Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

The contract between the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and CHDA Ltd requires a number of service requirements to be met.

Section 42 of HDAS - Schedule 2.2 (Performance Levels) it states:
“41. ASSESSMENT ASSURANCE
41.1. The Authority will separately contract for the provision of Assessment Assurance (AA) for assessment quality.”

RFI1: Please disclose the name of the AA provider and the contract documents (subject to usual redaction with the relevant statutory exemptions stated) for the AA role defined in section 41.1 above.

“42. EXCEPTION REPORTING
42.1. The Supplier must monitor its HCPs against a number of outcomes, such as the proportion of Claimants that are advised to be TI.

42.2. The Authority will provide the Supplier with a list of the outcomes that must be monitored.

42.3. The Supplier must cooperate with the Authority in implementing the reporting regime. If required the Supplier must cooperate with the Authority to set exception ranges and report exceptions that lie outside the agreed ranges. The Supplier must specify any necessary actions undertaken in relation to any HCP who falls outside the agreed range.

42.4. The Supplier must provide management information to the Authority in a monthly report on the above. An example of the content and format (without agreed ranges) of this report is included at Annex 5.”

RFI2: Please disclose the list outcomes that the Supplier must monitor its HCPs against (see 42.1 & 42.2).

RFI3: Please disclose the exception ranges, report exceptions and agreed ranges described in section 42.3.

In section 8.28 Schedule 4.1 supplier proposal it states:
“8.28. The Supplier’s clinical team will use clinical management information provided through LiMA and MSRS to monitor the results of the assessment outcomes produced by HCPs – and to check that they fall within mutually agreed “norms”.”

RFI4: What clinical management information is provided through LiMA and MSRS and used to monitor the results of assessments by HCPs? Given that LiMA and MSRS are

RFI5: Please disclose the mutually agreed norms that HCP assessments are assessed against.

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

Dear DWP Health Services Correspondence,

Thank you for your email of 20th July. My apologies for the confusion I should have stated "Section 42 of
HDAS - Schedule 2.1 (Service Requirements)". The relevant sections start on page 47 and end on page 48.

Other than this clarification my original RFI1, RFI2 and RFI3 remain unchanged.

As my reference to Section 8.28 Schedule 4.1 supplier proposal was correct, and therefore the clarification does not apply, I assume that the Department will be responding within the statutory 20 working day limit for RFI4 and RFI5? Should it fail to do so I will complain to the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

John Slater

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Contract with CHDA Ltd & Assessment Assurance Provider'.

The Department's requirement for clarification did not apply to RFI4 and RFI5 of my original request. Therefore, the 20 day clock was not reset for RFI4 and RFI5 and the Department should have provided its response by now.

The ICO guidance is clear that the Department should treat each part of multi-part requests individually,

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Contract with CHDA Ltd & Assessment Assurance Provider'.

Thank you for your response of 16 August 2017, ref: FOI 2559.

RFI2, RFI3 & RFI5
The Department’s response fails to provide virtually any of the information required to engage a prejudice based exemption such as S.43. It has also failed to state which specific subsections and paragraphs of S.43 it is engaging. I do not believe that the Department has come close to justifying engaging S.43 (whichever subsection it may be relying on).

RFI4 - What clinical management information is provided through LiMA and MSRS and used to monitor the results of assessments by HCPs?
Section 8.28 Schedule 4.1 supplier proposal states:
“8.28. The Supplier’s clinical team will use clinical management information provided through LiMA and MSRS to monitor the results of the assessment outcomes produced by HCPs – and to check that they fall within mutually agreed “norms”.”

Part H and Annex 1 referred to by the Department in its response makes no reference to Clinical Management Information (“CMI”), LiMA or MSRS. Having read through Part H and Annex 1 it is difficult to see anything that would normally be recognised as CMI. Furthermore CIM not mentioned in any parts of the published contract other than section 8.28 of Schedule 4.1 supplier proposal.

(a) Is the Department claiming that all the information listed in Part H and Annex 1 is regarded as the CMI requested?
(b) If it is not then in order to meet its requirements under the FOIA the Department must identify what specific information is the requested CMI.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

Yours faithfully,

John Slater