Directorate of Governance & Law

Director of Governance & Law - Daniel Fenwick

Waltham Forest Town Hall, Forest Road, Walthamstow, E17 4JF

Dear Mr Blair,

Re: Request for information.

I am writing in response to your recent request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, 2000. I apologise for the delay in responding to your request for information. As I explained in my email of 10/03/09, the delay occurred because the nature of your request necessitated consultations with several people both within and outside the Council. We have now received feedback from the Consultations and the Council's response is provided below.

You specifically requested the following:

Contracts or equivalent information/documents

1.1) Copies of any contracts you have for the provision of

temporary worker agency staff, with regards agency/temporary social

care/social worker staff/workers. Contracts you may have with

individual agency staff recruitment businesses/services, hereafter

called 'Vendors'. Or contracts you may have with organisations

like, Comensura, Manpower, Reed, hereafter called 'Managed Service

Provider' who provide Master/Vendor Neutral framework to managed

all vendors on behalf of Public Authorities like yourselves.

I can confirm that we have a Vendor Neutral managed Service contract with Comensura. Attached herewith is the Vendor Neutral Managed Service Contract between London Borough of Waltham Forest and Comensura.

1.2) A list of each Vendor you use and copies of hourly

pay-scales/rates you hold for each Vendor. Whether or not you use

each Vendor via Managed Service Provider framework. Please ensure

any provided pay-scale information provided explains how many years

of experience is required to be applicable to any specific hourly

rate. :- Panel Vendor Agreement or equivalent information/documents

The Council uses over 130 agencies registered and up to 70 agencies at any given time. The pay rates are standard and do not vary by agency. The pay rates are attached. Individual job descriptions and person specifications are attached to every request (except for a small number where there are 'standard' job descriptions) so it is not possible to provide the specific years of experience required for each job title.

1.3 A copy of any contract/agreement used by yourself or any

Managed Service Provider to manage individual Vendors through any

Master/Vendor Neutral framework you operate or participate in, this

is sometimes called a Panel Vendor Agreement.

In response, we have attached to our response the Panel Vendor Agreement used by Comensura.

I trust that this satisfies your request sufficiently, however, if you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you have the right to request a review of the Council's response to your request for information.

If you have such a review request, you may contact the:

Corporate Information Officer

Room 1

Waltham Forest Town Hall

E17 4JF

Tel- 020 84964334

within 28 days of the date of this letter. If you remain unsatisfied with the outcome of that review, you may seek further recourse by lodging an appeal with the Information Commissioner.

Yours Sincerely,

Shirley Orjih

Assistant Corporate Information Officer

Corporate Law Team

Corporate Services

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