Supported living provider request

Dear Hamid Abdallah,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

The City of London (CoL), sometimes also called the City of London Corporation, acknowledges receipt of your two identical requests for information of 21 May 2024.

(Please note that, although the WDTK site lists the CoL at two places under two different names -
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/city_...
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/commo...
- where your identical requests are listed, the CoL is in fact one legal entity. Its full, official name is 'The Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London'. We have informed the WDTK website that it is maintaining two sections for one body, and that it would be less confusing for applicants if the site referred to the CoL under one name instead of maintaining two lists and two names for the same legal entity, but it has declined to make the change. For further clarification of the position of the CoL under the FOIA, please see Paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 of the FOIA, which describes the CoL as being subject to the FOIA with regard to 'The Common Council of the City of London, in respect of information held in its capacity as a local authority, police authority or port health authority').

Public authorities are required to respond to requests within the statutory timescale of 20 working days beginning from the first working day after they receive a request. The Act does not always require public authorities to disclose the information which they hold.

The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and port health authority. The CoL is the local and police authority for the "Square Mile", ie the historic City of London, and not for London as a whole. Please see the following page containing a link to a map (City of London - Interactive Mapping), which shows the local authority area covered by the CoL:
https://www.mapping.cityoflondon.gov.uk/...

The CoL does have some functions, including Port Health Authority functions, which extend beyond the City boundary. For further information please see: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor's Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1243
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

show quoted sections

 

Dear Hamid Abdallah,  

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST  

Following receipt of your request for information on 21 May 2024 and our
acknowledgement on the same day, the City of London (CoL) responds as
follows: 

You have requested: 

 

The full list of supported living providers that are contracted with your
council.  

 

This includes providers who care for adults & children for both learning
disabilities/autism and mental health needs. 

 

Can I have: 

 

Name of provider  

Name of contact (point of contact) 

Email 

Phone Number 

 
If they provide you services for adults, children or both. Current spends
with the provider.  

 

Can you also confirm your framework rates for both children and adults  

 

If possible, can I request this in an excel sheet? 

 

I would also like to request a comprehensive list of all of your current
housing providers in relation to supported living for both adults and
children. 

 

Can I have: 

 

Name of provider 

Name of contact (point of contact) 

Email 

Phone Number 

 

 

The average annual cost across the two service provisions is £335,000.  

 

Attached is an excel document containing all commissioned supported living
providers for adults and children. The Individual Placement Agreement
(IPA) incorporates the accommodation, support and where further
commissioned as part of the placement, any element of care, via a single
arrangement with the respective provider.  Average weekly placement rates
have been provided.   

 
Please note, due to the small number of cases involving children, please
see s.40(2) partial refusal below. 

 

 

This response acts as a partial refusal notice in accordance with section
17 of the FOIA. 

The CoL considers that, in accordance with the FOIA section 40(2)
exemption ('personal information'), it should refuse to disclose
information in relation to (The full list of supported living providers
that are contracted with your council. This includes providers who care
for children for both learning disabilities/autism and mental health
needs). Although you have requested what is intended to be purely
statistical information, and have not sought to directly obtain any
personal information, we consider in this instance that, while we can
confirm that we hold the relevant information, it is correct to refuse
disclosure of children for both learning disabilities/autism and mental
health needs as identification of individuals could occur due to the small
number of children involved.  

The CoL considers that to disclose the information under the FOIA would be
a breach of the First Principle under the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR), which Regulation is also integrated into the Data
Protection Act 2018 (DPA). The principle concerns the fair and lawful
processing of personal information. The CoL also considers that there
would be no expectation by the individuals of routine disclosure of such
information under the FOIA, which would in effect also occur should we
disclose this information. 

Please note that a public authority has to consider a disclosure under the
FOIA as a disclosure to the world. We note the Information Tribunal’s
statement that “Disclosure under [the] FOIA is effectively an unlimited
disclosure to the public as a whole, without conditions” (Information
Tribunal Appeal Decision EA/2006/0011 & 0013), which was also referred to
by the Information Commissioner in Decision Notice FS 50294078. The CoL
would therefore have to view disclosure of the personal data as a
considerable overriding of the DPA. 

In conclusion, with regard to this exemption, the CoL does not see any
legitimate interests in the public having access to the information and
considers that disclosure would not pay due respect to the rights and
freedoms of the data subjects. We do not see any conditions under Article
6 (which concerns conditions for processing personal data) of the GDPR
which would permit disclosure. 

The CoL also does not consider that there are any conditions under Section
1(2) of the DPA (which refers to the GDPR, and in this instance the
relevant Article of which would be, as said, Article 6) which would permit
disclosure. 

Please note that the City (the "Square Mile") has a resident population of
about 10,847* which includes approximately 691 children aged 0 – 18 years
old. 

*Office of National Statistics November 2023 

 

We hope that this response is of assistance. 

 

If you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has managed your
enquiry, please make your complaint in writing to email address: [1][email
address] For a link to the CoL’s FOI complaints procedure, please visit
the following page: [2]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of
which is located the FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL’s
FOI Complaints Procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you may request the
Information Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information
Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Telephone: 0303 123 1113. Website: [3]http://www.ico.org.uk/. 

 

The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and
port health authority; and to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
(GSMD), which it manages. Subject to any other statutory provisions
requiring the CoL to disclose information, release of information outside
the scope of the Act is subject to the discretion of the CoL. 

 

The CoL holds the copyright in this communication. Its supply does not
give a right to re-use in a way that would infringe that copyright, for
example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public or
to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material may be
reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for
non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news
reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner. 

 

Yours sincerely, 

 

  Business Support Unit,

Community & Children's Services

City of London, PO Box 270, Guildhall, London, EC2P 2EJ

[4]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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