Services to Foster Carers
Dear Northern Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland),
I am writing to make a request for all the following information which I am entitled to under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please provide a copy of the following information related to commissioned services to foster carers and kinship carers in your Trust area. Please provide details of the spending broken down by financial year for each of the last 3 years (2023-24, 2022-23, 2021-22)
1) The total spent to purchase carers' membership of the Fostering Network each year.
2) The total spent on commissioned carer ‘independent’ support and advocacy services associated with allegations and complaints made against carers each year.
3) Please provide copies of the most recent evaluations of each of these services.
4) Please provide copies of the Trust’s documented Public Patient involvement (PPI) of carers in the planning, commissioning, and evaluation of membership services of the Fostering Network as required by the Health and Social Care Reform Act (NI) 2009)
5) Please provide copies of the Trust’s documented Public Patient involvement (PPI) of carers in the planning, commissioning, and evaluation of the ‘independent’ support and advocacy service associated with allegations and complaints made against carers from the Fostering Network as required by the Health and Social Care Reform Act (NI) 2009).
I would like the above information to be provided to me as an electronic copy.
If the request is too broad or unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand under the Act you are required to advise and assist requesters. If any of the information is already in the public domain, please send it to me directly with page references or URLs when necessary.
If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance under the section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine the request.
I understand that you are required to respond to my request within 20 working days after receiving this request. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing you have received this request.
I look forward to hearing from you soon,
Yours faithfully,
Dr Alastair Scott-McKinley
Thank you for your email which has been received by the Information
Governance Department and will be responded to in due course.
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CONFIDENTIAL
Our ref: FOI/1660
09/02/2024
By Email: [FOI #1083246 email]
Dear Alaister Scott-McKinley
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 – INFORMATION REQUEST
Thank you for your request for information received by us today,
requesting information about FOI/1660.
Your request is being dealt with under freedom of information requirements
and will be answered within 20 working days.
In the interim should you have any queries about your request, please do
not hesitate to reply to this email, quoting the above reference number.
Alternatively, you can contact the department in the following ways:
Information Governance Department
Causeway House, 8E Coleraine Road
Ballymoney
BT53 6BP
Tel: 028 2766 1293
Yours sincerely,
INFORMATION GOVERNANCE DEPARTMENT
Should you wish to reply to this email, please be careful not to amend the
information in the ‘subject’ field. This will ensure that the information
is added directly to your case. However, please be aware that this is an
automated process; the information will not be read by a member of our
staff until your case is allocated to a request handler.
CONFIDENTIAL
Our ref: FOI/1660
23/02/2024
By Email: [FOI #1083246 email]
Dear Alaister Scott-McKinley
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 – INFORMATION REQUEST
Thank you for your request for information. Please find attached the
Trust's response.
Trust decisions in relation to the release of information that the Trust
holds are governed by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000, the Data
Protection Act (DPA)/GDPR 2018 and other pieces of associated legislation.
I trust that the attached information satisfies your request, however,
should you have any questions about the handling of your information
request or need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to reply to
this email or contact us using one of the contact methods outlined below
quoting the above reference number.
Information Governance Department
Causeway House, 8E Coleraine Road
Ballymoney
BT53 6BP
Tel: 028 2766 1293
IF ISSUED BY EMAIL –
Should you wish to reply to this email, please be careful not to amend the
information in the ‘subject’ field. This will ensure that the information
is added directly to your case. However, please be aware that this is an
automated process; the information will not be read by a member of our
staff until your case is allocated to a request handler.
Yours sincerely,
INFORMATION GOVERNANCE DEPARTMENT
Enc. [INSERT CONTENT REF.]
Dear [email address],
Thank you for your reply.
Please could I seek clarification concerning your response to question 5 "Services are planned, commissioned and evaluated by the Fostering network"
This does not make sense, how can the Fostering Network commission itself?
Please can you clarify this response?
Yours sincerely,
Alastair Scott-McKinley
Dear Alastair Scott-McKinley
We acknowledge receipt of your email to Northern Health & Social Care
Trust
We will pass your email on to the team handling your case FOI/1660 who
will be in touch in due course.
Dear Alastair, further to your query below in relation to Q5 response, I
can confirm that the Trust does not hold documented PPIs.
I trust this is helpful.
Kind regards.
Irene.
Dear [email address],
Thank you for your reply.
Please could I seek clarification concerning your response to question 5
"Services are planned, commissioned and evaluated by the Fostering
network"
This does not make sense, how can the Fostering Network commission
itself?
Please can you clarify this response?
Yours sincerely,
Alastair Scott-McKinley
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