Local advocacy services (FOI)

Request 

I have some questions about taxpayer money spent on local advocacy services. I have engaged with one such provider and found them unhelpful. 

A

Can you confirm how much in total of government funding was received in 2020, 2021 and 2022 (to date) on My Voice, Jersey Cares and any other local advocacy service (please name)?

B

Who in the civil service and government (Minister) is accountable for the monitoring of this funding and reviewing each provider?

C

Can you provide the reports provided to Government of Jersey by services receiving funding in the last three years evidencing how the money has been used?

D

In terms of My Voice, how many individuals received advocacy support in 2020, 2021 and to date in 2022? How many total advocacy contacts were made in 2020, 2021 and to date in 2022 by My Voice? Can you provide any evidence of the impact of the service?

E

In terms of question D how many were children and how many adults? Is there data on total numbers of people supported per category of support such as disability, mental health, illness?

F

Can you provide feedback provided by each agency providing advocacy funding from people who used their services to monitor if the money is providing valued input?

G

Can you confirm dates of formal review by Government officers for all advocacy agencies funded in 2020, 2021 and to date in 2022?

H

Can you provide total numbers of staff employed by My Voice and their qualifications?

I

Can you confirm if funding is agreed for any future years for advocacy services from any provider?

Response

A

The Government of Jersey provides funding to My Voice, Jersey Cares and Barnardo's in respect of advocacy services. The total funding provided for the years in question is as follows:

A further breakdown of funding by service has not been provided, as this would likely prejudice the commercial interests of both the Government and the commissioned services. Article 33(b) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

B

The contract with My Voice is managed under the Health and Community Services (HCS) department through the Director General and reporting to the Health and Social Services Minister. 

The contracts with Jersey Cares and Barnardo's are managed under the Children, Young People, Education and Skills (CYPES) department through the Director General and reporting to the Minister for Children and Education.

C

My Voice 

My Voice provides advocacy to service users in many situations, including Mental Health encounters (whether independent or with community providers, including informal interactions), for capacity assessments (with independent or community providers), and in other situations requiring care advocacy. Detailed breakdowns of service users in particular demographics include small numbers which could lead to service user identification. For this reason, the reports cannot be shared in their entirety and Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect individual privacy.  

Jersey Cares

The reports provided by Jersey Cares contain sensitive detail of service users in particular demographics, which include small numbers. For this reason, the reports cannot be shared in their entirety and Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect individual privacy. Total numbers of service users for each reporting period are provided in the tables below:

Barnardo's

The reports provided by Barnardo's contain sensitive detail of service users in particular demographics, which include small numbers. For this reason, the reports cannot be shared in their entirety and Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect individual privacy. Total numbers of service users per quarter are provided in the tables below:

D

Number of individuals supported by My Voice

Number of contacts made by My Voice

E

Prior to 2022, data has not been split by number of people per category, but by number of contacts per category as detailed below:

Please note, for 2020 and 2021 'Children' includes those under 16 years of age. 2022 figures include all those under 18 years of age as 'Children'.

Please note, the Autism or Learning Disability pilot only commenced in March 2021.

F

HCS response

Advocate feedback to the My Voice service focusses on the following points:

• Route of contact
• Client concerns (with summary)
• Objectives to achieve through advocacy
• Outcomes achieved
• Effective strategies employed
• Evaluation of situation following advocacy access
• Assessment of impact of advocacy for the client
• Assessment of impact of advocacy on other services and / or resources
• Reflection
  

The feedback accounts describe positive outcomes achieved for clients through the My Voice advocacy service. Individual feedback accounts contain personal information and details pertinent to each person's experiences and circumstances which, if shared, could lead to service user identification. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect individuals' privacy.

CYPES response

Anonymous feedback for the Jersey Cares advocacy service has been collated. Accounts which include information that could lead to individual identification have not been included. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect individuals' privacy.

Please see attached Jersey Cares Feedback. 

Jersey Cares Feedback (pdf)

Anonymous feedback for the Barnardo's advocacy service has been collated. Accounts which include information that could lead to individual identification have not been included. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect individual privacy.

Please see attached Barnardo's Feedback. 

 Barnardo's Feedback (pdf) 

G

HCS response 

Government officers perform quarterly and annual reviews, with monthly exception reporting against contractual agreements.

CYPES response

Both Jersey Cares and Barnardo's submit quarterly reports. These are reviewed during monitoring meetings held throughout the year. Below are the dates of the monitoring meetings during the period in question:

H

My Voice have 6 staff. 2 fully qualified Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHA), 2 fully qualified Independent Capacity Advocates (ICA) and 3 trainees. One staff member holds both IMHA and ICA qualifications.

I

Funding of independent Mental Health advocacy services is a statutory requirement which the Government if committed to fulfil. The budget for this funding is yet to be finalised. This will be determined by market value at the time these services next go out to tender.

Articles Applied 

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.

Article 33 - Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Public Interest Test

Article 33 is a qualified exemption and as such a prejudice test has been conducted as required by law.

HCS has assessed whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in supplying the information is outweighed by the prejudice that would likely result by doing so. It is recognised that there is a public interest in transparency about the contracts held between the Government and commissioned services.

However, having considered the public interest, HCS has concluded that the public interest in disclosing this information is outweighed by the potential prejudice that would likely result, as the services provided are under regular review and are subject to tendering processes periodically. As such, disclosing detailed contract information would likely harm securing value for money when commissioning new services or re-negotiating contracts in future.