Freedom of information - HWHCT 288

Our ref: HWHCT-288

Request for Internal Review – Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email request for an internal review of FOI HWHCT-288, which was received on 23 December 2022.
Freedom of Information request and responses to be reviewed:
I wish to submit to the organisation a freedom of information request relating to the organisation’s ICT contracts, specifically around:
1. contact centre contract(s)
2. inbound network services contract (s)
The first part of my request relates to contact centre service contracts which could relate to one of the following:
1. Advanced call distribution to control the flow of calls and maximise customer experience
2. Email, website live chat and integrations with popular social media apps like Facebook and Instagram
3. Performance monitoring tools to track performance, customer satisfaction and other key sales metrics
This could be part of a whole package or separate service applications.
Please send me the following information for each provider:
1. Incumbent Supplier: For each of the contract(s) please can you provide me with the supplier of the contract.
2. Annual Average Spend: For each supplier, please state the annual average (over 3 years) spend for each supplier.
3. Contract Duration: For each supplier, please state the contract duration of the contract expires. If available please also include any contract extensions.
4. Contract Expiry: For each supplier, please state the date of when the contract expires.
5. Contract Review: For each supplier, please state the date of when the contract will be reviewed.
6. Contract Description: For each supplier, please state a brief description of the services provided of the overall contract.
7. Contact Details: For each supplier, please state the person from within the organisation responsible for the contract. Please provide me with their full name, actual job title, contact number and direct email address. At the very least please provide me with their actual job title.
8. Number of Agents; please provide me with the total number of contact centre agents;
9. Number of Sites; please can you provide me with the number of sites the contact centre covers.
10. Manufacturer of the contact centre: Who is the manufacturer of the contact centre system that you operate?
11. Do you use Microsoft Exchange 2003 as your email server? If not, then which products do you use?
12. Number of email users: Approximate number of email users across the organisations.
The second part of my request relates to the use inbound network services contracts which could relate to one of the following:
1. 0800, 0845, 0870, 0844, 0300 number
2. Routing of calls
3. Caller Identifier
4. Caller Profile- linking caller details with caller records
5. Interactive voice response (IVR)
For a contract relating to the above please can you provide me with?
1. Incumbent Supplier: For each of the contract(s) please can you provide me with the supplier of the contract.
2. Annual Average Spend: For each supplier, please state the annual average (over 3 years) spend for each supplier
3. Contract Expiry: For each supplier, please state the date of when the contract expires.
4. Contract Review: For each supplier, please state the date of when the contract will be reviewed.
5. Contract Description: For each supplier, please state a brief description of the services provided of the overall contract.
6. Contact Details: For each supplier, please state the person from within the organisation responsible for the contract. Please provide me with their full name, actual job title, contact number and direct email address.
Please can you acknowledge my request so that I know that the request is being dealt with. If you have any questions or queries in relation to this request, please send me an email and I will respond accordingly. Also, I would appreciate it if the contract information was included within a spreadsheet.

Trust response 13 December 2022:

After consideration we have applied exemption S43 (2) Commercial Interests of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to your request because negotiations around this contract are due to commence in the very near future.
Information is exempt if disclosure could or would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person, including the public authority holding the information.
This is a qualified exemption and therefore subject to the public interest test. We have considered the reasons for and against disclosure below:
Reasons in favour of disclosure:
• The Trust aims to be open and transparent
• The public have right to know how public money is being spent
Reasons against disclosure:
This activity is conducted in a commercial environment and disclosing this level of information could inhibit future procurement exercises and our ability to ensure value for money.
The Trust is obliged to protect its position as a purchaser in a competitive commercial environment and this information being in the public domain at this time could prejudice our bargaining position.
We feel that there is a greater public interest in non-disclosure due to the importance of ensuring a level commercial playing field and achieving best value in negotiations for public sector contracts.
Details of expenditure by this Trust is available on the on the Trust website publication scheme and can be accessed via the following links:
Publication Scheme | Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust (hacw.nhs.uk)
WHaC-Contracts-database_2022.xlsx (live.com)
Expenditure over £25,000 | Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust (hacw.nhs.uk)
Please be aware that although this information is accurate at the time it is provided, it may not be in the future and should not be relied upon.

Review and findings

Your request for an internal review, following the use of Section 31(3) and 43 exemption that was applied, has been passed to me to manage. The FOI Team provided me with the details and handling of your original request. My job was threefold:
• To assess whether the Trust has complied with its responsibilities under the FOI Act
• To consider the information released against the information requested and make a full review of the original request
• To re-consider any public interest in disclosure and determine whether the information should be disclosed.
My review was undertaken as a fresh inquiry into your request, rather than taking as a starting point any decision already reached. My review was also undertaken in the light of the general presumption in the FOI Act in favour of release of information.
Following Internal Review, I have examined and reviewed the response letter we gave in full and have provided my response as described below with amendment to that response to 1. Contact centre contact(s) to:
‘Not Applicable’, as the Trust do not have a contract for Contact centre(s)
Following Internal Review, I have examined and reviewed the response letter we gave in full and have provided my response as described below with amendment to that response to 2. Inbound network services contract(s) to:
1. Incumbent Supplier: For each of the contract(s) please can you provide me with the supplier of the contract.
BT
Redcentric
2. Annual Average Spend: For each supplier, please state the annual average (over 3 years) spend for each supplier
BT - £66k (includes all BT lines unable to split out for the ones requested) Redcentric
3. Contract Expiry: For each supplier, please state the date of when the contract expires.
BT - June 2025
Redcentric - April 2024
4. Contract Review: For each supplier, please state the date of when the contract will be reviewed.

BT - review has already started
Redcentric - not planned – depending on possible ICS wide procurement.
5. Contract Description: For each supplier, please state a brief description of the services provided of the overall contract.
BT - PSTN lines and inbound non-geographic numbers
Redcentric - Overall contract provides a full Unified Comms suite of products
6. Contact Details: For each supplier, please state the person from within the organisation responsible for the contract. Please provide me with their full name, actual job title, contact number and direct email address.
David Brown, Chief Information Officer, David.brown66@nhs.net
Switchboard: 01905 760000
Procurement WHCNHS.Eprocurement@nhs.net
Contracts whcnhs.contractsteam@nhs.net
Please note: That no e-mails or communication of a commercial nature to the above-named individual will be responded to. We provide you with our Contract and Procurement Team email addresses.

My Decision

Therefore, for the reasons listed above I am responding to the original FOI request you made, with the amendments shown in each line of enquiry.
Please be aware that although this information is accurate at the time it is provided, it may not be in the future and should not be relied upon.