McGill G, Wilson G, Hill M, et al. Utilisation of the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant in NHS Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups across England: a freedom of information investigation. BMJ Open 2019;9:e022053. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022053.
The previous version of this manuscript contains an error in ‘Data sources’ section figure as well as ‘Results’ section percentage rates. It should appear as:
Data sources
Between 1 July and 31 October 2015, identical FOI requests were sent to 242 NHS Trusts in England. In addition, between October 2015 and January 2016, identical FOI requests were sent to all 209 CCGs in England.
Results
The results are divided into two parts based on Phase One and Phase Two of the study. The information provided in response to the survey covered a range of descriptions about the Armed Forces Covenant, the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment process and commissioning responsibility, as well as about the nature and extent of veteran specific services. Of the 242 NHS Trusts and 209 CCGs that the FOI request was sent to, the response rate was 40% (n=97) and 74% (n=155) respectively. Although the FOIA imposes a statutory duty to respond to request for information within 20 working days, 13% (n=31) of responding NHS Trusts and 34% (n=54) of responding CCGs did not meet this statutory requirement along with those that did not respond at all.
Phase 1
Figure 1 shows the response rate from all the NHS Trusts contacted. Of the 156 NHS acute trusts contacted, only 21 responded to this FOI request. Six of eight NHS ambulance trusts, 14 of 19 NHS healthcare trusts and 56 of 59 NHS mental health trusts also responded.
Figure 2 reports whether the Trusts had appointed a veteran lead within their organisation. As with Figure 1, the mental health and ambulance trusts had the highest response rate. Just over half of all responses 56.7% (n=55) had appointed veteran leads.
Instead of
Data sources
Between 1 July and 31 October 2015, identical FOI requests were sent to 272 NHS Trusts in England. In addition, between October 2015 and January 2016, identical FOI requests were sent to all 209 CCGs in England.
Results
The results are divided into two parts based on phase 1 and phase 2 of the study. The information provided in response to the survey covered a range of descriptions about the Armed Forces Covenant, the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) process and commissioning responsibility, as well as about the nature and extent of veteran-specific services. Of the 272 NHS Trusts and 209 CCGs that the FOI request was sent to, the response rate was 86% (n=236) and 74% (n=155), respectively. Although the FOIA imposes a statutory duty to respond to request for information within 20 working days, 13% of responding NHS Trusts (n=272) and 26% of responding CCGs (n=209) did not meet this statutory requirement along with those that did not respond at all.
Phase 1
Figure 1 shows the response rate from all the NHS Trusts contacted. Of the 156 NHS Acute Trusts contacted, only 21 responded to this FOI request. Six of eight NHS Ambulance Trusts, 14 of 19 NHS Healthcare Trusts and 56 of 59 NHS Mental Health Trusts also responded.
Figure 2 reports whether the Trusts had appointed a veteran lead within their organisation. As with figure 1, the Mental Health and Ambulance Trusts had the highest response rate. However, little more than a third had appointed veteran leads (36% n=151).