Further query around pay (SWAH)
Dear Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland),
Thank you for recently supplying the information I requested when I asked how much in total was paid in the following months in SWAH ( Enniskillen) for use of care assistants from all care agencies used.
Oct-18 £96,073
Nov-18 £127,312
Dec-18 £ 84,209
Jan-19 £ 138,065
Feb-19 £ 128,178
Mar-19 £161,730
Apr-19 £ 168,476
I am slightly confused however. In previous FOI responses (20 February, 2020, to me from WHSCT) I have been told by WHSCT
"For the financial years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 (to date) MPA and First choice are
the two care agencies were the most used, overall, for
providing agency health care assistants, for shifts in the South West Acute Hospital,
Enniskillen. "
I obtained the totals paid to FIRST CHOICE for the months stated above (FOI sent to me by WHSCT on March 2nd) and they are much, much less than the overall payout to agencies as a whole.
I shall state the figures paid to First choice below- and the % of the overall paid to all agencies beside it.
(Oct ´18) £ 37,260 (38%)
(Nov ´18) £ 31,846 (25%)
(Dec ´18) £ 25,452 (30%)
(Jan ´19) £41,229 (29%)
(Feb ´19 ) £ 22,353 (17%)
(March ´19) £ 39,453 (24%)
(April ´19) £25,067 (14%)
For an agency which is top 2 provider in SWAH five of these figures are below 30% of the total paid out, one as low as 14% of the total paid in one month.
1) Can WHSCT explain the massive difference in the overall paid to all agencies, and the relatively small amount paid out to one of the " top two" used agencies in SWAH?
2) Please outline where the rest of the totals per month went to ie full breakdown, to which agencies, and how much, per month, Oct 2018 to April 2019.
Yours faithfully,
Joan Corrigan
Dear Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland),
Can you acknowledge and answer this request?
Yours faithfully,
Joan Corrigan
This e-mail is covered by the disclaimer found at the end of the message.
Dear Ms Corrigan
We acknowledge receipt of your email dated 22 June which you submitted to the Trust's Freedom of Information office.
We apologise for the delay in acknowledging your email. You will be aware of the significant pressures on our health and social care services during the first peak of the CoVid19 pandemic. The Trust is refocussing efforts to recover our corporate services; however this will take time due to a backlog of work (including FOI requests) and the gradual return of staff to their roles so we anticipate that there may still be some delays in responding to requests for information.
YOUR REQUEST
1) Can WHSCT explain the massive difference in the overall paid to all agencies, and the relatively small amount paid out to one of the "top two" used agencies in SWAH?
2) Please outline where the rest of the totals per month went to i.e. full breakdown, to which agencies, and how much, per month, Oct 2018 to April 2019.
TRUST ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Question 2 in your email appears to be a request for new information. You were previously provided with information on the amount paid to First Choice agency by the Trust for the months October 2018 and April 2019 for the use of care assistants in SWAH (Enniskillen). You now appear to be requesting the same information for the amount paid to other care agencies (by agency) for the use of care assistants in SWAH (Enniskillen) during these same months. This has been forwarded to the relevant service areas for a response.
Question 1 is seeking comment / explanation about information already supplied by the Trust. Under the FOI Act, the Trust is obliged to supply a copy of information it holds but is not required to create new information by way of providing comment or opinion or to reply to general questions. As this question is not a not a valid request for recorded information held by the Trust it falls outside the remit of the FOI Act; however this will also be passed to the service areas who provided the information previously for their consideration.
We will endeavour to provide a response as soon as possible during this difficult time.
We also note that you have now submitted a total of 8 separate FOI requests on this topic since October 2019. Although the Trust has already provided responses to most of these and continue to work on others, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 permits the Trust to aggregate these requests to determine whether the collective time it takes to locate, retrieve and review the information would be in excess of 18 hours. Where the excess time limit can be evidenced, the Trust may decide to refuse the request(s). We would advise that, at this time the Trust is considering this aspect of the legislation and will monitor further requests (including this current request) from you and will contact you when the fees limit is reached or exceeded. Further information on the fees limit is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office website.
Kind Regards
Freedom of Information Office
Western Health & Social Care Trust
Email: [Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) request email]
This e-mail is covered by the disclaimer found at the end of the message.
Dear Ms Corrigan
I refer to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request below which was received by the Western Health and Social Care Trust on 22nd June 2020. Please see attached a Trust response to your request.
Regards
Freedom of Information Office
Western Health & Social Care Trust
Email: [Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland) request email]
Dear FOI Request,
Thanks for your response , attached, dated July 2020, which I am revisiting.
I see it is a table of figures, and it is very scattered and disjointed in its layout, can you see that?
Could you try to outline the information in a way that is clearer and less scattered, please?
Thanks
Joan Corrigan
Dear Ms Corrigan
I refer to your email and request for a further copy of this FOI response (our ref.: FOI/20/202) in which you said the table including he figures was "very scattered and disjointed in its layout". I have inserted lines into the table and I hope this makes it clearer for you to read.
Regards
Freedom of Information Office
Western Health & Social Care Trust
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now