RE: Your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000/Environmental Information Regulations 2004

Case Reference: RFI 7754

Dear Ryan Jarvis

Thank you for your email.

It will be treated as a request within the meaning of the Act: this means that we will send you a full response within 20 working days, either supplying you with the information which you want, or explaining to you why we cannot supply it.

If we need any further clarification or there is any problem we will be in touch.

Please note that following guidance from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), we will no longer be providing responses in an Excel spreadsheet format.

Yours sincerely

Disclosures Team
Companies, Compliance and Assurance Service
Cheshire West and Chester Council

Tel: 0300 123 8123 (Customer Contact Centre)
Email: [email address]
Visit: cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
Postal Address: Cheshire West and Chester Council, The Portal, Wellington Road, Ellesmere Port, CH65 0BA

Cheshire West and Chester Council is committed to ensuring the security and protection of the personal information that we process and to provide a compliant and consistent approach to data protection. To learn more about how we handle your personal information when you contact the Council's Data Protection and Compliance Team, please see our Advice, Enquiries and Complaints Privacy Notice on the Council's website or ask for a copy of the notice to be sent to you.

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Dear Ryan Jarvis

Thank you for your email dated 17 March 2024 regarding your request for information RFI 7754. I apologise for the delay you have encountered in receiving a response to your request. We are working with the appropriate department to provide you with a response as a matter of urgency. If following the response, you would like to request an internal review about the handling of your request, please let us know.

Yours sincerely

Disclosures Team
Cheshire West and Chester Council

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Dear Ryan Jarvis

I am so sorry for the delay in responding to your request for information
of 5^th February 2024 which was logged as RFI 7754 and has been dealt with
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We confirm that Cheshire West
and Chester Council holds information relating to your request.

For the purpose of clarity your request has been reproduced below:

Specifically, I am seeking information on:

a) The total number of child safeguarding referrals received by the local
authority related to concerns raised about the Countess of Chester
Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

b) The total number of adult safeguarding referrals received by the local
authority related to concerns raised about the Countess of Chester
Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

I would appreciate if the information could be broken down by year for the
last five years, to better understand the trends and frequency of these
referrals.

This request is part of a broader effort to assess the safeguarding
measures in place at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
and the local authority's response to potential concerns.

Our Response:

The two services responsible for both child safeguarding referrals and
adult safeguarding referrals have confirmed that they record all contacts
that are progressed to referral. However initially the referrals relating
to hospitals are logged as 'Hospital' and are inclusive of all hospitals
in and out of our authority area. We cannot easily report on how many of
the concerns raised were about the Countess of Chester Hospital without
undertaking a manual check of 80% of the 3600+ records. 

From our preliminary assessment, we estimate that compliance with the
questions of your request would exceed costs limit under Section 12 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.  This is currently £450 or approximately
2.5 days of one person’s time.

In order to provide you with the information of the scale that you have
requested and to determine the number of adult and child safeguarding
referrals that originated in the COCH would require manually checking in
the region of 3,600 records as all initial referrals are logged at source
as ‘Hospital’ both in and out of the Authority.

We estimate your current request would cost:

1. Identify, locate and extract information from 3600 records @10 minutes
per record = 36000 minutes

2. 36000 minutes = 600 hours

3. 600 hours x £25 (rate per hour local authorities can charge under the
Act) = £15,000

Rather than refusing your request at this stage, we would like to explore
with you how Cheshire West and Chester Council may best assist you to
request relevant information which we hold.  Under Section 16 of the FOIA
“Duty to provide advice and assistance” we advise you that refining your
request to e.g reducing the scope of your enquiry will reduce the time
taken to collate the information and the Council may be able to supply the
information for a lower, or no, fee. As taken from the code of practice If
you need assistance with this, please do not hesitate to contact the
Solutions Team on the following email [1][Cheshire West and Chester Council request email]
Your request will remain on hold until we hear back from you, however,
please be advised we will close your case should we not receive a refined
request within 10 working days from the date of this email.  

We trust this answers your query.

The Council considers that your request has been answered in full by
either confirming that information is not held, providing you with the
information requested, or explaining why any information has been withheld
and the reasons for any redaction. Where applicable, the Council has also
told you the reasons for the delay in responding to your request.

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled you can request a review by writing to the Disclosures Team within
40 working days from the date of the Council’s response.

You are entitled to a review by the Council if:

·         You are dissatisfied with the Council’s explanation of why the
application was not dealt with within the 20 working day time limit.

·         All the information requested is not being disclosed and you
have not received an explanation why some information is not being
disclosed.

·         A reason for the disclosures under the request being refused is
not received.

·         You consider that exemptions have been wrongly applied, and/or

·         You consider that a fee has been wrongly applied.

Please set out your grounds for seeking a review together with what
specific part of your request those grounds apply to and the outcome you
are seeking. The Council reserves the right to ask you for clarification
of the grounds for your review request if the grounds are not clear, and
to delay commencing the review if such grounds are not provided.

The Disclosures Team can be contacted by email via:
[2][Cheshire West and Chester Council request email] or at the following address:

Disclosures Team

Cheshire West and Chester Council

The Portal

Wellington Road

Ellesmere Port

CH65 0BA

The Disclosures Team will acknowledge a request for an internal review
within 5 working days and complete the review as soon as possible and no
later than 40 working days from receipt of the request.

More information about the Council’s internal review process can be found
via:

[3]https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.u...

If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your review, you have
a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

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

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely

Phil Orchard

Information Governance Manager / Council DPO

Companies, Compliance and Assurance Service

Tel: 01244 977940

Email: [5][email address]

Visit: [6]Privacy and Data Protection

Location: Cheshire West and Chester Council, The Portal, Wellington Road,
Ellesmere Port, CH65 0BA

Cheshire West and Chester Council is committed to ensuring the security
and protection of the personal

information that we process and to provide a compliant and consistent
approach to data protection.  To

learn more about how we handle your personal information when you contact
the Council’s Data Protection

Team,  please see our [7]Advice, Enquiries and Complaints Privacy Notice
on the Council's website or ask for a

copy of the notice to be sent to you.

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Cheshire West and Chester Council request email]
2. mailto:[Cheshire West and Chester Council request email]
3. https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.u...
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
5. mailto:[email address]
6. https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.u...
7. https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.u...

Dear Ryan Jarvis

Thank you for your refined request for information of 2^nd June 2024 which
has been logged as RFI 7754 and has been dealt with under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We confirm that Cheshire West and Chester Council
holds information relating to your request.

For the purpose of clarity your request has been reproduced below:

I understand that the process of manually checking through the 3,600
records would be excessively time-consuming and costly. In light of this,
I would like to refine my request to make it more manageable and within
the cost limit stipulated under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.

To that end, I propose the following amendments to my original request:

Time Frame Reduction: Please provide data for the last two years instead
of five years.

Specific Focus: If possible, focus on the data related to the Countess of
Chester Hospital only, and exclude other hospitals.

Referral Types: If differentiating between child and adult safeguarding
referrals is too burdensome, providing the total number of safeguarding
referrals related to the Countess of Chester Hospital will suffice.

I hope these adjustments will reduce the burden on your team and enable
you to provide the information within the permissible cost limit.

Our Response:

Number of LADO
Year referrals in relation
to COCH
2022 - 2023 8
2023 - 2024 11
2024 - 2025 (to 2
date)

We trust this answers your query.

The Council considers that your request has been answered in full by
either confirming that information is not held, providing you with the
information requested, or explaining why any information has been withheld
and the reasons for any redaction. Where applicable, the Council has also
told you the reasons for the delay in responding to your request.

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled you can request a review by writing to the Disclosures Team within
40 working days from the date of the Council’s response.

You are entitled to a review by the Council if:

• You are dissatisfied with the Council’s explanation of why the
application was not dealt with within the 20 working day time limit.
• All the information requested is not being disclosed and you have not
received an explanation why some information is not being disclosed.
• A reason for the disclosures under the request being refused is not
received.
• You consider that exemptions have been wrongly applied, and/or
• You consider that a fee has been wrongly applied.

Please set out your grounds for seeking a review together with what
specific part of your request those grounds apply to and the outcome you
are seeking. The Council reserves the right to ask you for clarification
of the grounds for your review request if the grounds are not clear, and
to delay commencing the review if such grounds are not provided.

The Disclosures Team can be contacted by email via: [1][Cheshire West and
Chester Council request email] or at the following address:

Disclosures Team

Cheshire West and Chester Council

The Portal

Wellington Road

Ellesmere Port

CH65 0BA

The Disclosures Team will acknowledge a request for an internal review
within 5 working days and complete the review as soon as possible and no
later than 40 working days from receipt of the request.

More information about the Council’s internal review process can be found
via:

[2]https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.u...

If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your review, you have
a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

Website: [3]www.ico.org.uk

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely

Disclosures Team – Companies, Compliance and Assurance Service

Cheshire West and Chester Council

Tel: 0300 123 8 123

Email: [4][email address]

Location: Cheshire West and Chester Council, The Portal, Wellington Road,
Ellesmere Port, CH65 0BA

FD

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[cheshire%20west%20and%20chester%20council%20request%20email]
2. https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.u...
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/
4. mailto:[email%20address]