from disclosure, the confidentiality of this e-mail and your reply cannot be guaranteed.
Dear Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust,
You refused to disclose this information claiming section 43(2) applied.
On review, you appear to have dropped this objection, but now refuse to release the information because
"The sharing of the MAS business case could potentially impact on the quality-of-service delivery for our patients"
With respect, this is not a valid reason under 43(2) or indeed any other exemption under the Freedom of Information Act.
Could you please reconsider your decision. In the meantime I will contact the Information Commissioners Office and start the formal complaint procedure.
Yours faithfully,
Peter C. Bell
Peter C. Bell left an annotation ()
Have heard nothing further despite LPFT stating "Once this business case has been agreed with the ICB and the Trust, we will be able to provide this to you."
So have made formal complaint to the ICO
Peter C. Bell left an annotation ()
And have today heard from ICO that the Commissioner has decided that the exemption that the Trust tried to apply [s43(2)] is not engaged and has ordered the Trust to disclose the information requested within 30 days
Peter C. Bell left an annotation ()
ICO has decided that the exemption does not apply and has ordered the Trust to release the document requested
Decision notice can be found here:
https://tvcs.co.uk/public/ICO/ICOdecisio...
Dear Mr Bell
Following the recent decision by the Information Commissioner, please find attached the Trust’s Business Case for the Memory Assessment Service, which has been redacted in instances where financial information has been included.
In terms of the current context, please note that the Memory Assessment Service business case was presented to the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (LICB) for consideration at the end of the 2023/24 financial year but was not approved for investment in 2024/25. The business case remains an option for investment by the LICB, however Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) understands that funding has not been agreed for 2025/26. The Trust will continue to work with the LICB to seek funding for the service in future years.
Kind regards
FOI Department
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Trust Headquarters, St George’s, Long Leys Road, Lincoln, LN1 1FS
CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Therefore if the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this E-Mail is strictly prohibited. Any views or opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust unless otherwise explicitly stated. The information contained in this e-mail may be subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is legally exempt from disclosure, the confidentiality of this e-mail and your reply cannot be guaranteed.
Peter C. Bell left an annotation ()
LPFT has now provided a copy of the business case but has made significant redactions. Will refer this document to the ICO to ask if the commissioner consider that LPFT has complied with their ruling to disclose the document requested.
Dear FOIREQUEST(LPT) (LINCOLNSHIRE PARTNERSHIP NHS FOUNDATION TRUST),
Thank you for this redacted copy of the document requested in April 2024.
I not sure whether the redactions that have been made were expected by the commissioner when they ordered that the exemption you quoted did not apply.
I will therefore refer this document to the ICO for their consideration as to whether the disclosure of this redacted version (the ICO having seen the unredacted copy) complies with their order for you to disclose the document to the public.
Yours sincerely,
Peter C. Bell
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Peter C. Bell left an annotation ()
ICO guidance on s43 can be found at
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi...
The Prejudice Test
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi...
And the Public Interest Test
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi...