Dear NHS South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group,

Please could you provide the following information for adults

1) The number of new “in-county” residential care Learning
Disability care placements you have fully or partly funded in 2013
2) The number of new “out of county” care Learning Disability care
placements you have fully or partly funded in 2013.
3) The average weekly fee for the new “in-county” placements at 1
above (please provide the range of fees (highest and lowest), and
the median and mean)
4) The average weekly fee for the new “ out of-county” placements
at 2 above (please provide range of fees (highest and lowest), and
the median and mean)
5) The number of new “in-county” supported living Learning
Disability care placements that cost over £1000 per week that you
have fully or partly funded in 2013.
6) The number of new “out of county” supported living Learning
Disability care placements that cost over £1000 per week you have
in 2013.
7) The average weekly fee for the new “in-county” placements at 5
above (please provide the range of fees (highest and lowest), and
the median and mean)
8) The average weekly fee for the new “ out of-county” placements
at 6 above (please provide range of fees (highest and lowest),and
the median and mean)
9) A list of care providers you have used for new placements for
learning disability residential care in 2013 and the number of
placements they have received in 2013
10) A list of care providers you have used for new placements for
learning disability supported living care in 2013 and the number of
placements they have received in 2013

Yours faithfully,

Victoria Martin

Dear Moss Amy (South West Commissioning Support),

I believe you are ill advised to take this stance and I request you to reconsider before I make a formal appeal to you and the ICO.

I have no interest in identifying patients and recommend that information is provided in a form so that patients are not identifiable. The request was structured in a way to ensure that patients could not be identified

You have not explained how it would be possible to identify patients based on my request, I suspect because you are not able to.

Most parts of the request (Eg which care providers) has absolutely no bearing to individual service user identification. Please provide this type of information straight away. The exemptions you have attempted to us are not absolute exemptions and you are required to apply the public interest test which you make no reference to.

All other bodies have understood this and released the information requested in its entirety even when there was a single patient.

Moreover I draw your attention to a statement made by Information Commissioner, Chris Graham:

"It should be absolutely routine that details of contracts, value of contracts, expenses, minutes of top-level meetings just should be up there on departmental websites."
I should not need to outline the well-established principle that it is in the public interest to publish information and not to withold it in its entirety like you have attempted. Numerous decisions by the Commissioner and the Tribunal which you will be aware of attest to that.

The Information Commissioner has confirmed that the disclosure of such information may encourage open competition and ensure value for money. Interested third parties will be aware of the intended terms and have a better understanding as to whether they are able to offer more competitive terms to the parties. This would benefit the Council if they are able to obtain a better price, or better terms, for in the future.
As such disclosure would clearly be in the public interest.
There is a strong public interest in open and accountable local government. It is in the public interest for authorities to be open and transparent as possible when carrying out their functions in
order that the public may scrutinise the actions and decisions being taken by an authority. Disclosure enhances the public’s ability to scrutinise the actions of the authority, and provide a clear understanding of the nature of the agreements that tax payers
pay for.

Yours sincerely,

Victoria Martin

Dear NHS South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of NHS South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group's handling of my FOI request 'Learning Disability - Statistics'.

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

Yours faithfully,

Victoria Martin

Dear NHS South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of NHS South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group's handling of my FOI request 'Learning Disability - Statistics'.

You have failed to carry out the internal review requested

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

Yours faithfully,

Victoria Martin