Request
Could you please provide me with the following information under the freedom of information act.
We would like to identify which trusts we can benefit the most with the following information:
1. How many temporary staff does the organisation currently have (for equivalent banding of 6 to 9)? This is only for non-clinical temporary staff including interim managers, project managers, directors etc.
2. How many fixed term contract (non-permanent employees) people does the organisation have for banding 6-9?
3. What (if any) projects each budget holder has within their work plans for the next 6 months?
4. If possible, a list of the budget holders within the organisation and a brief description to which services they hold the budget for.
Whilst we would hope that the majority of this information is already available within the trust on excel sheets or management reports, we acknowledge that some of this information may not be possible within the 18hour allocation. As we are charity, we are not in a position to buy said information and would ask that you kindly furnish us with as much of the above as possible within the allocated time limit. We would look more towards questions 1 and 4 as the priority.
Our Response
I refer to your email requesting information in respect of NHS Midlands and East (East Midlands Office).
I can confirm in accordance with S.1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) that we do not hold all of the information that you have requested.
However, I will address each of your queries in turn:
1. How many temporary staff does the organisation currently have (for equivalent banding of 6 to 9)? This is only for non-clinical temporary staff including interim managers, project managers, directors etc.
2. How many fixed term contract (non-permanent employees) people does the organisation have for banding 6-9?
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Less than 5 members of staff. We feel that this information is exempt by reason of Section 40 of the FOIA. This exemption is an absolute exemption relating to Personal Information, as the information you have requested relates to less than 5 members of staff in line with the current guidance available to us on the use of small number data. The purpose of section 40 of the Act is to protect personally identifiable information and the privacy of living persons.
3. What (if any) projects each budget holder has within their work plans for the next 6 months?
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NHS East Midlands does not hold this information in a centrally retrievable format. However, NHS Midlands and East Directors have overall control of budgets relating to their individual portfolio’s.
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We are currently in the process of amending our website to reflect a number of internal changes that have recently taken place following the clustering of NHS East Midlands with NHS West Midlands and NHS East of England. We hope to have further details of our SHA cluster Directors and their respective portfolio’s updated and online by the end of this year. By this point we also hope to have available further details of the cluster SHA’s internal directorates, their senior members of staff and their areas of responsibility. We are therefore of the opinion that Section 22 of the FOIA is engaged at this point in time. Section 22 relates to information that is intended for publication at a later point in time.
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We recognise that there is a public interest in making information available to the public about how NHS organisations operate and are staffed and what individuals are responsible for within the organisation so that the health service can be held accountable for decisions that it makes.
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However, we also believe it is in the public interest to ensure that members of the public and other stakeholders have access to accurate and complete information about the organisation, its responsibilities and staffing arrangements. We believe that releasing incomplete and misleading information relating to the internal governance of the SHA cluster would cause confusion to the public and other partners and stakeholders. We therefore believe that it is also in the public interest for this data to be finalised before it is publicly released.
4. If possible, a list of the budget holders within the organisation and a brief description to which services they hold the budget for.
I am able to provide you with a general summary version of our SHA cluster Executive Team which defines the wider areas of responsibility within individual Director profiles which you will find attached.
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
