Date of Request: 12/09/2016
Date of Disclosure: 13/10/2016
Request and Response
Please find Devon County Council’s response to each of your questions below:
- How many former Independent Living Fund (ILF) recipients reside in your local authority area?
We can confirm that at the point of closure of the ILF on 30th June 2015, there were 164 recipients living in this area.
- How many former ILF recipients who have had community care assessments have had reductions in levels of their care package funding and/or support compared to the total they received from both the ILF and the Local Authority combined before closure?
The transfer of responsibility to councils was completed in July 2015. Some ILF reassessments were completed before July 2015 and others have been completed since July 2015.
To establish exactly how many reassessments have been completed would therefore require an individual review of all 164 cases. We have estimated that this would take approximately 10 minutes per file which would total over 27 hours. Under the Data Protection & Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limits) Regulations 2004 the Council is not required to spend greater than 18 hours locating, extracting or retrieving information in response to a Freedom of Information request. For this reason we feel that Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act applies (cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit).
Of these how many have had reductions:
- a) Of under 10%?
- b) Of between 10 and 20%?
- c) Of between 21 and 40%?
- d) Of between 41 and 50%?
- e) Of over 50%?
Please see our answer above.
- The government has committed to four years’ worth of funding through the former ILF Recipient Grant. Will your local authority be:
– Ring-fencing this to care and support for former ILF recipients?
– Ring-fencing to adult social care?
– Not ring-fencing?
The grant Devon County Council received from government in respect of ILF
funding for 15/16 was not ring fenced by government. The Council has allocated
all of the funding received to the Adult Social Care budgets which pay for
services now provided to former ILF service users as a result of the transfer of
responsibility to Councils.
- How many former ILF recipients have:
- a) as part of their re-assessment been referred for a Continuing Healthcare Assessment
- b) and of these how many were found eligible?
The only way this could be established would be to review all 164 cases individually.
We have estimated that this would take approximately 10 minutes per file which would total over 27 hours. Under the Data Protection & Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limits) Regulations 2004 the Council is not required to spend greater than 18 hours locating, extracting or retrieving information in response to a Freedom of Information request. For this reason we feel that Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act applies (cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit).
- How many complaints have been received from former ILF recipients concerning their re-assessments and the outcomes thereof?
Devon County Council categorise complaints against issues rather than what the complaint is about.
We therefore can confirm that there were 322 issues raised between 1/6/15 and 30/9/16 that relate to assessments but we cannot confirm how many of these related to ILF assessments.
To establish exactly how many reassessments have been completed would therefore require an individual review of all 322 issues. We have estimated that this would take approximately 10 minutes per file which would total over 53 hours. Under the Data Protection & Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limits) Regulations 2004 the Council is not required to spend greater than 18 hours locating, extracting or retrieving information in response to a Freedom of Information request. For this reason we feel that Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act applies (cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit).
- How many former ILF recipients have been moved into residential care following the closure of the ILF?
The only way this could be established would be to review all 164 cases individually.
We have estimated that this would take approximately 10 minutes per file which would total over 27 hours. Under the Data Protection & Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limits) Regulations 2004 the Council is not required to spend greater than 18 hours locating, extracting or retrieving information in response to a Freedom of Information request. For this reason we feel that Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act applies (cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit).