Data of how direct payments are being used by users

Dean made this Freedom of Information request to Leicestershire County Council Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was partially successful.

Dear Leicestershire County Council,

Could you provide any data you hold regarding what direct payments are specifically being used for by users? The more comprehensive and specific this list is, the better. For example, data showing DPs being used for a gym membership would be more useful and insightful than data showing DPs being used for "leisure activities" which would be too broad and nonspecific.

If you require dates to extract this data could you extract it from the last five financial years as follows:

• 2018-2019
• 2019-2020
• 2020-2021
• 2021-2022
• 2022-2023

I appreciate that this data might be quite vast. If this is the case then please prioritise all types of direct payments which are NOT used for personal assistants. This should adequately refine your search to a more manageable size. Does this make sense? Please get in touch if you require further clarification.

Yours faithfully,

Dean

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

Thank you for your information request. This is an automated response and
acknowledgement.

If you have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), your request
will be considered and you will receive our response within the statutory
timescale of 20 working days.

If we need to clarify anything or your query is regarding a different
matter one of our FOI team will be in contact within 5 working days.

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

Thank you for your information request. This is an automated response and
acknowledgement.

If you have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), your request
will be considered and you will receive our response within the statutory
timescale of 20 working days.

If we need to clarify anything or your query is regarding a different
matter one of our FOI team will be in contact within 5 working days.

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

Dear Dean,

Thank you for submitting a FOI request to Leicestershire County Council on
17/05/2023.

Unfortunately, we are unable to proceed without further clarification
about the question and information about the applicant. 

To enable us to continue processing your request, please answer the
following:

********************************************************************************************

1. In accordance with Section 8(1)b of FOI Act 2000, please supply your
full name. 

2. For your question on direct payments, are interested in payments within
the context of adult social care or child social care or both? 

********************************************************************************************

Please note that if we do not receive appropriate clarification within a
month from the date of this email, then we will consider your request
closed. 

Kind regards,

FOI Team
Leicestershire County Council

Dear [email address],

1. My name is Clayton Dean.

2. I am interested only on in adult social care.

Yours sincerely,

Dean

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

Thank you for providing clarification. 

We will now be able to consider your request and will aim to provide you
with a response within the statutory timescale of 20 working days, which
means the due date will be 15/06/2023

Kind regards,
FOI Team

Leicestershire County Council

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

1 Attachment

Dear Clayton Dean, 

Please find attached the response to your request. If you have any
difficulty in accessing the information, please contact us by replying to
this email.

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

If you are not happy with how we’ve dealt with your request, you can
complain and ask us to review our decision. If this is the case, please
contact [1][Leicestershire County Council request email], quoting the FOI Request Number. We will
usually only be able to consider complaints about requests if they are
submitted to us within two months (from the date of this email). 

Further information about your rights to information is available from the
Information Commissioner's Office at [2]www.ico.org.uk

Kind regards,

FOI Team
Leicestershire County Council

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Leicestershire County Council request email]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/

Dear [email address],

I have read your response and appreciate your concerns. As such, could you randomly select 50 care and support plans (preferably within the age parameters of 21 - 55) to ensure the cost is kept below the £450 threshold? For both convenience and further refinement I have included my request in full below.

☆For the attention of Adult Social Services☆

The term data in the heading refers to the actual activity/service/goods that a direct payment was/is used for and not the broader category that it falls within. Of course, the broader category can be included as well if you wish. Where direct payments are used for personal assistants (PA), these can be excluded from the dataset.

The primary purpose of this request is to receive a full breakdown of how individual users are spending their direct payments (aged 21-55). The amount of each payment would be very useful but not essential. The total direct payment amount each person receives is very important though and this can be displayed weekly or monthly or whichever is easiest for you.

So, as I have mentioned, please provide all data in relation to how direct payments are specifically being used by users aged 21-55 - all other ages can be excluded. The more comprehensive and detailed this list is, the more useful it will be for this FOI request. For example, data showing DPs being used for a gym membership (including how much it costs) would be far more valuable than data showing DPs being used for "leisure activities" which would be too broad; nonspecific and unhelpful.

If you require dates to extract this data could you extract it from the following financial years:

• 2018-2019
• 2022-2023

I appreciate that this data can be quite laborious at times, especially if extracting the data from a manual trawl of individual care and support plans. It may or may not be easier to consider past audits and current monitoring systems to extract the same data.

To compliment the core request, could you kindly send me your direct payments policy including your practice guidance for practitioners. Could you also send me your Care and Support Planning Policy along with your practice guidance for practitioners. Please send any other policies you feel are relevant or related to the policies and practice guidance documents requested above.

Yours sincerely,

Dean

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

Thank you for your information request. This is an automated response and
acknowledgement.

If you have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), your request
will be considered and you will receive our response within the statutory
timescale of 20 working days.

If we need to clarify anything or your query is regarding a different
matter one of our FOI team will be in contact within 5 working days.

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

Dear Clayton Dean, 

This message concerns your FOI request submitted on 02/06/2023. 

The Commissioning department within Adults and Communities has been
considering your refined request and has noted that it contains some
additional questions, not present in the original, concerning a financial
breakdown and policy guidance. As a result of this, they believe it could
exceed 18 hours of time again. 

Are you able to supply a template with categories shown of information
that is useful to you, so that we are sure that we are capturing the
required level of detail?  The Commissioning dept. believes this may help
them to answer the request within the 18 hours time limit or at least
provide an accurate guide to what can be supplied. 

Kind regards, FOI team

Leicestershire County Council. 

Dear [email address],

Please disregard my request for policies if necessary to stay within the 18 hour limit. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Dean

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

Hello Dean, 

We acknowledge receipt of your message, of 14/06, about disregarding the
policies questions to stay within 18 hours. 

Kind regards,
FOI Team

Leicestershire County Council

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

Dear Clayton Dean, 

In our previous message of 14/06, we asked if you could supply a template
showing the categories of information useful to you, so that we can be
sure we are capturing the required level of detail, but note you didn’t
supply one.  This will help us answer the request within the time limit of
18 hours, as we believe it may exceed 18 hours again. Are you able to
provide this template?

Kind regards, FOI team

Leicestershire County Council. 

Dear [email address],

I have read your response and considered your problems. Therefore, could you fulfill the following request instead:

~For the attention of adult social services~

Could you kindly provide ALL of your policies related to direct payments (particularly those which serve as practice guidance for practitioners).

Could you also provide your policies and practice guidance documents which govern how "Care and Support Plans" are to be developed.

With the above policies and documents in mind, please also provide any other policies or practice guidance documents you feel are pivotal and fundamental to the above.

Yours sincerely,

Dean

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

Dear Clayton Dean,

Thank you for your reply. We acknowledge receipt of your message of 21/06,
where 3 new questions regarding policy documents have been submitted,
replacing the original request.  

We will now be able to consider your request and will aim to provide you
with a response within the statutory timescale of 20 working days. 

Kind regards,
FOI Team

Leicestershire County Council

leicestershire@infreemation.co.uk,

2 Attachments

Dear Clayton Dean, 

Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding. 

Your request has now been considered and our response is attached. If you
have any difficulty in accessing the information, please contact us by
replying to this email.

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

If you are not happy with how we’ve dealt with your request, you can
complain and ask us to review our decision. If this is the case, please
contact [1][Leicestershire County Council request email], quoting the FOI Request Number. We will
usually only be able to consider complaints about requests if they are
submitted to us within two months (from the date of this email). 

Further information about your rights to information is available from the
Information Commissioner's Office at [2]www.ico.org.uk

Kind regards,

FOI Team
Leicestershire County Council

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Leicestershire County Council request email]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/