Please treat this email as a request for recorded information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Scope and definitions Unless otherwise stated, I am seeking information for the five financial years from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2025, inclusive.
For this request: Externally provided social care means care delivered by an organisation or provider independent of the commissioning local authority, or NHS body, rather than through the authority's own in-house services. Publicly Funded social care means care that the local authority or NHS body commissions, arranges or funds wholly or partly using local-authority funds. This includes placements or services purchased directly from an external provider, block or spot contracts, commissioned care packages and other externally delivered services funded wholly or partly by the authority or NHS body. Eligible providers includes for-profit private companies, voluntary organisations, charities, social enterprises and other independent-sector providers, regardless of their legal structure or profit status. The request covers adult social care for people aged 18 or over and children's social care for children under 18. Relevant services may include, where applicable:
* Adult residential and nursing care.
* Adult domiciliary care.
* Supported living and other externally provided adult social care.
* Children's residential care.
* Foster care provided through independent fostering agencies.
* Other externally provided children's social care placements or services funded wholly or partly by the local authority. The request includes placements located outside the commissioning authority's geographical area, where the authority commissions, arranges or funds the care. It excludes care delivered directly by the local authority through its own in-house services, care funded entirely by the individual or family without public funding. Where funding is shared between the local authority and another body, or between the local authority and the individual or family, the arrangement falls within scope. I do not require personal data or identifiable information about individual deceased people. Please answer the adult and children's social care sections separately wherever possible.
Part A - Adult social care 1. Recording systems Please confirm whether the council maintains any register, database, spreadsheet, case-management system, reporting system or other recorded dataset used to record, collate or monitor deaths involving adults receiving externally provided social care funded wholly or partly by a public body. If such systems exist, please provide any existing data dictionary, field list, system specification or equivalent document describing the information recorded. In particular, please indicate whether the council records:
a. Date of death and, where recorded, location of death.
b. Type of care service received.
c. Name or category of the external provider.
d. Whether the council commissioned, arranged or funded the care.
e. Whether the care was funded wholly or partly by the council, including any distinction between local-authority funding, joint funding, NHS funding and self-funding.
f. Whether the death was notified to the council, including the source and date of notification where recorded.
g. Whether the death led to a safeguarding referral, incident report, investigation, review or other recorded follow-up action.
h. Whether the care was delivered within the commissioning authority's geographical area or outside it. If information is recorded only in individual case files or separate operational systems rather than a central register or aggregate dataset, please indicate this where known from existing records or documentation. I am not asking the council to manually review individual case files to create new totals.
Part B - Children's social care 2. Recording systems Please confirm whether the council maintains any register, database, spreadsheet, case-management system, reporting system or other recorded dataset used to record, collate or monitor deaths involving children receiving externally provided social care funded wholly or partly by a local authority. If such systems exist, please provide any existing data dictionary, field list, system specification or equivalent document describing the information recorded. In particular, please indicate whether the council records:
a. Date of death and, where recorded, location of death.
b. Whether the child was looked after by the local authority at the time of death.
c. Whether the placement or service was commissioned, arranged or funded wholly or partly by the council.
d. Type of placement or service, including children's residential care, independent fostering agency placements, supported accommodation for children under 18, respite care and other relevant externally provided services.
e. Name or category of the external provider.
f. Whether the placement was within or outside the council's geographical area.
g. Whether the child was placed by the council or by another local authority.
h. Whether the death was notified to the council and, where recorded, the source and date of notification.
i. Whether the death led to a safeguarding referral, incident report, investigation, child death review or other recorded follow-up action.
j. Whether the funding arrangement or commissioning authority was recorded.
If information is held in separate children's social care, looked-after children, safeguarding, placement or death-notification systems, please indicate this where established by existing system documentation.
I am seeking existing recorded information.
I am not asking the council to create new datasets, manually review individual case files, or undertake new statistical analyses. If any part of this request is considered likely to exceed the appropriate cost limit, please provide the information that can be supplied within the limit and advise which specific part should be narrowed, in accordance with the duty to provide reasonable advice and assistance.
CLARIFICATION: To clarify, I am only seeking (1) whether the types of data listed are or are not held and (2) in what format they are held, for example in a format which could allow extraction and statistical comparison.
