Letter to Wilhelmina Cox

Letter from Jill to Wilhelmina Cox,PA to Fiona Edwards, Chief Executive of Surrey & Borders Partnership NHS Trust.


Dear Wilhelmina,

Thank you for your email of the 23rd October below. I welcome the offer you make for our campaign to discuss our outstanding issues and concerns with Jo Young. However we also expect our Freedom of Information Act questions to be answered in writing by Fiona Edwards and/or the other relevant managers, as is legally required. We believe that answers to these questions will influence our future discussions with Jo Young and others.

In particular we are still waiting for an answer to the FOIA question asked at your board meeting in September about the number of service users Surrey and Borders Partnership Trust (SABPT) employs and in what positions?

Since writing to you last I have been very disappointed to find out from the Primary Care Trust that a five year contract to run the Priority Enterprises work schemes, excluding the Old Moat Garden Centre, has already been awarded to the Richmond Fellowship, although some of these schemes will not transfer over until next year. I understand this means that the disabled workers £3 a day payments will not be continued and neither will any hope the workers could have had of opportunities to hold down real jobs paying at least the minimum wage or above be fulfilled under the Richmond Fellowship regime. This is one of the reasons our campaign believes that the contract with the Richmond Fellowship is not in the best interests of the disabled workers. I am still waiting to see a detailed copy of this contract that has been awarded to the Richmond Fellowship.

I have also found out from the Primary Care Trust that no contract has yet been awarded to run The Old Moat Garden Centre. MCCH Ltd has been doing a consultation on the centre and their report is due in December. My original FOIA questions asked for details of the accounts of the Priority Enterprises and in particular I want to know details concerning the Old Moat Garden Centre sales figures and running costs. In view of the fact that a contract has not yet been awarded it is essential we see detailed accounts of the Old Moat in order to be able to compare alternative plans for the centre.

Other campaigners such as Mr Des Curley and Mr Paul Tovey have put separate FOIA requests to you and these also need to be answered in writing as is legally required.
As I say, we welcome the opportunity to discuss outstanding matters with Jo Young but we also expect our FOIA questions to be answered in writing as soon as possible bearing in mind that some answers are already months late.

I am sending copies of this mail to Fiona Edwards, Jo Young and other relevant persons.

Yours Sincerely

Jill Goble