Private providers of residential care for CLA
Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,
Please provide a list/database of the names of all private providers of residential care for children looked after (CLA) that Wirral Council worked with between financial years 2019-20 and 2024-25.
Please also share the per-child cost breakdown for the proposed £2.4 million budget saving for several Wirral children in private residential care during 2025-26 -- including the names of the specific private residential care provider(s) used -- as mentioned in the policy and resources (P&R) committee meeting papers for 19 February 2025.
Yours faithfully,
Charlotte Robson
Information request
Our reference: 794013
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Dear Charlotte Robson
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Thank you for your request for information that was received on 21
February 2025.
We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 and we aim to send a response by 21 March 2025.
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Information Governance - Law & Corporate Services
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Information request
Our reference: 794013
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Dear Charlotte Robson
Thank you for your request for information received on 21 February 2025.
Please find attached our response to your request.
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Information Governance - Law & Corporate Services
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Dear Irene Okoro, Information Governance Team,
Reference: 794013
Council leader Cllr Paul Stuart appealed directly to both Wirral residents and press alike during last December's livestream of the final policy and resources committee meeting of 2024 with the following words: "I welcome the government’s position on the profiteering of care homes that is clearly going on and I hope that they move quickly to try to resolve that, because it is a massive, massive issue. I don’t think it’s an issue many residents get and I’m not expecting there to be hundreds of our residents watching, but I am aware that the press is here and for those who are watching this at home, an example is that a child in care can and has cost us up to £18,000 a week for a placement. These are the kind of costs that cannot be foreseen and have left us here in Wirral and right across the country need[ing] this exceptional financial support."
Cllr Stuart's public remarks clearly demonstrate that a precedent has already been set for the disclosure of this information by the Council’s own leadership.
Strikingly, according to Cllr Stuart, cited above, Wirral Council’s request for around £20 million in exceptional financial support from the national government (ie, public monies) before even being able to balance its 2024-25 budget was not unrelated to “profiteering” in recent years by private providers of residential care for CLA. One could therefore argue that Cllr Stuart’s public comments here suggest that, on balance, the Council’s leadership considers the public-interest value of this very information to outweigh the commercial interests/factors in favour of withholding the same information you cite in your letter dated 19 March 2025, including the undermining of the relationship between the Council and its partnerships.
What is more, your public interest test includes the suggestion that “disclosure would adversely affect the Council's ability to obtain confidential advice and prejudice the commercial interests of both the Council and its investment partners” — since CLAs placed in private residential care homes are paid for with funds from Wirral Council's Children, Families & Education directorate budget, surely your reference to the interests of “investment partners” here is null and void?
On procurement-related confidentiality clauses, ICO guidance states: “Public authorities must realise they cannot contract out of their FOIA statutory obligations.”
I will look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
Charlotte Robson
Information request
Our reference: 794013
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Dear Charlotte Robson
Thank you for your request for a review received on 25 March 2025. I am
sorry that you are dissatisfied with our attempts to handle your request
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I can confirm that we are considering your concerns and we will aim to
provide you with a response by 24 April 2025.
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Information Governance - Law & Corporate Services
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
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Dear Irene Okoro,
Thank you very much. I will look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
Charlotte Robson
Dear Irene Okoro,
I wonder if it would be possible for you to provide me with a response by end of day today, as you wrote on 24 March 2025.
Yours sincerely,
Charlotte Robson
Dear Charlotte Robson,
Unfortunately, we are not able to issue you a response today as earlier advised. We will aim to send you a response on or before 23 May 2025.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards
Information Governance Team
Information Governance Team
Information request
Our reference: 794013
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Dear Charlotte Robson
Outcome of internal review: 794013
Thank you for your Internal Review request received on 24 April 2025
regarding the Council's failure to provide the information you have
requested.
The purpose of an Internal Review is to assess how your Information
request was handled in the first instance and to determine whether the
original decision given to you was correct. This is an independent review:
I was not involved in the original decision.
I have reassessed your case and after careful consideration, I have
concluded that the initial response that was sent to you was compliant
with the requirements of the relevant regulations. An explanation of my
decision follows.
Your request was referred to the Service that holds the information. They
advised us that the information requested is exempt from public disclosure
under Section 43, and we shared this with you.
In applying exemption Section 43, the ICO has advised there is undoubtedly
a public interest in allowing public authorities to withhold information
which, if disclosed, would negatively affect their ability to negotiate or
to compete in a commercial environment. They also advised that there is a
public interest in public authorities not being disadvantaged by their
FOIA obligations when in commercial negotiations with the private sector.
If you are still dissatisfied with our response after the internal review
you have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at
[1]www.ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Information Governance - Law & Corporate Services
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
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References
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Charlotte Robson left an annotation ()
Complaint raised with the Information Commissioner's Office on Friday 13 June 2025.