Merry Christmas

Hi All

Its been A long year of ups and downs

Grandads care home say they only had £50 in Grandads wallet for him and they will have to contact Social Worker,The monies still do not add up and after we were told 5 weeks ago that he had £100 something is still very wrong.

I have applied under the Freedom of Information Act for grandads full Social Services case file,Until now I have been persistently told from social services that as it contains Grandads Information they may not have to provide parts of the information,thats only right as it is his information and should be protected under the Data Protection Act.

Now Grandad has made it clear without any doubt that the family can fully act in his capacity to look at paperwork, documentation, etc and already under the Data Protection Act the family have carried out A Complaint against the Stoke on Trent Partnership Trust regarding lack of care provided which the Ombudsman is currently reviewing.

The big issue for Staffordshire County Council is that although they can give me certain documents they cannot give me documents relating to him directly, Lets have a closer look at this.

Firstly Grandad has signed a Written Authority for release of Data.

Second I am Grandads Next Of Kin as Recorded on there own case file and care plans.

Staffordshire County Council have made it clear that any request for information would require yet another capacity assessment on our grandfather being undertaken.

In the course of all other issues involving grandad no other body has had any issue with release of information.

So to sum up it is only right to protect peoples personal information and therefore security should be checked.

If you the reader or another family member are recorded as being "Next Of Kin" This should be enough for A "Subject Access Request" This is a statement that needs to be made in a "Freedom Of Information Request" application to the body who you require the information from.

If any information about only yourself is being held either email, telephone, documents, investigations this is a straight forward "Subject Access Request" in your own name.

It was the opinion of the recent Independent Investigation that Staffordshire County Council should not be using the "Data Protection Act" as an excuse not to provide information.

Lets see what the New Year brings.

Have A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

Stephen & Grandad