provision of equipment for disabled children in Wigan

The request was successful.

Dear Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council,

Please could you tell me:

1. How many children are currently on your Childrens Disability Register.
2. How many specialist beds have been provided(ie needs identified through assessment, suitable bed identified and funded & provided)to disabled children by your council since 1st January 2008 to date.
3. For the same period, how many children with disabilities have been assessed as needing a specialist bed, whether your council provided one or not.
4. What is your council's criteria a child/family/carer must meet to be provided with a specialist bed for the child, by the council?
5. When this criteria is drawn up, what legislation does your council use to ensure it is meeting its legal duty to provide equipment to children with disabilities?
6. What is your council's budget for equipment for disabled
children?

Thank you

Yours faithfully,

Diane Kay

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Please quote ID 3251 on all correspondence/emails/faxes

Dear Sir / Madam

I am emailing to confirm the receipt of your recent FOI request to Wigan Council.

We will respond as soon as possible and in any case no later than 9th March 2012, which is 20 working days after the receipt of your request.

If you have any comments or questions in the meantime, please direct them to [Wigan Council request email], or at Wigan Council, Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan WN1 1YN.

Your contact is Rita Wood.

Regards

Davina Rumsey - Legal Clerk
Legal and Risk
Resources Directorate
Wigan Council, Town Hall,
Library Street, Wigan, WN1 1YN
01942 828146 ( Internal ext 3146)
[email address]

www.wigan.gov.uk

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Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Madam,
 
I have been asked to request clarification as follows:-
 
We need some clarification on questions 2, 3 & 4 of the FOI request below.
Firstly we need know what the requester means by a 'specialist bed',
secondly we need to know whether they want out of borough placements /
beds and thirdly do they want short term and long term placements / beds?
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Rita Wood
Legal Practice Officer
Wigan Council
Resources Directorate - Legal and Risk
Town Hall,  Library Street, Wigan WN1 1YN
01942 828072 (Internal Ext. 3072)
[email address]
[1]www.wigan.gov.uk
 
Please note that I only work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
 
This email together with any files transmitted with it are confidential
and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom they are
addressed.  The information may be covered by legal professional
privilege.  Do not copy, disclose or distribute the information.  If you
are not the addressee, please contact the sender and immediately delete
this email and any attachments
 
 
Request
 
     1. How many children are currently on your Childrens Disability
     Register.
     2. How many specialist beds have been provided(ie needs identified
     through assessment, suitable bed identified and funded &
     provided)to disabled children by your council since 1st January
     2008 to date.
     3. For the same period, how many children with disabilities have
     been assessed as needing a specialist bed, whether your council
     provided one or not.
     4. What is your council's criteria a child/family/carer must meet
     to be provided with a specialist bed for the child, by the council?
     5. When this criteria is drawn up, what legislation does your
     council use to ensure it is meeting its legal duty to provide
     equipment to children with disabilities?
     6. What is your council's budget for equipment for disabled
     children?
 
 
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Dear Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council,

A specialist bed is one that wouldn't be needed by children without disabilities. It has special features to make it suitable for a disabled child.

Assuming this clarification helps, please use this information to answer the other questions. If you provide different types of specialist beds, please specify the differences and numbers.

Another point of clarification I should make is that I am looking for the information about beds provided to individual children.

Yours faithfully,

Diane Kay

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Madam,
I am writing to respond to your freedom of information request.  This
request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your request and our response in blue is detailed below.
 
     1. How many children are currently on your Childrens Disability
     Register.
        649
     2. How many specialist beds have been provided(ie needs identified
     through assessment, suitable bed identified and funded &
     provided)to disabled children by your council since 1st January
     2008 to date. We would not be able to easily find this out as we do
not document need on the system.  This would involve taking every child
assessment done         during this period and analysing how many have
documented this as a need. This is not really feasible given the quantity,
     3. For the same period, how many children with disabilities have
     been assessed as needing a specialist bed, whether your council
     provided one or not.
         Please Note: None of these were prescribed by Wigan Council
Occupational Therapists but by health staff
 
 
     4. What is your council's criteria a child/family/carer must meet
     to be provided with a specialist bed for the child, by the council?
        Our policy is not specific in relation to particular items of
equipment - we have a good working practice with Embrace that they fund
large one off pieces of equipment required to meet need- thus allowing us
to focus limited resources on items that voluntary agencies find difficult
to fund.  Alhough we have legal backing to refer people onto other
agencies such as voluntary agencies for such items, we have decided to
update our policy and be specific about this working relationship.   This
is being updated at the moment and it will       then go for cabinet
approval.
     5. When this criteria is drawn up, what legislation does your
     council use to ensure it is meeting its legal duty to provide
     equipment to children with disabilities?
        We provide under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Act.  Our legal
dept assures us it is fine under this legislation to identify need and
pass the referral onto an agency that can meet this need.  If the
voluntary agencies were unable to provide this we would provide it.  To
date the voluntary agencies have always provided.
     6. What is your council's budget for equipment for disabled
     children?
        Budget is 421K per year for all equipment, This is for - Acute
discharge, Local Authority, Hospital at home, Early Intervention Community
Physio, Hospice etc.
 
If you are unhappy with any aspect of this response, an independent senior
officer will review this decision. Please let me know if you would like to
arrange this.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner, who is the
regulator for Freedom of Information. His website is
[1]www.informationcommisioner.gov.uk and his helpline number is 0303
1231113.
His staff may ask you to exhaust our internal complaints procedure if you
choose to complain to his office now.
I apologise for the delay in responding to this request, this is due to
the high volume of requests that are currently being received. If you need
any further information please do not hesitate in contacting me.
Yours faithfully,
Rita Wood
Legal Practice Officer
Wigan Council
Resources Directorate - Legal and Risk
Town Hall,  Library Street, Wigan WN1 1YN
01942 828072 (Internal Ext. 3072)
[email address]
[2]www.wigan.gov.uk
 
Please note that I only work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
 
This email together with any files transmitted with it are confidential
and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom they are
addressed.  The information may be covered by legal professional
privilege.  Do not copy, disclose or distribute the information.  If you
are not the addressee, please contact the sender and immediately delete
this email and any attachments
 
 
 
>>Corporate Disclaimer<<
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. If you have received this email in error please
notify the system manager.

Email may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded
for legal purposes.

As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this
email or any response to it under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 unless the information in it is covered by one of the
exemptions in the Act.

This footnote also confirms that this email has been swept for
the presence of computer viruses.

References

Visible links
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2. file:///tmp/www.wigan.gov.uk

Dear Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council,

Thank you for your response.

Regarding question 3, please could you provide the information as to how many children have been assessed as needing a specialist bed, whether the council provided one or not. You say you are within your legal duty to assess a need and refer it to a voluntary organisation for funding, and that Embrace have always been able to, therefore I think you will have a record of how many referrals you have made to a charity, and definitely how many assessed needs you have identified.

Thanks

Yours faithfully,

Diane Kay

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

My working days are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Emails are not forwarded and will be dealt with when I am next in the office

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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. If you have received this email in error please
notify the system manager.

Email may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded
for legal purposes.

As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this
email or any response to it under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 unless the information in it is covered by one of the
exemptions in the Act.

This footnote also confirms that this email has been swept for
the presence of computer viruses.

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Madam,

I have forwarded your request to the department concerned and will get back to you shortly.

Yours faithfully,

Rita Wood
Legal Practice Officer
Wigan Council
Resources Directorate - Legal and Risk
Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan WN1 1YN
01942 828072 (Internal Ext. 3072)
[email address]
www.wigan.gov.uk

Please note that I only work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays

This email together with any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom they are addressed. The information may be covered by legal professional privilege. Do not copy, disclose or distribute the information. If you are not the addressee, please contact the sender and immediately delete this email and any attachments

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Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Madam,
 
Please see response from the department in respect of your additional
request.
 
Regarding question 3, please could you provide the information as to how
many children have been assessed as needing a specialist bed, whether the
council provided one or not. You say you are within your legal duty to
assess a need and refer it to a voluntary organisation for funding, and
that Embrace have always been able to, therefore I think you will have a
record of how many referrals you have made to a charity, and definitely
how many assessed needs you have identified.
 
It would be impossible to pull this off the system as we don't record
individual needs like that on the system.  However, we normally request
beds from Embrace in Wigan and they would probably be able to tell you how
many referrals they have had from us.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
 
Rita Wood
Legal Practice Officer
Wigan Council
Resources Directorate - Legal and Risk
Town Hall,  Library Street, Wigan WN1 1YN
01942 828072 (Internal Ext. 3072)
[email address]
[1]www.wigan.gov.uk
 
Please note that I only work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
 
This email together with any files transmitted with it are confidential
and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom they are
addressed.  The information may be covered by legal professional
privilege.  Do not copy, disclose or distribute the information.  If you
are not the addressee, please contact the sender and immediately delete
this email and any attachments
 
 
 
>>Corporate Disclaimer<<
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. If you have received this email in error please
notify the system manager.

Email may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded
for legal purposes.

As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this
email or any response to it under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 unless the information in it is covered by one of the
exemptions in the Act.

This footnote also confirms that this email has been swept for
the presence of computer viruses.

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/www.wigan.gov.uk

Dear Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'provision of equipment for disabled children in Wigan'.

Your original responses told me that

"To date the voluntary agencies have always provided."

therefore if you have this information, you should know how many 'referrals' you have made on behalf of families for a specialist bed.

If no child has ever been assessed as needing a specialist bed, or family been assessed as needing a specialist bed to enable them to care for their child, then I would like to know that information.

I have been advised verbally by a Wigan Council employee that not even 1 specialist bed has been provided by Wigan Council in the last few years, therefore there must be some information about this for the person to have this knowledge. If the employee knows that no beds have been provided by Wigan Council, then there must be some available information as to how many children were assessed as needing one, but referred on to a charity etc.

I would appreciate a response to my outstanding questions as soon as possible.

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

Yours faithfully,

Diane Kay

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Please quote ID 3490 on all correspondence/emails/faxes

Dear Sir / Madam

I am emailing to confirm the receipt of your recent FOI request to Wigan Council.

We will respond as soon as possible and in any case no later than 21st May 2012, which is 20 working days after the receipt of your request.

If you have any comments or questions in the meantime, please direct them to [Wigan Council request email], or at Wigan Council, Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan WN1 1YN.

Your contact is Rita Wood.

Regards

Davina Rumsey
Legal Clerk
Legal and Risk
Resources Directorate
Wigan Council, Town Hall,
Library Street, Wigan, WN1 1YN
01942 828146 ( Internal ext 3146)
Wigan Council - www.wigan.gov.uk

This email together with any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom they are addressed. The information may be covered by legal professional privilege. Do not copy, disclose or distribute the information. If you are not the addressee, please contact the sender and immediately delete this email and any attachments.

Please don't print this email unless you really need to

show quoted sections

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. If you have received this email in error please
notify the system manager.

Email may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded
for legal purposes.

As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this
email or any response to it under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 unless the information in it is covered by one of the
exemptions in the Act.

This footnote also confirms that this email has been swept for
the presence of computer viruses.

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Ms Kay,

I am writing to respond to your request for a review of Wigan Council's decision in relation to your freedom of information request ID 3251.

I can confirm that I have reviewed your freedom of information requests, and the responses that you have received.

Having made further inquiries I can inform you that the number of children that have been assessed as needing a specialist bed, whether the Council provided one or not, is 45.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of this response you can complain to the Information Commissioner, who is the regulator for Freedom of Information. His website is www.informationcommisioner.gov.uk and his helpline number is 0303 1231113.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Hassett
Strategic Manager - Chief Legal Officer
Wigan Council
Resources Directorate
Legal and Risk
Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan WN1 1YN
Tel. 01942 827381 (Internal Ext. 2381)
Fax. 01942 827093
wigan.gov.uk
This email together with any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom they are addressed. The information may be covered by legal professional privilege. Do not copy, disclose or distribute the information. If you are not the addressee, please contact the sender and immediately delete this email and any attachments

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