FOI1079 FOI Request Concerning Claims and Coroner S Inquests

FOI1079 – FOI request concerning claims and Coroner’s inquests

I can confirm that Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust holds the information you requested. Please see our responses below to your Freedom of Information request:

1. How many members of staff are directly employed at the Trust at present as of 15 December 2015?

As of 15 December 2015, 7070 members of staff are directly employed by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.

2. What was your external legal advice expenditure from 01/04/2014 to 31/03/2015?

Regarding the requested information, we are withholding this information using a section 21(1) exemption under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This exemption covers information which is already reasonably accessible in the public domain.The requested information has previously been disclosed under the Act (FOI908), and our response can therefore be found on thedisclosure log section of our website at the following link: The legal spend can be found on the second tab of the spreadsheet, labelled ‘Legal & Prof’.

Please note that legal and professional spend are grouped together on the Trust ledger. We are therefore unable to provide the external legal advice expenditure separately without compromising the integrity of the data. It should also be noted that external legal advice may be sought by many teams across the Trust, and therefore the spend on such advice may be captured amongst a variety of cost centres who have logged expenditure against the legal and professional subjective. Accordingly, this response covers both external legal advice and professional fees expenditure, and covers the whole Trust, not just the Legal Services Team.

3. What is your budget for external legal advice for the current financial year?

£771,744

As with the above answer to question 2, the budget for external legal advice is grouped with professional fees expenditure and is applicable to a variety of teams across the Trust. The above total therefore also includes the budget for professional fees expenditure, and covers the whole Trust.

4. Please provide the list of the solicitors instructed for external legal advice from 01/04/2014 to 31/03/2015.

As per our answer to question 2, we are applying a section 21(1) exemption under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as the requested information can be found within the response to FOI908, available on the disclosure log section of our website.

5. Please provide the full structure of your legal services team (titles of the positions- no names are required).

6. Please provide qualifications of the members of the legal department.

The following qualifications can be found within the Legal Services team:

Certificate of Law

Capsticks Diploma in Clinical Risk and Claims Management

Foundation Degree in Health and Social Care

Law LLB

BA Hons in Magazine Journalism

BS(c) Hons in Geography

NHS Commissioning Board RCA Lead Investigator Training

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

7. How many active Coroner's Inquest cases are you managing at your Trust as of 15 December 2015?

The figures below are representative of the cases that have been confirmed by the Coroner as open inquests (either with a date set or not). Some cases that remain ‘open’ on the Trust system that have not been included in this figure are omitted as they either remain under investigation by the Coroner (who has not yet decided whether an inquest will be held or not) or have not yet been confirmed as having been referred to the relevant Coroner.

Status / Figure
Inquest Concluded - Awaiting Outcome / 6
Confirmed as Open Inquest – Date Not Set / 9
Confirmed as Open Inquest – Date Set / 33
Total: 48

NB: The figures have been pulled on receipt of the applicant’s request (15 December 2015). This therefore means that there may have been an increase, decrease or alteration in the figures since the data was extracted e.g. an outcome has been returned (and the case has therefore closed) or a date was set.

8. Please provide numbers of:

a) Active clinical negligence claims against your Trust as of 15 December 2015 (claims reported to the NHSLA)?

The Trust currently has 37 active Clinical Negligence claims. These active claims relate to cases received in any given year – many dating back as far as 2011 - and routinely relate to incidents that occurred in previous years.

NB: The figures have been pulled on receipt of the applicant’s request (15 December 2015). This therefore means that there may have been an increase, decrease or alteration in the figures since the data was extracted e.g. a claim has concluded or a new case may have been received.

b) Active clinical negligence claims against your Trust as of 15 December 2015 (claims not reported to the NHSLA)?

All active and confirmed cases against the Trust are immediately escalated to the NHS Litigation Authority. The figure for this question is therefore zero.

c) Active Employer's Liability claims against your Trust as of 15 December 2015 (claims reported to the NHSLA)?

The Trust currently has 53 active Employers Liability claims. These active claims relate to cases received in any given year – many dating back as far as 2011 - and routinely relate to incidents that occurred in previous years.

NB: The figures have been pulled on receipt of the applicant’s request (15 December 2015). This therefore means that there may have been an increase, decrease or alteration in the figures since the data was extracted e.g. a claim has concluded or a new case may have been received.

d) Active Employer's Liability claims against your Trust as of 15 December 2015 (claims not reported to the NHSLA)?

All active and confirmed cases against the Trust are immediately escalated to the NHS Litigation Authority. The figure for this question is therefore zero.

e) Active Public Liability claims against your Trust as of 15 December 2015 (claims reported to the NHSLA)?

The Trust currently has 11 active Public Liability claims. These active claims relate to cases received in any given year – many dating back as far as 2011 - and routinely relate to incidents that occurred in previous years.

NB: The figures have been pulled on receipt of the applicant’s request (15 December 2015). This therefore means that there may have been an increase, decrease or alteration in the figures since the data was extracted e.g. a claim has concluded or a new case may have been received.

f) Active Public Liability claims against your Trust as of 15 December 2015 (claims not reported to the NHSLA)?

All active and confirmed cases against the Trust are immediately escalated to the NHS Litigation Authority. The figure for this question is therefore zero.

9. Please attach a relevant policy and a flowchart which describes the process of how your legal services department communicates the lessons learned from the claims and coroner's inquests to the relevant teams across the Trust, to ensure the effective risk management and prevention of similar incidents and to improve care provided.

SH NCP 14 Claims Management Policy:

SH NCP 15 Claims Management Procedure:

SH NCP 9 Inquest Management Protocol:

Since the last update to the Legal Services policies, work has begun in relation to extracting data for Regulation 28 Reports (Prevention of Future Deaths) even when these do not relate to the Trust, to review if there are any lessons that can be learnt from deaths occurring under the care of other Trusts. When the policies are next updated, this process will be reflected within. Updated policies will be available at the above links.

10. Please provide two, most recent, claims management/legal services reports.

The Quality and Governance Team produces a monthly board report on activity for the Director of Performance, Quality and Safety. Please find the last two updates (October and November 2015) extracted for the Legal Services element of the Quality and Governance function, as requested.

Freedom of Information, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust

6 Sterne Road, Tatchbury Mount, Calmore, Hampshire, SO40 2RZ

Email: , Tel. (02380) 874662