Adult Care Consultancy Spend Contracts

Dear Worcestershire County Council,

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act I would like to
make a Freedom of Information Request in relation to Worcestershire
County Council’s use of OLM to review funding levels for services
provided for people with learning disabilities, mental health
issues and people from other service areas.

Please could you provide details of the contractual arrangement
between Worcestershire County Council and OLM with regard to this
work.

Specifically can you provide:

A copy of any contracts and appendices between the council and OLM
Financial Management and/or OLM Group together with the monetary
amounts of these contracts (redacted where necessary)

May I refer you to Reference: FS50258669 Freedom of Information Act
2000 Decision Notice Date: 30 March 2011 against Brent Council
where the Information Commissioner clearly found that contracts
with OLM should be released. If you do not release the requested
information please detail how you have dealt with each of the
points that warranted disclosure identified by the Information
Commissioner in the above Decision Notice.

The guidelines for the FOI Act require you to disclose as much of
the information as possible. The fact that there may be some exempt
information does not preclude disclosure of information with
appropriate redactions.

Moreover I draw your attention to a statement made by Information
Commissioner, Chris Graham:

"It should be absolutely routine that details of contracts, value
of contracts, expenses, minutes of top-level meetings just should
be up there on departmental websites."
I should not need to outline the well-established principle that it
is in the public interest to publish contracts with suppliers in
order to create a fair marketplace. Numerous decisions by the
Commissioner and the Tribunal which you will be aware of attest to
that.

When it comes to matters of the public interest you will be aware
that the Information Commissioner has supported the disclosure of
information in many cases making amongst others the following
points as benefits of disclosure to encourage disclosure of
information by public bodies:
furthering understanding of and participation in debate about the
issues of the day
. promoting accountability and transparency regarding the spending
of public money.
improving decision-making by obliging officials to make reasoned
explanations for their decisions.
allowing individuals and companies to understand decisions made
which affect their lives and enabling them to challenge those
decisions.

The OLM Financial Management consultancy team is a service run by
OLM Systems Limited.

Yours faithfully,

Grace Walker

Dear Worcestershire County Council,

I have not received an acknowledgement for my request dated 11 July
so I am resending the request. Please note the 20 day limit
commenced on 11 July.

Yours faithfully,

Grace Walker

Dear Worcestershire County Council,

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act I would like to
make a Freedom of Information Request in relation to Worcestershire
County Council’s use of OLM to review funding levels for services
provided for people with learning disabilities, mental health
issues and people from other service areas.

Please could you provide details of the contractual arrangement
between Worcestershire County Council and OLM with regard to this
work.

Specifically can you provide:

A copy of any contracts and appendices between the council and OLM
Financial Management and/or OLM Group together with the monetary
amounts of these contracts (redacted where necessary)

May I refer you to Reference: FS50258669 Freedom of Information Act
2000 Decision Notice Date: 30 March 2011 against Brent Council
where the Information Commissioner clearly found that contracts
with OLM should be released. If you do not release the requested
information please detail how you have dealt with each of the
points that warranted disclosure identified by the Information
Commissioner in the above Decision Notice.

The guidelines for the FOI Act require you to disclose as much of
the information as possible. The fact that there may be some exempt
information does not preclude disclosure of information with
appropriate redactions.

Moreover I draw your attention to a statement made by Information
Commissioner, Chris Graham:

"It should be absolutely routine that details of contracts, value
of contracts, expenses, minutes of top-level meetings just should
be up there on departmental websites."
I should not need to outline the well-established principle that it
is in the public interest to publish contracts with suppliers in
order to create a fair marketplace. Numerous decisions by the
Commissioner and the Tribunal which you will be aware of attest to
that.

When it comes to matters of the public interest you will be aware
that the Information Commissioner has supported the disclosure of
information in many cases making amongst others the following
points as benefits of disclosure to encourage disclosure of
information by public bodies:
furthering understanding of and participation in debate about the
issues of the day
. promoting accountability and transparency regarding the spending
of public money.
improving decision-making by obliging officials to make reasoned
explanations for their decisions.
allowing individuals and companies to understand decisions made
which affect their lives and enabling them to challenge those
decisions.

The OLM Financial Management consultancy team is a service run by
OLM Systems Limited.

Yours faithfully,

Grace Walker

Dear Marshall, Vicki (ACS, CHall),

The precedent of a number of authorities releasing their contracts
with OLM has already been set with those authorities unable to rely
on section 43(2) in the same circumstances.

I draw your attention to Reference:FS50258669 Freedom of
Information Act 2000 Decision Notice Date: 30
March 2011 against Brent Council where the Information Commissioner
clearly found that contracts with OLM should be released. Your
review should not take long considering the Information
Commissioners findings in this case and the release of contracts by
other authorities.

Many public authorities release their contracts with private
vendors in line with the Freedom of Information Act. The exemption
for commercial interest under the Act (section 43) is a qualified
exemption, which means information can only be withheld if it is in
the public’s interest. The public have an interest in knowing the
terms of contracts awarded by public authorities, whether or not
public money changes hands immediately.

Yours sincerely,

Grace Walker