Dear Ms Bialek

Freedom of Information request: FOI-24203

Thank you for your request dated 02 February 2019

Your request will be answered by 04 March 2019

If you have any queries about this request, please contact me, quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

Jackie Jago
Head of Corporate Services
Corporate Services
Directorate of Central Services
Royal Borough of Greenwich

020 8921 5044
 Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW
www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

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Dear Ms Bialek

Freedom of Information request:  FOI-24203

Thank you for your request dated 02 February 2019

Our response is as follows:

All questions relate to SEND and the current re-commissioning period for
short breaks services that will commence from april 2019.

Were adult services given the option of commissioning for short break
services for SEND for the 18-25 age group alongside the childrens services
commissioning arrangements for 0-17?

·         Adult’s Services were advised by Children’s Services in June
2018 that they were changing the contracts for short breaks. Adult’s
Services commission services from a number of care providers. We are able
to commission bespoke services for individuals who would be affected by
these changes. There is an option for the service to be commissioned on a
spot purchase basis. Adult’s Services have a statutory responsibility and
would not allow any young person to go without a service to meet their
assessed needs.

Did adults services choose to independently commission away from such
arrangements?

·         Adult’s Services already have a range of service options to
offer, and have always purchased services differently from Children’s
Services.

What short break provision have adult services sought to commission for
the 18-25 age group with SEND  to commence in april?

·         The young people who access the short break services will be
able to select from a wide range of service provision available in the
adult offer. This may include the provision of personal budget that they
can use to purchase services where they choose.

What targeted and specialised short break provision have adult services
sought to commission for the 18-25 age group with SEND to commence in
april?

·         Adult services already have a pool of in-house provision and
regularly spot purchase services from a list of providers with a suite of
options for vulnerable adults.

When the current targeted and specialised short break services end in
april and those 18 and over are no longer eligible to attend the
commissioned Childrens short breaks SEND provision from april 2019  due to
age, what does adult services plan to do to bridge the gap?

·         We will provide services in line with the assessed care and
support needs.

How does adult services plan to address the soon to be un-met social needs
on the EHCP's of young people aged 18-25 with SEND ?

·         It is not anticipated that there will be any unmet needs.

How many carers assessments have been carried out for each of the past 3
years :

A.      For carers of children aged 17 and underB. For carers of young
people aged 18 and over

The Council will not comply with part (A. For carers of children aged 17
and under) of the request headed Commissioning of short break services
18-25 age group in accordance with section 12 of the Act which states:-

Section 1(1) does not oblige a local 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.

The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004 (“the Fees Regulations) sets the appropriate limit
at £450 for the public authority in question. Under these Regulations, a
public authority can charge a maximum of £25 per hour for work undertaken
to comply with a request. This equates to 18 hours work.

A public authority is only required to provide a reasonable estimate or
breakdown of costs and in putting together its estimate it can take the
following processes into consideration:-

(a)    Determining whether it holds the information

(b)   Locating the information, or a document which may contain the
information;

(c)    Retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the
information, and

(d)   Extracting the information from a document containing it.

We have estimated the length of time it will take to do the following
tasks in accordance with section 12.

Determining whether we hold the information and locating the information,
or a document which may contain the information. It will take one officer
approximately 5 minutes to request the paper files from our off-site
archive.  (Total 5 mins).

Retrieving and extracting the information.

To retrieve and extract the information one officer will have to read
through each case record, This would take approximately 11.5 minutes (1.5
minutes to locate file and 10 minutes to retrieve and extract the
information. 11.5 minutes x 9000 records /60 =  1725 hours .

Total hours to complete the request equates to 1725 hours 

1725 hours + 5 minutes

We estimate that it will take us in excess of 18 hours to determine the
appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract the information in
reference to your request. Therefore your request will not be processed
any further.

Under section 16 of the  Freedom of Information Act 2000the council is
obliged to provide the complainant with advice and assistance to help the
complainant refine the request to fall within the cost limit or explain
why this would not be possible.

We can provide you with advice and assistance if you narrow down the
request to within three months because we can’t say how many assessments
across all of children’s social care included a Carer’s assessment due to
the volume, we could identify how many assessments were completed by the
Disabled Children Social Work Team over that period of time. Assessments
completed by the Disabled Children Social Work Team would have been
offered a carer’s assessment.

B.            For carers of young people aged 18 and over

The number of carer’s assessments carried out for 18-25 year olds is shown
(per financial year) below:

2016-17 – 34 assessments

2017-18 – 21 assessments

2018-19 to date – 17 assessments

We routinely offer carers assessment to carers with young people over the
age of 18, however they are not always taken up by carers. Some
assessments are joint assessments, others are single.

If you have any queries about this correspondence, please contact me,
quoting the reference number above.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your request, you can ask
for an Internal Review.  Internal review requests should be submitted
within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original
request.  If you wish to do this, please contact us, setting out why you
are dissatisfied.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the Internal Review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. 
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
Internal Review procedure provided by the Council. You can contact the ICO
by emailing [1][email address], or by post at Customer Contact,
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely,

Jackie Jago

Head of Corporate Services

Corporate Services

Directorate of Central Services

Royal Borough of Greenwich

' 020 8921 5044

*   Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW

8 www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

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