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Payments for Psychologists used in care proceedings in Brighton & Hove

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Kristina Johnson

Dear Brighton and Hove City Council,

Under the freedom of information act, please supply me with a copy of a list of the number of times, Brighton and Hove City Council has used the psychologist Dr Emma Hunnisett in care proceedings, and the amount she was paid.

Please supply the details from 2011 to current date.

Please also list other psychologists used in care proceedings, the number of times used and the amounts they were paid, by year, from 2011-2017.

Lists also to include place of employment, ie, the clinic.

Yours faithfully,

Kristina Johnson

Freedom Of Information, Brighton and Hove City Council

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Council has a legal obligation to respond no later than 20 working days
following the date of receipt.

 

You can find more information about the FOI process on the Council’s
website through this link;

 

[1]Freedom of Information – Brighton & Hove City Council  

 

Regards,

 

Information Governance Team | 01273 295959 | [2]Brighton & Hove City
Council

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Kristina Johnson

Dear Freedom Of Information,
I have not received an answer to my request. By law, the authority should normally have responded promptly and the waiting time for your response has now exceeded 20 days.

Yours sincerely,

K Johnson

Freedom Of Information, Brighton and Hove City Council

Thank you for your email. This mailbox is managed during the working hours
of 8:00am to 4:00pm on Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays). Emails
received outside of these hours will usually be processed during the next
available working day.

 

If you are submitting a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) then the
Council has a legal obligation to respond no later than 20 working days
following the date of receipt.

 

You can find more information about the FOI process on the Council’s
website through this link;

 

[1]Freedom of Information – Brighton & Hove City Council  

 

Regards,

 

Information Governance Team | 01273 295959 | [2]Brighton & Hove City
Council

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Freedom Of Information, Brighton and Hove City Council

Dear Ms Johnson,

We have checked our records and unfortunately it appears that your Freedom of Information request was not logged at the time of receipt. Please accept our sincere apologies for this oversight.

We confirm that your Freedom of Information request has now been logged under reference FOI 8298 and allocated to the appropriate Council team to provide a response. We have advised the team regarding timescales and requested that they respond as a matter of urgency.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance Team I IT & Digital

01273 295959 I Monday-Friday 8am-4pm
[Brighton and Hove City Council request email]

show quoted sections

Freedom Of Information, Brighton and Hove City Council

1 Attachment

 

Please find set out below the information in response to the above request
FOI 8298:

 

Under the freedom of information act, please supply me with a copy of a
list of the number of times, Brighton and Hove City Council has used the
psychologist Dr Emma Hunnisett in care proceedings, and the amount she was
paid.

 

Please supply the details from 2011 to current date.

 

 

Our records indicate one payment to Dr Emma Hunnisett of £1,320.72
including VAT.

 

 

Please also list other psychologists used in care proceedings, the number
of times used and the amounts they were paid, by year, from 2011-2017.

 

Lists also to include place of employment, i.e., the clinic.

           

The information attached covers invoices dated 1^st January 2011 to date.
Please note that we cannot identify precisely which represent psychology
services so we have included payments to all organisations that have been
coded to ‘Independent Assessments’ within our financial system. The total
of these amounts cannot therefore be quoted as the total amount paid for
psychology services by Brighton & Hove City Council. However, in the 
interests of being transparent, we have supplied this list of payments
which is also available on our web site.

 

Should you have any further queries about this request, please contact us
via email to [1][Brighton and Hove City Council request email] quoting the
reference number given above.

 

If you are not satisfied with the handling of your request, you can appeal
(Internal Review) within 2 months of the completed FOI. Write to:

 

Freedom of Information Appeals

Brighton & Hove City Council

ICT 4th Floor

Bartholomew House

Bartholomew Square

Hove BN1 1JE

[2][Brighton and Hove City Council request email]

 

If you are still not satisfied after your Internal Review has been
investigated, you can escalate your complaint to the Information
Commissioners Office. The contact details are:

 

The Information Commissioners Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Helpline: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate)

e-mail: [3][email address]

Website: [4]www.ico.org.uk

 

 

Re-use of Public Sector Information and Copyright Statement

Where information has been supplied, you are advised that the copyright in
that material is owned by Brighton & Hove City Council and/or its
contractor(s) unless otherwise stated. The supply of documents under the
Freedom of Information Act does not give the recipient an automatic right
to re-use those documents in a way that would infringe copyright, for
example, by making multiple copies, publishing and issuing copies to the
public. Brief extracts of the material can be reproduced under the “fair
dealing” provisions of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1998 (S.29 and
S.30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private
study, criticism, review and news reporting. Authorisation to re-use
copyright material not owned by Brighton & Hove City Council and/or its
contractor(s) should be sought from the copyright holders concerned. If
you are considering re-using the information disclosed to you through this
request, for any purpose outside of what could be considered for personal
use, then you are required under the Public Sector Re-use of Information
Regulations 2005 to make an Application for Re-use to the organisation
from which you have requested the information. Applications for Re-use
should be directed to the Data Protection Manager at the address above.

 

Notice to recipient:
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that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
communication in error please notify the sender immediately.
Thank you in anticipation of your co-operation.

You can visit our website at [5]http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk

Please consider the environment, only print out this email if absolutely
necessary.

Please Note:  Both incoming and outgoing Emails may be monitored and/or
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References

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4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
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Dear Brighton and Hove City Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Brighton and Hove City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Payments for Psychologists used in care proceedings in Brighton & Hove'.

I had asked for the number of times that Dr Emma Hunnisett was used, yet the answer was that only one payment was issued to her since 2011. Please note that payments for her being used can be issued in various forms that would not identify the number of times she was used.

However, your answer was somewhat helpful in raising an additional issue. Upon looking through the spreadsheet you supplied, Brighton and Hove City Council appears to be allocating paid expenses to future general ledger years. Can you please state which accounting principles are being applied in order to do this? For example, the one payment to Dr Hunnisett that you mention relates to the entry where the invoice was from January 2017 but has been allocated to the general ledger for 2018. There are numerous entries on this spreadsheet like this, and one that was paid in 2015 has been allocated to the general ledger for 2018.

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

Yours faithfully,

Kristina Johnson

Freedom Of Information, Brighton and Hove City Council

Thank you for your email. This is an automated email receipt
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& Hove City Council.

 

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working day.

 

If you are submitting a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) we will log
your request and allocate it to the appropriate Council team(s)/area(s) to
collate the information you have requested. Once we have received the
information, we will respond to you directly.

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the Council has a legal
obligation to respond to your request no later than 20 working days
following the date of receipt.

 

You can find more information about the FOI process on the Council website
through the following link;

 

[1]Freedom of Information – Brighton & Hove City Council  

 

 

Regards,

 

Information Governance Team | 01273 295959 | [2]Brighton & Hove City
Council

Notice to recipient:
The information contained in this electronic mail message is intended only
for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed
and may contain information which is privileged and confidential, the
disclosure of which is prohibited by law.
If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please note
that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
communication in error please notify the sender immediately.
Thank you in anticipation of your co-operation.

You can visit our website at [3]http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk

Please consider the environment, only print out this email if absolutely
necessary.

Please Note:  Both incoming and outgoing Emails may be monitored and/or
recorded in line with current legislation

 

References

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2. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/
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Freedom Of Information, Brighton and Hove City Council

Please find set out below the information in response to the above
request:

 

 

Upon looking through the spreadsheet you supplied, Brighton and Hove City
Council appears to be allocating paid expenses to future general ledger
years.  Can you please state which accounting principles are being applied
in order to do this?  For example, the one payment to Dr Hunnisett that
you mention relates to the entry where the invoice was from January 2017
but has been allocated to the general ledger for 2018.  There are numerous
entries on this spreadsheet like this, and one that was paid in 2015 has
been allocated to the general ledger for 2018.

 

The council is always looking to be more efficient and operates a process
of automatically accruing for the vast majority of low value transactions
and many larger transactions. However, this requires an electronic
Purchase Order to be raised for the system to accurately apply this
principle. In the case of the type of payments highlighted below, i.e. ad
hoc payments to individuals, there can be occasions where the service has
failed to raise a purchase order in advance of payment and the accrual is
missed. However, in the context of the £millions of pounds of accruals
made each year this is not material to the accounts and is accepted
practice by the auditors. The council checks all large accruals and all
major income and expenditure areas manually but checking all low value
transactions would clearly be prohibitively expensive relative to the
minimal effect the additional accuracy would have on the financial
statements.

 

 

Should you have any further queries about this request, please contact us
via email to [1][Brighton and Hove City Council request email] quoting the
reference number given above.

 

If you are not satisfied with the handling of your request, you can appeal
(Internal Review) within 2 months of the completed FOI. Write to:

 

Freedom of Information Appeals

Brighton & Hove City Council

ICT 4th Floor

Bartholomew House

Bartholomew Square

Hove BN1 1JE

[2][Brighton and Hove City Council request email]

 

If you are still not satisfied after your Internal Review has been
investigated, you can escalate your complaint to the Information
Commissioners Office. The contact details are:

 

The Information Commissioners Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Helpline: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate)

e-mail: [3][email address]

Website: [4]www.ico.org.uk

 

 

Re-use of Public Sector Information and Copyright Statement

Where information has been supplied, you are advised that the copyright in
that material is owned by Brighton & Hove City Council and/or its
contractor(s) unless otherwise stated. The supply of documents under the
Freedom of Information Act does not give the recipient an automatic right
to re-use those documents in a way that would infringe copyright, for
example, by making multiple copies, publishing and issuing copies to the
public. Brief extracts of the material can be reproduced under the “fair
dealing” provisions of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1998 (S.29 and
S.30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private
study, criticism, review and news reporting. Authorisation to re-use
copyright material not owned by Brighton & Hove City Council and/or its
contractor(s) should be sought from the copyright holders concerned. If
you are considering re-using the information disclosed to you through this
request, for any purpose outside of what could be considered for personal
use, then you are required under the Public Sector Re-use of Information
Regulations 2005 to make an Application for Re-use to the organisation
from which you have requested the information. Applications for Re-use
should be directed to the Data Protection Manager at the address above.

 

Notice to recipient:
The information contained in this electronic mail message is intended only
for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed
and may contain information which is privileged and confidential, the
disclosure of which is prohibited by law.
If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please note
that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
communication in error please notify the sender immediately.
Thank you in anticipation of your co-operation.

You can visit our website at [5]http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk

Please consider the environment, only print out this email if absolutely
necessary.

Please Note:  Both incoming and outgoing Emails may be monitored and/or
recorded in line with current legislation

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Brighton and Hove City Council request email]
2. mailto:[Brighton and Hove City Council request email]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
5. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/

Dear Freedom Of Information,

Thank you for looking into this matter further. However, there are a few issues with your reply.

When you are referring to accruals, this is a way of accounting for the benefits of an expense being in one accounting period, but expecting the bill to come in later, therefore an accrual is to account for future invoices.

When you refer to a purchase order, again, this is to account for invoices that you know will be coming in later. Usually, the person invoicing you needs to quote the purchase order number on their invoice in order to get payment released. So again, your explanation relates to accounting for known invoices coming in at a later date.

I understand that invoices can arrive without a purchase order having been raised ahead of time, and this is due to human error. This is the only conclusion for the items on the spreadsheet, as all of those transactions would have been known ahead of time and usually by authorisation of a Court with the costs disbursed across numerous parties prior to the service being received, as per the original question posed in this chain.

Your point about immateriality is fair, but when you are attributing these accounting mistakes to being system-generated, then this does mean that it should be investigated by your auditors in order to decide if this practice has produced material issues within your stated expenses per financial year across the cost centres used by Children's Services for ad-hoc services. By doing this, you will be able to identify which person is errant in their authorisation of this practice.

However, no part of your explanation actually answers my question. The question is why a PAID expense is allocated to a future general ledger, especially up to 3 years later. This is not answered by accruals, purchase orders or automated systems. Can you please carry out an internal review and explain?

Yours sincerely,

K Johnson

Freedom Of Information, Brighton and Hove City Council

Thank you for your email. This is an automated email receipt
acknowledgement and reply from the Information Governance Team at Brighton
& Hove City Council.

 

This mailbox is monitored during the working hours of 8:00am to 4:00pm on
Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays). Emails received outside of
these working hours will usually be processed during the next available
working day.

 

If you are submitting a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) we will log
your request and allocate it to the appropriate Council team(s)/area(s) to
collate the information you have requested. Once we have received the
information, we will respond to you directly.

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the Council has a legal
obligation to respond to your request no later than 20 working days
following the date of receipt.

 

You can find more information about the FOI process on the Council website
through the following link;

 

[1]Freedom of Information – Brighton & Hove City Council  

 

 

Regards,

 

Information Governance Team | 01273 295959 | [2]Brighton & Hove City
Council

Notice to recipient:
The information contained in this electronic mail message is intended only
for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed
and may contain information which is privileged and confidential, the
disclosure of which is prohibited by law.
If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please note
that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
communication in error please notify the sender immediately.
Thank you in anticipation of your co-operation.

You can visit our website at [3]http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk

Please consider the environment, only print out this email if absolutely
necessary.

Please Note:  Both incoming and outgoing Emails may be monitored and/or
recorded in line with current legislation

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/...
2. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/
3. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/

Freedom Of Information, Brighton and Hove City Council

Please find set out below the information in response to the above
request:

 

 

“Thank you for looking into this matter further.  However, there are a few
issues with your reply.

 

When you are referring to accruals, this is a way of accounting for the
benefits of an expense being in one accounting period, but expecting the
bill to come in later, therefore an accrual is to account for future
invoices.

 

When you refer to a purchase order, again, this is to account for invoices
that you know will be coming in later.  Usually, the person invoicing you
needs to quote the purchase order number on their invoice in order to get
payment released.  So again, your explanation relates to accounting for
known invoices coming in at a later date.

 

I understand that invoices can arrive without a purchase order having been
raised ahead of time, and this is due to human error.  This is the only
conclusion for the items on the spreadsheet, as all of those transactions
would have been known ahead of time and usually by authorisation of a
Court with the costs disbursed across numerous parties prior to the
service being received, as per the original question posed in this chain.

 

Your point about immateriality is fair, but when you are attributing these
accounting mistakes to being system-generated, then this does mean that it
should be investigated by your auditors in order to decide if this
practice has produced material issues within your stated expenses per
financial year across the cost centres used by Children's Services for
ad-hoc services.  By doing this, you will be able to identify which person
is errant in their authorisation of this practice.

 

However, no part of your explanation actually answers my question.  The
question is why a PAID expense is allocated to a future general ledger,
especially up to 3 years later.  This is not answered by accruals,
purchase orders or automated systems.  Can you please carry out an
internal review and explain?”

 

In response:

 

The narrative and date of, for example, the January 2017 invoice may
indicate that it was paid at that time but the reality is it was paid
after 31 March 2017 (on 20 April 2017 as indicated by the column ‘GL
Date’).  The service’s budget holder has seemingly held onto the invoice
which may be because they were querying the amount or the service
received, etc. Had a purchase order been raised, this would have been
correctly accrued back to the 2016/17 financial year.

 

The answer to your question is therefore that this expense was not paid in
2016/17. It was paid in 2017/18 and should have had a related accrual
entry.

 

All of the council’s system are regularly audited as part of the annual
closure of accounts process and to provide assurance to the external
auditor. This involves random testing and checks using statistically
robust methodologies. As mentioned in my earlier response, there are
occasions such as the one you’ve highlighted, where an accrual can be
missed but testing shows that this is relatively rare and neither
statistically significant nor of material significance to the accounts.

 

 

 

 

Should you have any further queries about this request, please contact us
via email to [1][Brighton and Hove City Council request email] quoting the
reference number given above.

 

If you are not satisfied with the handling of your request, you can appeal
(Internal Review) within 2 months of the completed FOI. Write to:

 

Freedom of Information Appeals

Brighton & Hove City Council

ICT 4th Floor

Bartholomew House

Bartholomew Square

Hove BN1 1JE

[2][Brighton and Hove City Council request email]

 

If you are still not satisfied after your Internal Review has been
investigated, you can escalate your complaint to the Information
Commissioners Office. The contact details are:

 

The Information Commissioners Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Helpline: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate)

e-mail: [3][email address]

Website: [4]www.ico.org.uk

 

 

Re-use of Public Sector Information and Copyright Statement

Where information has been supplied, you are advised that the copyright in
that material is owned by Brighton & Hove City Council and/or its
contractor(s) unless otherwise stated. The supply of documents under the
Freedom of Information Act does not give the recipient an automatic right
to re-use those documents in a way that would infringe copyright, for
example, by making multiple copies, publishing and issuing copies to the
public. Brief extracts of the material can be reproduced under the “fair
dealing” provisions of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1998 (S.29 and
S.30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private
study, criticism, review and news reporting. Authorisation to re-use
copyright material not owned by Brighton & Hove City Council and/or its
contractor(s) should be sought from the copyright holders concerned. If
you are considering re-using the information disclosed to you through this
request, for any purpose outside of what could be considered for personal
use, then you are required under the Public Sector Re-use of Information
Regulations 2005 to make an Application for Re-use to the organisation
from which you have requested the information. Applications for Re-use
should be directed to the Data Protection Manager at the address above.

 

 

Notice to recipient:
The information contained in this electronic mail message is intended only
for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed
and may contain information which is privileged and confidential, the
disclosure of which is prohibited by law.
If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please note
that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
communication in error please notify the sender immediately.
Thank you in anticipation of your co-operation.

You can visit our website at [5]http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk

Please consider the environment, only print out this email if absolutely
necessary.

Please Note:  Both incoming and outgoing Emails may be monitored and/or
recorded in line with current legislation

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Brighton and Hove City Council request email]
2. mailto:[Brighton and Hove City Council request email]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
5. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Kristina Johnson please sign in and let everyone know.