System Wybodaeth Gofal Cymunedol Cymru

18 February 2022    

Dear 

ATISN 16090 – Wales Community Care Information System (WCCIS)

Thank you for your request to the Welsh Government for information under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) received on 16 February 2022. You requested the following:  

1. Please provide copies of any recent reviews, analysis, briefings or discussion documents relating to Careworks, WCCIS, Care Director i.e. all WCCIS-related information. All documents should be provided, whether they were written or commissioned by Welsh Government or were submitted unsolicited by other bodies. Timeframe: Documents commissioned or completed 1/10/2020 – present. This represents the period following publication of the WAO report.
2. Minutes of any conversations held between First Minister / other ministers and officials with regard to Careworks, WCCIS, Care Director i.e. all WCCIS-related information. Timeframe: Documents commissioned or completed 1/10/2020 – present. This represents the period following publication of the WAO report.
3. Please provide details of any direct written instruction made by Welsh Government to local authorities in Wales to the effect that they MUST adopt the WCCIS system for their social care services Timeframe: 2015 – present.
4. Please provide any details of any assessment carried out to consider the implications of the Competition Act for the creation and promotion of WCCIS by Welsh Government on its own account or via its agency NWIS. Timeframe: 2015 – present.

Our Response

With regards to Questions 1, 2 and 4, in order to provide you with the information that you have requested would require searches of our electronic filing system.  Initial searches have retrieved over 5,000 pieces of correspondence of various sizes and complexity when using the key term (Welsh Community Care Information System (WCCIS) and time frames that you have requested. Each of these items would need to be manually reviewed to consider whether they are wholly or partially within scope of your request.  Consequently, after considering the regulations and applying the timescales for review, I have decided not to provide you with the information you have requested.

From my assessment, I estimate that it will cost more than the appropriate limit set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 to answer your request. As such, your request should be refused, as dealing with it would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ set out under Section 12 of the Act. The ‘appropriate limit’ is set out in the Freedom of Information & Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations and, for central government, that’s £600 or 24 hours. This means if we estimate it would take over 24 hours to determine whether we hold the information and to thereafter locate, retrieve and extract it then we can refuse the request.  

You may wish to refine your request by being more specific about what information you particularly wish to obtain.  If you do refine your request in this way, this will be treated as a new request. 

With regards to Question 3, Welsh Government does not hold information relating to this.  At no point has Welsh Government mandated to local authorities that they must adopt the platform and have only encouraged that they give it due consideration in light of Welsh Government’s policies, such as A Healthier Wales.

Next Steps

If you are dissatisfied with the Welsh Government’s handling of your request, you can ask for an internal review within 40 working days of the date of this response.  Requests for an internal review should be addressed to the Welsh Government’s Freedom of Information Officer at: 
Information Rights Unit, 
Welsh Government,
Cathays Park, 
Cardiff, 
CF10 3NQ 
or Email: Freedom.ofinformation@gov.wales

Please remember to quote the ATISN reference number above.    

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office, 
Wycliffe House, 
Water Lane, 
Wilmslow, 
Cheshire, 
SK9 5AF.

However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a complaint until it has been through our own internal review process.

Yours sincerely