Remuneration, Administration, Marketing, Hospitality, Jobs and Complaints

Request

To whom it may concern,

Please find below a series of freedom of information requests grouped into 6 categories. Please treat each request separately unless all 6 can be dealt with as one request within 18 hours. For any request where data is missing, please provide the latest data available.

1. Remuneration
a. How much did the top 20 earners in your SHA receive in salary (incl pension contributions) in each year between 2005 and 2010? Please include the job title for each role.

2. Administration
a. How much did your SHA spend on the following items in each year between 2005 and 2010? Please give the criteria you are using to define each item - i.e. stationery (all office stationery incl toner, but not PCs and printers).

(1) Stationery
(2) Potted plants
(3) Furniture
(4) Office rent/refurbishment
(5) Legal costs
(6) Consultancy

3. Marketing and communication
a. How much did your organisation spend on publicity and marketing materials in each year between 2005 and 2010?

b. How many press officers did your SHA employ in each year between 2005 and 2010?

4. Hospitality/away days

a. How much money has been spent on hospitality for conferences and meetings (internal and external) in each year between 2005 and 2010?

b. How much money has spent on internal team-building exercises/'away days' in each year between 2005 and 2010?

c. Please list the detail of the 5 most expensive team-building exercises/'away days' that have taken place between 2005 and 2010?

5. Jobs
a. Please provide a list of all job vacancies that have been advertised in the past year. Please include the advertised salary if applicable.

6. Number of complaints received vs number followed up?

a. How many complaints did your SHA receive in each year between 2005 and 2010?

b. How many of those complaints were not resolved/followed up within two weeks?

Our Response

I refer to your email requesting information in respect of NHS East Midlands.

I can confirm in accordance with S.1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) that we do hold the information that you have requested.

I will address each of your requests in turn.

1. Remuneration

How much did the top 20 earners in your SHA receive in salary (incl pension contributions) in each year between 2005 and 2010? Please include the job title for each role.

• Chief Executive, Director and Executive Director pay can be found in our Annual Report and Accounts document on our website at the following link:

http://www.eastmidlands.nhs.uk/about-us/publications/?categoryesctl990746=157

The remaining top earners are Deputy Directors, Associate and Assistant Directors.  Their salary ranges for each year are shown below.

• As at 1st April 2009 – £47,905 to £95,682.26

• As at 1st April 2010 – £54,454 to £97,478 

2. Administration

 a. How much did your SHA spend on the following items in each year between 2005 and 2010? Please give the criteria you are using to define each item - i.e. stationery (all office stationery incl toner, but not PCs and printers).

The information requested can be found in our annual report and accounts documents which capture the spend for the specified items.   Our Annual Report and Accounts documents can be found on our website at the following link:

http://www.eastmidlands.nhs.uk/about-us/publications/

(1)  Stationery
See our Annual Report and Accounts Documents (Establishment Costs)

(2)  Potted plants
See our Annual Report and Accounts Documents (Establishment Costs)

(3)  Furniture
See our Annual Report and Accounts Documents (Premises Costs)

(4)  Office rent/refurbishment
See our Annual Report and Accounts Documents (Premises Costs)

(5)  Legal costs
See our Annual Report and Accounts Documents (Establishment Costs)

 (6) Consultancy
This information has already been the subject of previous FOI requests and can be found at the following link:

http://www.eastmidlands.nhs.uk/about-us/financial-information/consultancy-costs/?locale=en

3. Marketing and communication

 a. How much did your organisation spend on publicity and marketing materials in each year between 2005 and 2010?

• See our Annual Report and Accounts (Establishment costs).  

b. How many press officers did your SHA employ in each year between 2005 and 2010?

• NHS East Midlands came into existence in 2006. It has employed one press officer since January 2008 to the present day. For the full communications team please refer to the structure chart on the NHS East Midland website:

http://www.eastmidlands.nhs.uk/about-us/our-structure/communications-service/

4. Hospitality/away days

a. How much money has been spent on hospitality for conferences and meetings (internal and external) in each year between 2005 and 2010?

b. How much money has spent on internal team-building exercises/'away days' in each year between 2005 and 2010?

c. Please list the detail of the 5 most expensive team-building exercises/'away days' that have taken place between 2005 and 2010?

NHS East Midlands has considered your request for the information requested in question 4 along with the information that we hold.  The nature of this section of your request is very wide and we are unable to extract these details from our financial systems without a significant amount of work.  This would involve us locating and reviewing every invoice posted to conferences and meetings etc.  We estimate that complying with this section of your overall request would exceed the appropriate costs limit as laid out in section 12 of the FOIA. This limit is currently set at £450. We have estimated that to locate the information, retrieve and extract it, would take in excess of 18 hours. At the hourly rate of £25 per person per hour as set by regulation 4 of the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, this would exceed the costs limit.  Therefore, we are unable to disclose information to you in this instance as this would place too high a burden on the resources of NHS East Midlands.

In accordance with our duty under section 16 FOIA to provide advice and assistance, we would like to make you aware that you may resubmit a narrowed down request for information which can be handled within the 18 hours fees limit. Please note however that whilst we would not look to discourage you from narrowing your request, it is possible that further exemptions may be applicable which would potentially prevent disclosure.

5. Jobs

a. Please provide a list of all job vacancies that have been advertised in the past year. Please include the advertised salary if applicable.

Job Vacancies – February 2010- February 2011

6. Number of complaints received vs number followed up?

a. How many complaints did your SHA receive in each year between 2005 and 2010?

We have provided below the figures which relate to complaints against NHS East Midlands which were reported in our Annual Reports.  Please note that the figures for 2005/6 are for the former Trent Strategic Health Authority. 

b. How many of those complaints were not resolved/followed up within two weeks?

• The two week time frame does not apply to Strategic Health Authorities which follow the NHS Complaints procedure allowance of 35 days.

I hope that this information is of use.  If you are dissatisfied with the way in which we have dealt with your request you can ask us to review our decision by writing to:-

Mr Moosa Patel
Director of Corporate Affairs
NHS East Midlands
Octavia House
Interchange Business Park
Bostock's Lane
Sandiacre
Nottingham
NG10 5QG

If at the conclusion of any review you remain dissatisfied you may complain to the Information Commissioner who can be contacted at:-

The Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF