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Alice Leahy Trust Letters to the Irish Times, News and Press

Respect for the homeless

Madam, – The one good thing that emerged clearly from your report on the surveys of homelessness in Dublin is the unequivocal acknowledgment of the complexity of the problem, and the critical importance of support services (Home News, December 15th). However, it is important to stress, as we insist on doing at every opportunity, there are real people behind the statistics, and almost without exception they are extremely vulnerable, and often broken by their experiences.

Therefore, one would imagine that when they seek help, they would be treated with the great sensitivity and respect to which they are entitled. However, to obtain even basic services people who are homeless have to provide an excessive amount of extremely personal information. Because of this, some will not even seek to access services.

Based on our first-hand experience of this, we made a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner, which was upheld, and a reform process was instigated to reduce the invasive and intrusive nature of the harvesting of information from those least able to object (Home News, July 21st, 2008). However, any chance of reform will be reversed if Dublin City Council’s decision to outsource housing support services is implemented. Indeed, the tender documentation compelled us to make another complaint to the Data Commissioner, (Home News, November 30th, 2009) which is being investigated at present, because the very process which we objected to originally, would, if anything, become more serious, and pose an even greater threat to the most vulnerable.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that everyone is entitled to dignity and respect. As your report makes very clear, people who find themselves without a home on our streets have already had their sense of dignity and self-respect shorn away.

The least we can do, when they seek help, is to avoid further undermining them through unnecessarily invasive and intrusive interviews, that in some cases seem unwittingly designed to erase any shred of self-respect they may have left.

– Yours, etc,
ALICE LEAHY,
Director Co-Founder,
Trust,
Bride Road,
Dublin 8.

Alice Leahy Trust Letters to the Irish Times, News and Press, Press Releases

Formal complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner regarding tender process for the outsourcing of Housing Support Services

This matter was raised in the Irish Times and can be read online here.

Below is the full text of TRUST’s complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner.

TRUST makes formal complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner regarding tender process for the outsourcing of Housing Support Services.

13th October 2009

Mr. Billy Hawkes
Data Protection Commissioner
Canal House
Station Road
Portarlington
Co. Laois

Re: Danger to the privacy of people who are homeless through the outsourcing of Housing Support Services by Dublin City Council

Dear Commissioner

Further to our last complaint about the Homeless Agency, which we received correspondence from your office by the then Acting Commissioner Gary Davis, dated 11 July and 11 August 2008, we are very concerned about the outsourcing of Housing Support Services by Dublin City Council, which potentially could result in the abuse of the highly personal and confidential information about people who are homeless, which we complained about in the first instance.

The documentary evidence, which has given rise to our concerns, is the confidential Invitation to Tender document, a copy of which I enclose, and is only made available we understand, to registered potential service providers. Indeed, many of the same questions we raised in our original complaint, which was sent to your office in a letter dated 25 July 2007, a copy of which I also attach, are all relevant again in this context because services will now be outsourced to private contractors.

The tender has been issued by Dublin City Council, acting on behalf of the Dublin Local Authorities in collaboration with the Homeless Agency. You may also be aware that the Homeless Agency, which you discovered had no independent legal personality, and was simply part of Dublin City Council, is now being merged with other agencies. Therefore, our complaint on this occasion must be directed at Dublin City Council, the body with overall responsibility.

Before dealing with the specific concerns which arise out of the Invitation to Tender document, which prompted this new complaint, I think it is important to point out that when services, formerly provided by the state, are outsourced to private contractors, they must be done within very strict budgets or a loss may arise, something all businesses and voluntary bodies will attempt to avoid with considerable vigour. Against that background, great care must be taken to protect the people these new services are meant to help in case the service providers are forced to cut corners. Therefore, you will appreciate when we could find no credible evidence of specific measures designed to guarantee quality of service, or to protect the privacy of vulnerable people in the aforementioned tender document, we became very concerned. In an atmosphere where service providers are under financial pressure, the question must be addressed: will highly vulnerable people, who are often not in a position to complain, be put at risk?

Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA)

The basis for our original complaint was the highly intrusive way in which highly personal information was harvested through the Holistic Needs Assessment document, a concern you clearly found justified on the last occasion. However, as you will see in the Invitation for Tender Document on page 9, under the heading – 3.1.3 Provision of Support (Intensity and Duration), the HNA will not only be shared with the new contractors, but form the basis for the provision of new services, with no reference to the protection of the privacy of very vulnerable people.

In that context, it is worth noting that the Community Welfare Officers, have also expressed real concerns about the manner in which confidential information will be handled by the new contractors. They have, we understand, refused to hand over their confidential files until these issues are addressed. The latter only further increased our concern, especially as it appeared to suggest that little or no concern is being shown for the right to privacy of the most vulnerable.

Indeed, as you will see in Section 3.1 the new service providers will be involved in delivering services across a very broad range, even sourcing mental and other health services. Against that background, confidential information will inevitably be at the core of the new outsourced services, and the protection of the rights of very vulnerable people is clearly imperative.

LINK

You will be aware of our concerns in relation to the LINK system on the last occasion. In fact, sharing data bases will be a fundamental part of the new outsourced services. The Invitation to Tender document makes plain on page 13, under 3.2.3 Contractual Responsibility of the Provider to the Local Authority, that the contractors or service providers must comply with the following:

‘The use of and co-operation with, any IT/shared database systems as prescribed by the Local Authority as relevant to the operation of Housing Support Service(s).’

We have concluded from the foregoing that there must be wholesale data sharing, in a highly systematic way if the outsourced services are to “work” within the framework as laid down by Dublin City Council. We have seen how that worked when the Homeless Agency operated that system as part of Dublin City Council in the past. However, it is clear, if the services are fully outsourced as envisaged, it is conceivable that there will be even less control and protection of the most vulnerable under the new system.

Key Questions that must be addressed:

Before outlining the detailed questions that our concerns give rise to, it is important to stress, that this new system is not in place yet. Therefore, in raising these questions, we are very anxious to prevent a new regime, if possible, that will compromise the rights of the most marginalized in society.

How will proper care be taken, under the system as envisaged in the Invitation to Tender, to ensure that informed consent is obtained from people, who in most instances maybe highly vulnerable and suffer from mental and psychological problems?

What steps will be taken to ensure that the service providers, who take over housing support services, will not be able to use undue pressure to obtain signed consent forms in exchange for the provision of services?

How will the quality of the proposed services be assessed? And who will be responsible for managing that process? (Quality in that sense would include: Are people properly informed of their rights? Is informed consent defined, and what steps are taken to observe agreed protocols in obtaining it? How will the level of training of necessary staff be assessed? What steps are taken to ensure that only highly trained people carry out appropriate functions to ensure vulnerable people’s rights are protected?)

How will the contractors or service provider be monitored to ensure that all information is used and obtained consistent with the Data Protection Act?

In our previous complaint, we were especially concerned about large-scale information harvesting of the most intimate and invasive nature, for which there did not appear to be any need or justification, a contention that you supported in certain instances. When we question how will the quality of services be monitored, such questions must be at the heart of that process, to ensure that people who may already be suffering from mental problems will not be subjected to further pain by insufficiently trained or inexperienced staff.

The pressure that is brought to bear on private contractors and service providers to work within their budgets, poses real risks for the most vulnerable. Indeed, when we submitted our complaint in 2007, we offered anecdotal evidence, that suggested that untested allegations were entered on LINK, and were often used to bar individuals from access to services. In a situation, as envisaged by the Invitation to Tender, where the pressure will be placed on those agencies that win contracts to ensure that people are ‘improved’, will that result in even more emphasis on entering allegations in the system to ensure that people perceived as ‘difficult’ are denied access to services, without having the opportunity to defend themselves?

In conclusion, we acknowledge that this complaint is of necessity a pre-emptive action, because the way in which housing support services will be outsourced, under the terms as outlined in the Invitation to Tender document, appear to pose a grave risk to very vulnerable people. On that basis, we urge you to act urgently to review in detail the tender process, because if the services are rolled out as outlined, it may be both difficult and costly to act to protect people after they are established.

I look forward to hearing from you.

With very best regards

Yours sincerely

Alice Leahy
Director & Co-Founder
TRUST

Alice Leahy Trust Letters to the Irish Times, News and Press

Prisons have become a dumping ground for people with severe mental health problems

Madam,

Any of your readers who read Dr Conor O’Neill’s article (Law Matters, November 16th) were doubtless shocked to realise that our prisons have become a kind of dumping ground for many with severe mental health problems, the treatment of which, as he rightly asserts, is not one of their functions. We have been campaigning for many years against the criminalisation of people who are homeless, who can very easily end up in prison after they become entangled with the criminal justice system because they suffer from a mental illness.

Indeed, it is inexcusable in a society that is supposed to be committed to the protection of every citizen’s rights that our courts are expected to act as proxies for mental health services in identifying mental illness, or be expected to arrange treatment, something we witness on a frighteningly regular basis.

However, it is very important to stress that homelessness is not synonymous with mental illness, and like any outsider in society, a person who is without a home can very easily be misunderstood and criminalised for many reasons. Nonetheless, the failure to provide proper community mental healthcare services means that the most vulnerable invariably end up before the courts when their failure to receive treatment leads to breaches of the law.

Closing psychiatric hospitals without providing adequate community care has resulted in many people becoming homeless over the years and, indeed, remaining so, and often ending up in prison before the care they need is provided. The criminalisation of the mentally ill person represents one of the most serious human rights issue confronting Ireland today, and we have shamefully failed our most vulnerable fellow citizens in this area, and we cannot allow that scandal to continue.

– Yours, etc,

ALICE LEAHY,
Director and co-founder
Trust,
Bride Road,
Dublin 8.

Alice Leahy Trust News and Press, Press Releases

We have no future unless we give our young people a future

“We have no future unless we give our young people a future, and turning down a staggering 65% of students who applied for VEC PLC courses means putting all our futures at risk”

Alice Leahy, Director and Co-founder, TRUST presenting Certificates to students at the Liberties College

“Ireland’s best hope is to give young people educational opportunities because they will make a difference for all of us”

Congratulating students on their success in the Liberties College today (Thurs. 22 Oct, 2009) Alice Leahy, Director and Co-Founder of TRUST, the Liberties’ based health and social service for people who are homeless, said that they represent Ireland’s future and we all forget that at our peril. In many ways the current generation of politicians have let us all down, but she was highly confident that the talented and highly educated young people emerging from all of our third level colleges would make a difference, and denying educational opportunities to anyone was not only immoral, it posed a threat to Ireland future progress and prosperity.

“We have no future unless we give our young people a future, and turning down a staggering 65% of students who applied for PLC courses means putting all our futures at risk,” Alice Leahy said.

Describing the cap on placements on VEC PLC course as indefensible, with only 13,000 awarded places out of 37,000 applications, she said that politicians and policy makers had forgotten the reasons why we made such great strides in recent decades. “Ireland’s best hope is to give young people educational opportunities because they will make a difference for all of us. We proved that in the past with the universal acknowledgement that our well educated young people were the most valuable resource in helping our development, especially since we joined the European Union.,” Alice Leahy said.

Alice Leahy made her remarks when presenting PLC and Community Education Awards to students, who were successful in a range of disciplines including professional art and design, media, interior design, community care, nutrition and health care, counseling, child care and special needs education.