Information relating to Harper House: FOI release

Information requested

Information relating to Harper House;

1. How many individuals, since the facility opened until present day (July 2023), have used the facility? Please confirm for each individual if they brought families.
2. An explanation as to why the Scottish Government has not sought information regarding staff numbers, staff costs, and length of stay.
3. How much money the Scottish Government has spent to date on the establishment and running of Harper House?

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

How many individuals, since the facility opened until present day (July 2023), have used the facility? Please confirm for each individual if they brought families

Most information you have requested is already available publicly. Public Health Scotland routinely publish this information on our behalf as part of their evaluation of the National Mission on Drug Deaths. Information up to quarter 4 of 2022/23 is available here, this shows that to 31 March 2023 Harper House had a total of 9 approved placements. I can confirm that at least one child accompanied each adult with an approved placement. The next publication that will cover the first half of 2023/24 is due to take place in December 2023. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to provide you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet accessto obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a
paper copy.

An explanation as to why the Scottish Government has not sought information regarding staff numbers, staff costs, and length of stay.

Phoenix Futures have provided information on monthly staff cost expenditure from April 2022 as part of the grant management process. This can be seen in the table below.

Table 1: Harper House Staff Costs 2022/23

Apr-22	May-22	Jun-22	Jul-22	Aug-22	Sep-22	Oct-22	Nov-22	Dec-22	Jan-23	Feb-23	Mar-23	Total 2022/23
£42,374	£46,152	£52,094	£69,284	£73,663	£75,709	£80,194	£78,848	£102,387	£89,839	£88,739	£90,838	£890,121

Table 2: Harper House Staff Costs 2023/24

Apr-23	May-23	Jun-23	Total 2023/24 to date
£74,988	£77,439	£79,089	£231,516

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for in relation to staff hourly rates, staff numbers, and job titles because as previously stated this information is proprietary information held by Phoenix Futures and the Scottish Government do not ask for this as part of the grant monitoring process. We have also not asked for information on the length of stay of residents to be shared with us at this time. However this information will be shared with Public Health Scotland as part of their evaluation of the National Mission on Drug Deaths.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

• How much money the Scottish Government has spent to date on the establishment and running of Harper House?

To date Phoenix Futures have drawn down £ 4,291,075 of the awarded £8,738,423 to date. This is in line with the agreed schedule for drawing down the available funds and covers both capital and revenue funding.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.