Dear Mark

Information Request: FR1519

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request dated 09/10/2009. Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act and is detailed below in italics with our response.

Your original request is detailed below in italics.

1. Has your authority ever found a member of the BNP or any other

political Party guilty of a disciplinary offence related to their

Party membership in the last three years? If so please give

information as to when and how many.

2. Has any parent complained to you regarding the Party membership

of any employee or the expression of political views within School

classrooms under your authority during the last three years?

3. What safeguards do you currently have in place to prevent

members of any political Party promoting their views within

Schools?

Our Response

1. Our records show that no schools have reported that they have disciplined a teacher in the last three years in relation to membership of any political party including the BNP. However, there may have been incidents in individual schools that have not been reported to the County Council.

2. We have no record of any complaints, from parents of children in Northamptonshire maintained schools, regarding the political party membership of any school employee or the expression of political views within classrooms. Schools are responsible for dealing with general complaints under their individual complaints procedures and would not necessarily report such cases to the County Council.

3. Teachers work to a professional code set out by the General
Teaching Council for England. The code sets out certain expectations
on teachers in terms of their integrity. It could be deemed to be a
breech of their professional code of conduct as a teacher to attempt to influence young people by promoting the views of a particular political party, and disciplinary action could be considered under the school Disciplinary Procedures. It is the responsibility of individual governing bodies to monitor the behaviour of staff in their schools. HR advice and guidance would be provided on an individual basis in the event that any such matter was raised.

The disclosure to you of the enclosed information does not give you a right to reproduce or publish such information without the express permission of the County Council or any other owners of the copyright therein.

If you are unhappy with the response, you can ask the Council to review it. To do this please write to the address below:

Paul Edwards

Head of Business Intelligence and Performance

Northamptonshire County Council

PO Box 93

County Hall

Northampton NN1 1AN

If our internal review does not resolve the issue to your complete satisfaction, you have the right to apply to the information Commissioner for a decision at the following address:

Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Or, if you have any complaints in respect of your information request please complete the on-line comments form that can be found at www.northamptonshire.gov.uk, along with a full set of guidance.

Yours sincerely

Gillian Hollowell

Senior Freedom of Information/Data Protection Officer
Legal & Democratic Services

Northamptonshire County Council

Please ask for: Gill Hollowell

Tel: 01603 237407

Our ref: FR1519

Your ref:

Date: 3 November 2009

Northamptonshire County Council

County Hall

PO Box 136

Northampton, NN1 1AT

w. www.northamptonshire.gov.uk

t. 01604 237407

f. 01604 237004

e. [email address]