FOI request details

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Request

Subject: Care waiting times

Reference: WBC-FOI-00962

Under the FOI Act please provide me with the information below. Please confirm receipt of this request as soon as possible.

For the current financial year and for 21/22 please could you provide: 

 

A.      The median time (in days) taken to assess a referral made to adult social services for an assessment of needs. Please include new referrals as well as re-assessment of existing clients. 

 

B.      The single longest wait (in days) taken to assess an individual after a referral to adult social services. Please include new referrals as well as reassessments. This should include any support package, whether delivered directly by social services or commissioned by them in any other way. 

 

C.       The median time (in days) taken between the completion of assessment and the start of a service identified within their care and support. Please include new referrals as well as re-assessment of existing clients.  

 

D.      The single longest wait (in days) between the completion of assessment and the start of a service identified within their care and support. This should include any support package, whether delivered directly by social services or commissioned by them in any other way. 

For example:  

21/22 

Median time to assess = 7 days, Single longest wait = 45 days, median time for package to begin 12 days, single longest wait = 30 days 

22/23 

Median time to assess = 8 days, Single longest wait = 67 days, median time for package to begin 13 days, single longest wait = 44 days 

E.       The number of people who have died awaiting the start of an initial package of social care in 2022/23.  

Please provide this data in a spreadsheet format such as excel or a .csv file.

Response

None Disclosed - 15 March 2023

Request for Information - WBC-FOI-00962 - Care waiting times

I refer to your request for information received on 08 March 2023. Please see the information below in response to your request: -

Your Request:

For the current financial year and for 21/22 please could you provide: 

A.      The median time (in days) taken to assess a referral made to adult social services for an assessment of needs. Please include new referrals as well as re-assessment of existing clients. 

B.      The single longest wait (in days) taken to assess an individual after a referral to adult social services. Please include new referrals as well as reassessments. This should include any support package, whether delivered directly by social services or commissioned by them in any other way. 

C.       The median time (in days) taken between the completion of assessment and the start of a service identified within their care and support. Please include new referrals as well as re-assessment of existing clients.  

D.      The single longest wait (in days) between the completion of assessment and the start of a service identified within their care and support. This should include any support package, whether delivered directly by social services or commissioned by them in any other way. 

For example:  

21/22 

Median time to assess = 7 days, Single longest wait = 45 days, median time for package to begin 12 days, single longest wait = 30 days 

22/23 

Median time to assess = 8 days, Single longest wait = 67 days, median time for package to begin 13 days, single longest wait = 44 days 

E.       The number of people who have died awaiting the start of an initial package of social care in 2022/23.  

Our Response:

Please note that Wandsworth Council consider that it would exceed the appropriate limit, as specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Regulations 2004; therefore section 12(1) of the Act applies. The appropriate limit has been set at £450 and may include working hours of any person acting on our behalf at a rate of £25 per hour. This equates to 18 hours to identify, locate, retrieve and extract the relevant information. To comply with your request would take in excess of 18 hours as the information is not held in a readily extractable format and would require a manual undertaking to review approximately 1000 records. Even at a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per case file, it would take in excess of 83.3 hours to identify, locate, retrieve and extract the relevant information. This exceeds the appropriate limit under the Act.

Under section 16 of the Act, the Council has a duty to provide advice and assistance so as to hopefully enable you to obtain some of the information you are seeking. Whilst we cannot guarantee that any subsequent request will be successful, you may want to consider reducing the scope of your request in the following ways:

  • Reducing the scope of your request to only include questions A and B (excluding the re-assessment aspect) as these are the only questions that can be answered within the 18 hour limit

    In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this response acts as a Refusal Notice.

    If you are dissatisfied with the information provided in relation to your request, you may make representations to the Information and Transparency Manager. Any such request for an internal review should be made within 40 days from today's date. Correspondence should be addressed to: FOIW@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

    If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision at: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

    Regards,

    FOI and DPA Officer

    FOIW@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

Please note that our responses were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of release, and have not subsequently been updated. This information should be considered an historical record only.