Care/Nursing Homes Safeguarding concerns, investigations and substantiated cases of abuse/neglect

The request was partially successful.

Dear Middlesbrough Council,

Please provide figures for the number of:

1) Safeguarding concerns received
2) Number of investigations conducted
3) Number of substantiated case of abuse/neglect

by your local authority in connection with or from individual care/nursing homes.

Please provide these figures in the following way:

1. Name and address of each home.
2. Name of owner (e.g. Four Seasons Health Care)
3. Breakdown of number of safeguarding concerns, investigations and substantiated cases of neglect/abuse in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and for 2016 between January and May.

Please provide these figures in an excel spreadsheet or word document table format.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Yours faithfully,

Sam Rahmani

foi, Middlesbrough Council

1 Attachment

                                                    

Dear Mr Rahmani

 

REF NO:  009790

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry, received on 28/06/2016, in relation to
Safeguarding concerns.  I can confirm that your enquiry is receiving
attention and a response will be provided within 20 working days following
receipt of your enquiry as allowed under the Freedom of Information Act
legislation.

 

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, I will
let you know the likely charges before proceeding.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me direct on (01642) 729696/729698 or
email [Middlesbrough Council request email] should you require any further advice or
assistance with this or any other matter.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Nathan Oxnard

 

Information Governance Assistant

Middlesbrough Council

Democratic Services

Organisation and Governance

PO Box 503

Town Hall

Middlesbrough

TS1 9FX (for directions please use TS1 2RT)

Telephone: (01642) 729812

 

show quoted sections

foi, Middlesbrough Council

 

 

Dear Mr Rahmani

 

REF NO: 009790

 

I am writing to confirm that Middlesbrough Council has now completed its
search for the information you requested on 28 June 2016.

 

In your request you asked for the following information:

 

Please provide figures for the number of:

 

1) Safeguarding concerns received

2) Number of investigations conducted

3) Number of substantiated case of abuse/neglect

 

by your local authority in connection with or from individual care/nursing
homes.

 

Please provide these figures in the following way:

 

1. Name and address of each home.

2. Name of owner (e.g. Four Seasons Health Care) 3. Breakdown of number of
safeguarding concerns, investigations and substantiated cases of
neglect/abuse in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and for 2016 between January and
May.

 

Please provide these figures in an excel spreadsheet or word document
table format.

 

Response: The information you requested is not held centrally or in the
format you requested. In order to provide the information requested, it
would require an extensive manual search through thousands of safeguarding
concerns for the period you have requested to locate, retrieve and compile
the requested information.

 

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act allows public authorities to
refuse to answer requests for information if the cost of complying would
exceed the "appropriate limit" prescribed in the Regulations. The
appropriate limit as set out in the Act is £450 (an hourly rate of £25 per
person per hour for a maximum of 18 hours in total).

  

To fully comply with your request we have determined that the appropriate
fees limit of £450 would be exceeded as per section 12 of the Freedom of
Information Act, and the Council is therefore exempted from providing the
information that you have requested.

 

Under Section 16 of the Freedom of information Act we do have a duty to
advise and assist. I can advise that even if you were to refine the
timescale of your request for the period 2015/16 it would require an
extensive manual search through 1186 safeguarding concern. We estimate it
would take 10-15 minutes to review each which would equate to
approximately 197 hours which exceeds the appropriate fees limit. The
Council feels that at this time we do not have the resources to take staff
away from their critical daily tasks (i.e. the protection of children) to
carry out the above search even for a fee and therefore we must refuse
your request.

 

If you have any queries about this response, please do not hesitate to
contact me direct on (01642) 729696/729698 or email
[Middlesbrough Council request email]   Please remember to quote the reference number
shown above in any future communications.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled you may ask
for an internal review within 40 days of receipt of the response. You
should write to:-

 

Sylvia Reynolds,

Information Governance Manager,

P.O. Box 503,
Ground Floor,
Town Hall,
Middlesbrough,
TS1 9FX

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for an
independent review.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: -

 

Information Commissioner’s Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Steph Robson

Freedom of Information Officer

 

Democratic Services
Organisation and Governance

Middlesbrough Council

PO Box 503

Town Hall

Middlesbrough
TS1 9FX

 

Tel: 01642 729696

 

E-mail: [1][Middlesbrough Council request email]

 

SAT NAV POST CODE TS1 2RT

 

 

 

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References

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Dear foi,

Please kindly provide

1) The total number of safeguarding investigations you have conducted in connection with individual adult elderly care homes (both council owned and private) during 2015 and 2016.

2) The Outcome. For example how many were substantiated, how many were partially substantiated. Please provide the figures as you are now by law required to record them.

3) Please provide them for each home individually.

Yours sincerely,

Sam Rahmani

foi, Middlesbrough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Rahmani

 

REF NO:  009829

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry, received on 07/07/2016, in relation to
safeguarding investigations.  I can confirm that your enquiry is receiving
attention and a response will be provided within 20 working days following
receipt of your enquiry as allowed under the Freedom of Information Act
legislation.

 

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, I will
let you know the likely charges before proceeding.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me direct on (01642) 729696/729698 or
email [Middlesbrough Council request email] should you require any further advice or
assistance with this or any other matter.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Nathan Oxnard

 

Information Governance Assistant

Middlesbrough Council

Democratic Services

Organisation and Governance

PO Box 503

Town Hall

Middlesbrough

TS1 9FX (for directions please use TS1 2RT)

Telephone: (01642) 729812

 

show quoted sections

foi, Middlesbrough Council

 

Dear Mr Rahmani

 

REF NO: 009829

 

I am writing to confirm that Middlesbrough Council has now completed its
search for the information you requested on 7 July 2016.

 

In your request you asked for the following information:

 

1) The  total number of safeguarding investigations you have conducted in
connection with individual adult elderly care homes (both council owned
and private) during 2015 and 2016.

 

2) The Outcome.  For example how many were substantiated, how many were
partially substantiated.  Please provide the figures as you are now by law
required to record them.

 

3) Please provide them for each home individually. 

 

Response: I can confirm that Middlesbrough Council holds the information
in the format you requested.  However, please be advised that some of the
information requested cannot be disclosed for the reasons provided in the
response below.

 

The information in the format you have requested i.e. the total number of
safeguarding investigations for each home individually is exempt under
Section 40(2) (personal data) of the Freedom of Information Act and is
therefore withheld, as the information constitutes third party data. We
feel it would not be fair to process information which could, could, due
to the very low numbers involved lead to individuals being identified,
lead to the identification of an individual, either from that information
alone or from that information and any other information that may be
available to any person.  The Council has to safeguard all personal data
and has a legal requirement under the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA”) to
process personal data fairly and lawfully. The Council considers that
releasing third party personal information would be unfair and as such a
disclosure that would breach Principle One of the DPA and it would be
unfair to that person and is confidential. The individuals concerned would
have a reasonable expectation that the information should be kept private
and would not be disclosed to the public under the Freedom of Information
Act i.e. to the world at large. Section 40 is an absolute exemption and
there is therefore no requirement to consider the public interest in
making a decision to withhold the information.

 

Under Section 16 of the Freedom of information Act we do have a duty to
advise and assist. In order to be as helpful as possible, we have provided
in the tables below a total number of safeguarding alerts for all care
homes without providing a breakdown of each home. Unfortunately, if we
were to provide this for each care home, it could identify the
individual(s).

 

2015-16
Partially Not
Alerts Investigations Substantiated Substantiated Substantiated Inconclusive
399 111 61 15 28 6

 

 

2016-17
Partially Not
Alerts Investigations Substantiated Substantiated Substantiated Inconclusive
86 15 12 0 0 *<5

 

 

*<5 -  the information is exempt under Section 40 (Personal Data) of the
Freedom of Information Act. We feel it would not be fair to process
information which could lead to the identification of an individual,
either from that information alone or from that information and any other
information that may be available to any person. To release the
information as requested, could, due to the very low numbers involved (
i.e. less than 5) lead to individuals being identified. Therefore the
first principle of the Data Protection Act would be breached. Section 40
is an absolute exemption and there is therefore no requirement to consider
the public interest in making a decision to withhold the information.

 

If you have any queries about this response, please do not hesitate to
contact me direct on (01642) 729696/729698 or email
[Middlesbrough Council request email]   Please remember to quote the reference number
shown above in any future communications.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled you may ask
for an internal review within 40 days of receipt of the response. You
should write to:-

 

Sylvia Reynolds,

Information Governance Manager,

P.O. Box 503,
Ground Floor,
Town Hall,
Middlesbrough,
TS1 9FX

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for an
independent review.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: -

 

Information Commissioner’s Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Steph Robson

Freedom of Information Officer

 

Democratic Services
Organisation and Governance

Middlesbrough Council

PO Box 503

Town Hall

Middlesbrough
TS1 9FX

 

Tel: 01642 729696

 

E-mail: [1][Middlesbrough Council request email]

 

SAT NAV POST CODE TS1 2RT

 

 

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Middlesbrough Council request email]