Adult and Children’s Social Services; Are minute takers independent from cases.

Dear Ms Hersom

Thank you for your email below. 

Kent County Council acknowledges your request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Assuming KCC holds this information, we
will endeavour to supply the data to you as soon as possible but no later
than 31st October 2011 (20 working days from date of receipt).

 

We will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold this information
or if there are exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for providing
the information. Please quote our reference - FOI/11/1387 - in any
communication regarding this particular request.

 

Best regards

 

Laura Crawford
Access to Information Officer
Information Resilience & Transparency Team
Business Strategy & Support, Governance & Law
Kent County Council, Room 2.71, Sessions House, County Road, Maidstone,
ME14 1XQ. 
Telephone: 01622 694261, Internal: 7000 4261, Fax: 01622 696075
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/cont...

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Dear Ms Hersom
 
Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.
 
We have answered your questions split between Children's Social Services
and Adult's Social Services below in the order they were raised.
 
    a) Are minute takers employed by the LA or outside agency?    
 

ChildrenÂ*s Social Services do not employ dedicated minute takers but
rather the role is incorporated within the administrative role.
ChildrenÂ*s social services do when there is a need engage the services of
Kent Top Temps Ltd in order to provide additional temporary resource. As
such they are supplied via a recruitment agency and not by Kent County
Council.

 
In Adult Social Services all are employed by the Local Authority
 
     b) Are minute takers independent and impartial to the case between
     LA, professionals and service user? 
 

CSS - Administrative officers do not have a decision making role and
therefore should not influence the case. Where an administrative officer
has a relationship with a service user in a meeting they have been asked
to minute, the administrative officer should make this known to the
chairperson of the meeting. A decision should then be taken about whether
it is appropriate for the administrative officer to minute the meeting.

 

ASS - Yes

 

     c) Are minute takers briefed by professionals or LA before / after
     a case commences?   
 

CSS - This will depend upon the nature and purpose of the meeting. It is
important that the administrative officer is clear about the purpose of
the meeting but it is not necessary for them to have a detailed knowledge
of the case.

 

ASS - If required or appropriate.  
 
     d) Are minute takers privileged to read any notes, reports or
     medical reports on the service user prior to meetings / conferences
     and / or after meetings / conferences?  
 

CSS - Again this will be dependent on the meeting as in some cases this
maybe helpful in preparing the administrative officer to understand who is
related to who in a family and who will be present at the meeting. In
addition at times the chair may make reference to a particular section of
a report and the administrative officer would need to read this where
necessary to incorporate into the minutes if considered relevant by the
chairperson.

 

ASS - They may have access to appropriate relevant information to aid them
in minute taking
     e) Who is responsible for typing up the notes made by the minute
     taker? Is it the same person who took minutes at the meeting or
     someone else? 
 
CSS - In all but exceptional circumstances (such as long term sickness),
the minutes will be typed up by the administrative assistant who took
them.
  
ASS - The minute taker    
 
    f) What is the time scale for the end user to receive their copy of
     the minutes? 
 

CSS - This depends upon the status of the meeting, for example strategy
minutes should be sent where possible within 48 hours and days, looked
after children reviews within 15 working days.

 
ASS - Timescale depends on the individual case
 
     g) Who is responsible for posting copies of minutes out to end
     user?  
 

CSS - This is an administrative task.

 
ASS - This would either be the minute taker or someone closely associated
within the same support team 
     h) If item (e) or item (g) is a different person or department
     responsible for typing / posting copies of minutes, what measures
     are taken to avoid contamination of a report? By this I mean
     fabricating, or altering minutes in such a way to mislead other
     professionals.  
 

CSS - In all but the exceptional circumstances highlighted above this will
be undertaken by the person responsible for completing them. Prior to this
they will be Â*signed offÂ* and agreed by the chairperson. The letter
accompanying minutes should invite recipients to respond if disagree with
minutes and if there is a subsequent meeting this can be addressed there.

 

ASS - N/A

 
 i) How many end users have raised concerns or complaint that
     minutes taken in a meeting that were inaccurate or misleading in
     one way or another. Please provide statistics over the last 5
     years, year by year. 
 
CSS - As our database does not have a separate field for complaints about
minutes of meetings we are not able to answer without reading every
complaint which would be a huge task.  It would also mean retrieving over
1,000 complaint files from our archives.  We estimate that to extrapolate
and collate the information you require would involve more than 18 hours
work, which at the £25 hourly rate set by the Ministry of Justice, would
exceed the £450 cost limit. Therefore, under section 12 of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000, we are not obliged to comply with your request
and are exercising our right to refuse to deal.
 
ASS - For Adult Social Services there are none that they are aware of.
 
If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/11/1387.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information CommissionerÂ*s website
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Regards

Michelle Hunt
Information Governance Specialist
Information Resilience & Transparency
Business Strategy and Support
Governance & Law
Room 2.71, Sessions House
Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ
External: 01622 696692
Internal: 7000 6692
 

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