Request for IMCA statistics for 2018/2019

The request was refused by Kirklees Borough Council.

Kate Mercer Training

Dear freedom of information manager,

I am writing to see if you might be able to help me with the following request for information.

Could you provide the name of the organisation commissioned to deliver Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) in the period April 2018 to March 2019?

If you hold data on the number of IMCA referrals made to you in the year 2018/19. (preferably from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, or any other 12 month period within 2018/19 you could specify) please could you provide information on how many times an IMCA was instructed in each decision:

i. Long term Change of Accommodation
ii. Serious Medical Treatment
iii. Review of the Accommodation
iv. Safeguarding

b) If you hold data on the number of times an advocate was instructed from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 (or any other 12 month period within 2018/19 you could specify) please could you provide information on how many times an IMCA DoLS was instructed within each of these:

i. 39A DoLS process
ii. 39C DoLS process
iii. 39D DoLS process

I would also be very grateful if you could tell me how many times a paid RPR was instructed in the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 or any other 12 month period within 2018/19 you could specify.

If you do not hold the data for the above could you kindly tell me who does?

If you are not recording this data at present could you please tell me if you plan to start to record this data in the next 12 months?

The 'What Do They Know' suggestions for good practice recommended that organisations make this kind of information publicly available on their own website, would you consider doing this in the future?

Thank you so much for your help with this request,

Kind regards,

K. Huijbers

Freedom Info, Kirklees Borough Council

Dear Mr Huijbers

I confirm receipt of your information request. We are dealing with this and will respond to you in due course.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 allow up to 20 working days for responding to information requests.

If you are not content with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Requests for internal reviews should be addressed to the Monitoring Officer, 1st Floor, Civic Centre 3, Market Street, Huddersfield HD1 2EY. Alternatively, you can send an email to: [email address].

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of any review you have the right under section 50 of the 2000 Act to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Act. The Information Commissioner’s website is at www.ico.org.uk and gives more information about the role and duties of the Commissioner. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Regards

Information Governance Team
The Democracy Service
Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for Freedom of Information)

For more information about how we deal with your personal data, see www.kirklees.gov.uk/privacy

show quoted sections

Freedom Info, Kirklees Borough Council

Dear K. Huijbers,

 

RE: 19957 - Request for IMCA statistics for 2018/2019

 

I am writing in response to your request dated 9 June 2019 .  This has
been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

You asked for the following information:

 

Could you provide the name of the organisation commissioned to deliver
Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) in the period April 2018 to
March 2019?

 

If you hold data on the number of IMCA referrals made to you in the year
2018/19. (preferably from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, or any other 12
month period within 2018/19 you could specify) please could you provide
information on how many times an IMCA was instructed in each decision:

 

i. Long term Change of Accommodation

ii. Serious Medical Treatment

iii. Review of the Accommodation

iv. Safeguarding

 

b) If you hold data on the number of times an advocate was instructed from
1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 (or any other 12 month period within 2018/19
you could specify) please could you provide information on how many times
an IMCA DoLS was instructed within each of these:

 

i. 39A DoLS process

ii. 39C DoLS process

iii. 39D DoLS process

 

I would also be very grateful if you could tell me how many times a paid
RPR was instructed in the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 or any
other 12 month period within 2018/19 you could specify.

 

If you do not hold the data for the above could you kindly tell me who
does?

 

If you are not recording this data at present could you please tell me if
you plan to start to record this data in the next 12 months?

 

The 'What Do They Know' suggestions for good practice recommended that
organisations make this kind of  information publicly available on their
own website, would you consider doing this in the future?

 

The Council can confirm that it does hold information falling within the
scope of your request but believes that it would exceed the appropriate
time limit for complying with the request in order to provide it.

 

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public
authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to
the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004:

 

12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit

(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a
request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.

(2) Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its
obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the
estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the
appropriate limit.

 

The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to
requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days (or
18 hours) of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request
for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable
costs incurred in:

 

(a) determining whether it holds the information,
(b) locating the information, or a document which may contain the
information,
(c) retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the
information, and
(d) extracting the information from a document containing it.

 

For the purposes of the estimate the costs of performing these activities
should be estimated at a rate of £25 per hour.

 

The Council does hold some of the information requested but much of it is
in a format that would require an extensive search through records and a
judgement to be made about whether particular documents or extracts of
documents were relevant or not.  The Council does not routinely record the
information requested and has no statutory or operational need to do so.

 

The Council believes that it would take a considerable amount of time to
extract and collate the information requested; it would need to ask a
number of officers across several teams to check their records to
determine whether they hold any information falling within the scope of
your request. As an example, the DoLS service, which is one part of Adult
Services that refers to IMCAs, allocates on average 35 DoLS assessments a
week, or around 1820 assessments a year (although this will not
necessarily be 1820 separate individuals). Some of these will have had a
39A IMCA, some will have had a paid RPR and some will have a 39D IMCA. The
only way to check would be to open each individual’s electronic record and
manually search for the information. Even at a very conservative estimate
of two minutes to extract the relevant information from each file, taking
into account the likely costs of searching the records across the DoLS
service and other relevant services, the Council believes that the cost of
complying with your request would far exceed the appropriate limit of
£450.  The Council is unable to provide a more detailed cost estimate as
it believes that the cost of doing so would, in itself, exceed the
appropriate limit.

 

The request for disclosure of the information is therefore refused under
section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

 

Under section 1(3) of the Act, a public authority need not comply with a
request unless any further information reasonably required to locate the
information is supplied.  If a request is too broad or general in nature,
then public authorities have a duty to provide advice and assistance to
the applicant in order to focus the request.  Although the Council cannot
answer your request as it currently stands, it might be able to answer a
refined request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider narrowing
the scope of your request, for example by restricting the time frame or
selecting those items / issues you consider the most important, it might
be possible to comply, subject to the application of any exemptions. 
Please do be aware that the Council cannot guarantee at this stage that a
refined request will fall within the appropriate cost limit.

 

If you are not content with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review.  Requests for internal reviews should
be submitted within 2 months of the date of receipt of the response to
your original request and should be addressed to the Monitoring Officer,
1^st Floor, Civic Centre 3, Market Street, Huddersfield HD1 2EY. 
Alternatively, you can send an email to:
[1][email address]  

 

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of any review you have the right
under section 50 of the 2000 Act to apply to the Information Commissioner
for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt
with in accordance with the requirements of the Act.  The Information
Commissioner’s website is at [2]www.ico.org.uk and gives more information
about the role and duties of the Commissioner.  The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Governance Team

The Democracy Service

Kirklees Council

Civic Centre 3, High Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2TG

 

 

 

 

[3][IMG]

[4]Website | [5]News | [6]Email Updates | [7]Facebook | [8]Twitter

This email and any attachments are confidential. If you have received this
email in error – please notify the sender immediately, delete it from your
system, and do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way.
Kirklees Council monitors all emails sent or received.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/
4. https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/
5. http://www.kirkleestogether.co.uk/
6. http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/stayconnected
7. https://www.facebook.com/liveinkirklees
8. https://twitter.com/KirkleesCouncil

Kate Mercer Training

Dear Freedom Info,

Thank you for your response, I am a little confused because I did receive all the information for similar request previously (which was identical except that it was for a longer time period). Is there any chance you could reconsider?

Yours sincerely,

K. Huijbers

Freedom Info, Kirklees Borough Council

Dear K. Huijbers

RE: 19957 - Request for IMCA statistics for 2018/2019

I confirm receipt of your query and that we are dealing with this and will respond to you in due course.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 allow up to 20 working days for responding to information requests.

If you are not content with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Requests for internal reviews should be addressed to the Monitoring Officer, 1st Floor, Civic Centre 3, Market Street, Huddersfield HD1 2EY. Alternatively, you can send an email to: [email address].

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of any review you have the right under section 50 of the 2000 Act to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Act. The Information Commissioner’s website is at www.ico.org.uk and gives more information about the role and duties of the Commissioner. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Regards

Information Governance Team
The Democracy Service
Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for Freedom of Information)

For more information about how we deal with your personal data, see Kirklees Council privacy notice

show quoted sections

Freedom Info, Kirklees Borough Council

Dear K Huijbers

The service have had another look at your request and have provided the following information:

Could you provide the name of the organisation commissioned to deliver Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) in the period April 2018 to March 2019?
Together – For Mental Wellbeing to 30 Sept 2018
Touchstone –Leeds from 1 October 2018

If you hold data on the number of IMCA referrals made to you in the year 2018/19. (preferably from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019, or any other 12 month period within 2018/19 you could specify) please could you provide information on how many times an IMCA was instructed in each decision:

i. Long term Change of Accommodation & iii. Review of the Accommodation - 38
ii. Serious Medical Treatment - 28
iv. Safeguarding – 19
Care Review (which may include review of accommodation) - 9

b) If you hold data on the number of times an advocate was instructed from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 (or any other 12 month period within 2018/19 you could specify) please could you provide information on how many times an IMCA DoLS was instructed within each of these:

i. 39A DoLS process - 24
ii. 39C DoLS process - 3
iii. 39D DoLS process - 37

I would also be very grateful if you could tell me how many times a paid RPR was instructed in the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 or any other 12 month period within 2018/19 you could specify. - 226

If you do not hold the data for the above could you kindly tell me who does?

If you are not recording this data at present could you please tell me if you plan to start to record this data in the next 12 months?

The 'What Do They Know' suggestions for good practice recommended that organisations make this kind of information publicly available on their own website, would you consider doing this in the future?

Each of the providers prepare an annual report which is put on the Kirklees Council website and their own. Because of the change in contract these aren’t available for 2018/19. The report for 19/20 should be available by 30 September 2020. Information might not be displayed in this format but something more meaningful for the general public.

Regards

Information Governance Assistant
Information Governance Team
The Democracy Service
Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for Freedom of Information)

This email and any attachments are confidential. If you have received it in error - notify the sender immediately, delete it from your system, and do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way. Kirklees Council monitors all emails sent or received.

For more information about how we deal with your personal data, see Kirklees Council privacy policy

<http://www.kirklees.gov.uk>
[http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/assets/g...

Website<https://www.kirklees.gov.uk> | News<http://www.kirkleestogether.co.uk> | Email Updates<http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/stayconnected> | Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/liveinkirklees> | Twitter <https://twitter.com/KirkleesCouncil>

This email and any attachments are confidential. If you have received this email in error – please notify the sender immediately, delete it from your system, and do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way. Kirklees Council monitors all emails sent or received.