Agency worker: Agreements, Contracts, pay scales

Dear Mr Blair

Thank you for your email dated 8 February 2009 in which you have requested
information in respect of, amongst other things, Agency worker's
Agreements, contracts, and pay scales.

We are considering your request under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, and hope to respond within the statutory 20 working
days.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, either
myself or a colleague will let you know the likely charges before
proceeding.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Chris Tanriverdi

Paralegal

Democratic & Legal Services

Chief Executives's Department

5th Floor South Side, Taberner House

Park Lane, Croydon CR9 3JS

Tel : 020 8726 6000 Ext: 63833

Fax: 020 8407 1322

Faxination:020 8633 9664

Email: [1][email address]

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Dear Mr Blair

Thank you for your email dated 8 February 2009 in which you request
information in respect of, amongst other things, the Council's Agency
worker's Agreements, contracts, and pay scales. We have now considered
your request under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA).

We have conducted a search into our records and can confirm that the
Council holds the information you have requested. However the Council is
unable to disclose all of the information that you have requested to you
for the reasons set out below.

To find the relevant information that you request Council officers would
have to sift through copious amounts of data and spend a substantial
amount of time putting this in the form that you require. The resultant
information that Council officers uncover would then need to be examined
individually to ensure compliance with the FOIA and redacted accordingly
where applicable before disclosure to you. Therefore the cumulative time
it would take for Council officers to provide the information you have
requested would exceed the "appropriate limit".

The appropriate limit has been specified in the Freedom of Information
(Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004 and for local authorities it
is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending
2½ working days in locating, retrieving and extracting the information
from where it is stored. Under Section 12 of the FOIA the Council is not
obliged to comply with your request and we will not be processing your
request further.

If you are unhappy with the way the department has handled your request
under the Freedom of Information Act, you may ask for an internal review.
You can do this by outlining the details of your complaint and either:

o e-mailing us at [Croydon Borough Council request email]
o faxing us on 0208 760 5679
o writing to FOI Complaints, London Borough of Croydon, Democratic and
Legal Services, Croydon, CR9 3JS

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

o Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

James Derby

Corporate Solicitor

Legal & Democratic Services

London Borough of Croydon

Taberner House

Park Lane

CR9 3JS

Tel: 020 8760 5768 Ext. 61359

Fax: 020 8760 5679

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Dear Mr. Blair,

Thank you for your email dated 23 February, 2008, requesting an Internal
Review of your recent Freedom of Information request.

I am dealing with your request for a review under the terms of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000.

I will contact you again as soon as I have completed the review. This
should normally take no longer than 20 working days, from receipt of your
request for a review. The deadline for a response for this review is 16
March 2009.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely,

Howard Passman

Information Management Manager

Democratic & Legal Services Division

Southside, 5th Floor Taberner House

Park Lane, Croydon CR9 3JS

020 8726 6000 ext. 62318

www.croydon.gov.uk

www.croydon.gov.uk/agenda

www.croydon.gov.uk/webcasting

www.croydononline.org (Community Website)

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Dear Mr. Blair

Further to my email to you dated 4 March 2009, I have now completed the
internal review of the response to your request for information in respect
of Agency Worker agreements contracts and pay scales. Please accept my
apologies for the delay in responding to your request for a review.

In your email to me dated 8 March you further limited your request for
review, to the Councils response on items 1.1 and 1.3. I have therefore
only reviewed the Council's responses in respect of those items in your
request and can respond as follows:

"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."

Following additional enquiries, I have now been informed that the Council
does not hold individual agreements or contracts with individual agency
workers or agencies for the provision of temporary staff.

"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. "

I have been informed that the Council's Managed Service Provider is
Comensura, who have a contract with the Council for the provision of
provision of temporary staff.

I apologise that in its original response the Council did not confirm
whether or not it would provide a copy of the contract with Comensura. I
have considered your request for a copy of the contract in question but am
of the view that it falls under the exemption provided in section 43 of
the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Section 43(2) of the Freedom of
Information Act provides that "Information is exempt information if its
disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the
commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding
it)."

I have gone on to consider whether the public interest in withholding this
contact outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
Having considered the information in the contract I am of the view that it
would not be in the public interest to release this information to you.
This is because when the Council reach the point of re-tendering the
contract it would significantly hinder the Council's ability to undertake
commercial negotiations with third parties and thereby obtain value for
money from public funds which it uses for the services it procures, if
this information were in the public domain.

If you are not content with the outcome of this internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

. Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Howard Passman

Information Management Manager

Democratic & Legal Services Division

Southside, 5th Floor Taberner House

Park Lane, Croydon CR9 3JS

020 8726 6000 ext. 62318

www.croydon.gov.uk

www.croydon.gov.uk/agenda

www.croydon.gov.uk/webcasting

www.croydononline.org (Community Website)

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