Extra Care Schemes operated by Housing and Care 21.

The request was partially successful.

Dear Care Quality Commission,

In a Freedom of Information request made to you previously, I asked for details of problems encountered with the provider Housing and Care 21. You advised that you are required to inspect the extra care schemes they operate and stated that there are 68 of these registered with you.

Please list the names and addresses of the 68 schemes which the Care Quality Commission has within its jurisdiction. Is it possible to supply details of how many "information of concern" enquiries, whistleblowing enquiries, safeguarding alerts and other "concerns" have been recorded for each of these schemes in the period since 1 January 2012?

This refers to your previous response:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/4...

Yours faithfully,

John Golding

Information Access, Care Quality Commission

Dear Mr Golding

We acknowledge receipt of your correspondence dated 29 July 2018, in which
you made a request for information.

Your request is as follows:

“I asked for details of problems encountered with the provider Housing and
Care 21. You advised that you are required to inspect the extra care
schemes they operate and stated that there are 68 of these registered with
you.

Please list the names and addresses of the 68 schemes which the Care
Quality Commission has within its jurisdiction. Is it possible to supply
details of how many "information of concern" enquiries, whistleblowing
enquiries, safeguarding alerts and other "concerns" have been recorded for
each of these schemes in the period since 1 January 2012?”

CQC will consider your request in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

CQC will respond as soon as possible, but in any event, within 20 working
days following date of receipt of your correspondence as required by FOIA.

You can therefore expect a response no later than the close of business on
24 August 2018. We will write to you if we are unable to meet this
deadline.

The information you have requested may be subject to an exemption from the
right to know. Should this occur, we will explain the reasons why when we
respond.

Regards

On behalf of:

Information Access Team

Governance & Legal Services

Customer & Corporate Services Directorate

Care Quality Commission

Citygate

Gallowgate

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 4PA

 

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and
adult social care services in England. [1]www.cqc.org.uk. For general
enquiries, call the National Customer Service Centre (NCSC) on 03000
616161 or email [2][email address]

Personal data is processed in accordance with the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) and relevant data protection law. Information on the
processing of personal data by CQC can be found at
[3]www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-policies/privacy-statement

Statutory requests for information made under access to information
legislation such as the Data Protection Act 2018, GDPR and the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 should be sent to: [4][CQC request email]

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential to the
intended recipient. They may not be disclosed to or used by or copied in
any way by anyone other than the intended recipient. If this email is
received in error, please notify us immediately by clicking "Reply" and
delete the email. Please note that neither the Care Quality Commission nor
the sender accepts any responsibility for viruses and it is your
responsibility to scan or otherwise check this email and any attachments.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of the
Care Quality Commission. Information on how the Care Quality Commission
processes personal data is available here
http://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-polic...

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

References

Visible links
1. http://www.cqc.org.uk/
2. mailto:[email%20address]
3. http://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-polic...
4. mailto:[cqc%20request%20email]

Information Access, Care Quality Commission

1 Attachment

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Dear Mr Golding

Our Ref: CQC IAT 1819 0304

I write in response to your correspondence of 30 July 2018 in which you
asked:

“I asked for details of problems encountered with the provider Housing and
Care 21. You advised that you are required to inspect the extra care
schemes they operate and stated that there are 68 of these registered with
you.

Please list the names and addresses of the 68 schemes which the Care
Quality Commission has within its jurisdiction. Is it possible to supply
details of how many "information of concern" enquiries, whistleblowing
enquiries, safeguarding alerts and other "concerns" have been recorded for
each of these schemes in the period since 1 January 2012?”

The Information Access team has now coordinated a response to your
request.

CQC has considered your request in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Our main obligation under the legislation is to confirm whether we do or
do not hold the requested information.

In accordance with section 1(1) of FOIA we are able to confirm that CQC
does hold recorded information in relation to this matter.

Housing & Care 21

Housing & Care 21 is a provider within the Adult Social Care directorate
registered with CQC to provide the regulated activities of accommodation
for persons who require nursing or personal care; and personal care.

There are currently 71 active locations registered with CQC. Each location
is listed on our website which you can access at:

[1]www.cqc.org.uk/provider/1-102643148

This provides the names and addresses of the locations currently active
and registered with CQC. You can also view any archived services that were
previously provided by Housing & Care 21 but are no longer active.

We have also attached a spreadsheet with the requested information. The
first tab contains details of the names and addresses of currently active
locations registered with CQC.

The second tab “Tab 2 – Complaints” contains the number of “information of
concern” enquiries by location.

“Tab 3 – Whistleblowing” contains details of whistleblowing enquiries by
location. Please note that numbers of 5 enquiries and lower have been
redacted. This information is exempt under sections 44, 40 and 31 of FOIA.
Please see the “exemptions on disclosure” section below for more
information.

The fourth tab, “Tab 4 – Safeguarding” contains details of safeguarding
records, both alerts and concerns.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

The purpose of FOIA is to ensure transparency and accountability in the
public sector. It seeks to achieve this by providing anyone, anywhere in
the world, with the right to access recorded information held by, or on
behalf of, a public authority.

The main principle behind FOIA is that people have a right to know about
the activities of public authorities, unless there is a good reason for
them not to.

FOIA also recognises that there may be valid reasons for withholding
information by setting out a number of exemptions from the right to know,
some of which are subject to a public interest test.

Exemptions exist to protect information that should not be disclosed into
the public domain, for example because disclosing the information would be
harmful to another person or it would be against the public interest.

A public authority must not disclose information in breach of any other
law.

When a public authority, such as CQC, refuses to provide information, it
must, in accordance with section 17 of FOIA, issue a refusal notice
explaining why it is unable to provide the information.

Exemptions on disclosure

Section 44 – Prohibitions on disclosure

Personal information relating to and identifying individual people within
the recorded information has been obtained by CQC in confidence in our
role as the regulatory body. Information relating to whistleblowers that
we hold is information that has been obtained in confidence.

Where personal information has been obtained or received by CQC, in
circumstances requiring confidentiality, disclosure may be a criminal
offence under section 76 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Section 76 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 states:

"Disclosure of confidential personal information

(1)This section applies to information which—

(a)has been obtained by the Commission on terms or in circumstances
requiring it to be held in confidence, and

(b)relates to and identifies an individual.

(2)A person is guilty of an offence if the person knowingly or recklessly
discloses information to which this section applies during the lifetime of
the individual.

(3)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—

(a)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12
months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both;

(b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
two years, or to a fine, or to both."

Disclosure is only permitted within the scope of "Defences" provided by
section 77 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

No defence is applicable in this case therefore we consider that
disclosure of confidential personal information within the documentation
would be an offence.

We therefore consider section 44(1)(a) of FOIA to be engaged.

Section 44(1)(a) states:

"Prohibitions on disclosure.

(1)Information is exempt information if its disclosure (otherwise than
under this Act) by the public authority holding it—

(a)is prohibited by or under any enactment,"

Section 44 is an absolute exemption which means that if information is
covered by any of the subsections in section 44 then it is exempt from
disclosure under FOIA. No public interest test is required for this
exemption.

Section 40 – Personal information

We also consider the exemption from the right to know provided at section
40(2) of FOIA to be engaged.

Individuals, who can be identified in the recorded information about
whistleblowing, would have a reasonable expectation that a public
authority, such as CQC, would not release information into the public
domain under FOIA, which in turn could identify them.

The Data Protection Act regulates the use of "personal data" and the
processing of that data. There are six Data Protection principles which
are listed within article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation.

We believe that releasing the information could allow for identification
and therefore potentially be a breach of principles a, b and f.

This exemption applies in any case where disclosure of the requested
information into the public domain would be a breach of any of the
principles. In particular, the first principle requires that disclosure of
the information must be fair and lawful.

The purpose of the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 is to protect
people’s private information and to ensure that it is handled properly.

CQC considers that it would be a breach of the principles of the Data
Protection Act and GDPR to disclose the withheld information because in
the interests of fairness the individual(s) in question would not expect
us to share their personal data with the wider public under FOIA.

In addition, the disclosure would not be lawful by virtue of section 76 of
the Health and Social Care Act, which has been explained above.

No public interest test is required for this exemption.

Section 31 – Law enforcement

We are concerned that providing information that has been shared by
individuals, such as members of the public, those using care services and
whistleblowers, may discourage the same and other individuals from
providing information to CQC in the future, because they may perceive that
information that they have provided in confidence to CQC has subsequently
been disclosed into the public domain under FOIA.

When we receive information from members of the public we advise them that
we will always make every effort to avoid disclosing their identity.
However, in some circumstances, we may have to disclose information that
could identify an individual.

For example, we may have to make a disclosure in order to protect people
from harm, to ensure that standards of care are met, or if we suspect that
a serious criminal offence may have been committed.

We may also have to make a disclosure if required to do so by a court.

In this scenario we would let the individual know if we were making a
disclosure that would identify them to another body.

Although we may potentially identify the individual to another public
body, the individual would have a reasonable expectation that CQC would
not disclose information that could identify them into the public domain
under FOIA.

If individuals are discouraged from sharing information and concerns with
CQC, this may impact upon our role as the regulatory body of health and
adult social care services.

We use information of this nature to assist in our role of ensuring the
quality and safety of care services.

It may also lead to certain events going undetected, with a resultant
decline in the standards of care provided at care services to members of
the public.

We therefore consider that release of this information could potentially
prejudice our regulatory function and, as such, the information to be
subject to the exemption from the right to know provided at section
31(1)(g) of FOIA as it relates to 31(2)(c) of FOIA.

Section 31 states:

“(1)Information which is not exempt information by virtue of section 30 is
exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be
likely to, prejudice—

(g)the exercise by any public authority of its functions for any of the
purposes specified in subsection (2)

(2)The purposes referred to in subsection (1)(g) to (i) are—

(c)the purpose of ascertaining whether circumstances which would justify
regulatory action in pursuance of any enactment exist or may arise,”

Under this exemption, CQC can withhold any disclosure which would
prejudice the exercise by any public authority of its functions relating
to protecting the public from misconduct, incompetence, dishonesty or
malpractice.

“Prejudice” may be the obstruction of our regulatory function in
determining whether a provider is compliant with regulations and
standards.

Section 31 is a qualified exemption which means that CQC is required to
take into account the public interest in reaching a decision on
disclosure. The public interest test requires us to consider whether the
public interest in favour of disclosing the information outweighs the
public interest in withholding the information.

Having considered the public interest test, we consider there is a strong
assumption that the public interest favours withholding this information
as there is genuine danger of prejudice.

However we do recognise that this should not be adopted as a default
position and that the public interest must be considered on an individual
case by case basis.

This exemption is intended to safeguard the exercise of public functions
intended to protect the public from harm caused by wrongdoing,
incompetence or mismanagement.

In conducting this test, we have considered the following factors in
favour of disclosure:

• there is a general public interest that CQC are open and transparent
in the way we function
• the public interest that public authorities are accountable for their
actions
• the public interest that services registered to provide health and
adult social care are accountable for their actions

Against this, we have considered the following factors against disclosure
of the information:

• the strong public interest in avoiding likely prejudice to the
regulatory function of CQC
• disclosure of this information would potentially discourage
individuals from sharing information of concern with CQC in the future
• disclosure of this information may impact upon the privacy of the
individual(s) who shared information with CQC and be a breach of their
rights under GDPA and Data Protection Act
• disclosure of this information would bypass our systems of checks and
controls under the Health and Social Care Act 2008
• disclosure of this information could be a criminal offence under
section 76 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (without any defence
being applicable)
• disclosure of this information could obstruct our regulatory function
in determining whether registered care providers are compliant with
the relevant regulations and standards

Having considered the above factors, it is our view that the public
interest in withholding the information is greater than the public
interest that may be served by disclosure, therefore CQC will not provide
the requested information.

However, we consider that by confirming the requested information to a
certain level of detail, we are meeting the public interest for
transparency and openness whilst protecting the

Advice and assistance

Under section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (and in accordance
with the section 45 code of practice) we have a duty to provide you with
reasonable advice and assistance.

If you need any independent advice about individual’s rights under
information legislation you can contact the Information Commissioner’s
Office (ICO).

The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information
rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and
data privacy for individuals.

The contact details for the ICO are detailed below.

There is useful information on the ICO website explaining the rights of
individuals:

[2]www.ico.org.uk/your-data-matters

CQC Complaints and Internal Review procedure

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your request, then you may
request an internal review.

Please clearly indicate that you wish for a review to be conducted and
state the reason(s) for requesting the review.

Please be aware that the review process will focus upon our handling of
your request and whether CQC have complied with the requirements of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. The internal review process should not be
used to raise concerns about the provision of care or the internal
processes of other CQC functions.

If you are unhappy with other aspects of the CQC's actions, or of the
actions of registered providers, please see our website for information on
how to raise a concern or complaint:

[3]www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us

To request a review please contact:

Information Access

Care Quality Commission

Citygate

Gallowgate

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 4PA

E-mail: [4][CQC request email]

Further rights of appeal exist to the Information Commissioner’s Office
under section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 once the internal
appeals process has been exhausted.

The contact details are:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

SK9 5AF

Telephone Helpline: 01625 545 745

Website: [5]www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely

The Information Access team

Governance and Legal Services

Customer & Corporate Services Directorate

Care Quality Commission
Citygate

Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and
adult social care services in England. [6]www.cqc.org.uk. For general
enquiries, call the National Customer Service Centre (NCSC) on 03000
616161 or email [7][email address]

Personal data is processed in accordance with the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) and relevant data protection law. Information on the
processing of personal data by CQC can be found at
[8]www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-policies/privacy-statement

Statutory requests for information made under access to information
legislation such as the Data Protection Act 2018, GDPR and the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 should be sent to: [9][CQC request email]

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential to the
intended recipient. They may not be disclosed to or used by or copied in
any way by anyone other than the intended recipient. If this email is
received in error, please notify us immediately by clicking "Reply" and
delete the email. Please note that neither the Care Quality Commission nor
the sender accepts any responsibility for viruses and it is your
responsibility to scan or otherwise check this email and any attachments.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of the
Care Quality Commission

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

References

Visible links
1. http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/1-102643148
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/your-data-matters
3. http://www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us
4. mailto:[cqc%20request%20email]
5. http://www.ico.org.uk/
6. http://www.cqc.org.uk/
7. mailto:[email%20address]
8. http://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-polic...
9. mailto:[cqc%20request%20email]