Back office benchmarking

Brian Farnet made this Freedom of Information request to Haringey Borough Council

The request was partially successful.

From: Brian Farnet

2 April 2011

Dear Haringey Borough Council,

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would like to request back
office statistics and information covering the following indicators
below. Definitions for each of the indicators are according to
those listed by the Cabinet Office in the following report:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/de...

ORGANISATION
What is your current headcount as of 1st April 2011?
What was your headcount as of the day before the General Election?
How much grant funding do you receive?
What was your income for the last financial year?
What was your expenditure on salaries for the last financial year?
What was your 3rd party expenditure for the last financial year?

FINANCE INFORMATION
Organisational Running Costs
Cost of the Finance Function
% Cost of Finance Function
Cost of Finance per Head
Report cycle time
No. Finance Staff
No. Professionally Qualified Finance Staff
% Finance qualified
Cost of the HR Function %

HR INFORMATION
Cost of HR Function
Cost of HR per Head
No. Organisation Employees
No. HR Staff
Ratio of employees (FTE) to HR staff
Average Working Days Lost to sickness (AWDL)
Employee experience of Performance Management
Employee experience of Learning & Career Development
Employee experience of Positive Working Environment

IT INFORMATION
"Run and Maintain" Resource (RDEL) IT Expenditure
"Run and Maintain" Resource (RDEL) IT Expenditure … of which
Depreciation
"Run and Maintain" Capital (CDEL) IT Expenditure
Total 'run & maintain'  IT Spend
Total Project Costs
% Cost of IT
Overall stakeholder perspective

PROCUREMENT INFORMATION
Cost of the Procurement Function
% Cost of Procurement Function
Total third party spend
Third party spend on SMEs (direct)
Third party spend on SMEs (indirect)
Procurement function costs as a percentage of total Procured Spend
% third party spend channelled to SMEs
No. Procurement Staff
No. Professionally Qualified Procurement Staff
% Procurement qualified

ESTATES & PROPERTY INFORMATION
Cost per FTE
Area per office based FTE
Cost per square metre
Property: Corporate Governance
Property: Capacity & Capability
Property: Policies & Standards
Property: Data & Management Information Systems
Property: Performance Management Review & Audit

COMMUNICATIONS INFORMATION
Total Cost of Communications
% Cost of communications
Number of communications staff
Proportion of all staff working on communications
Number of Professional communicators
Proportion of Professional communicators
Comms alignment to business objectives

LEGAL INFORMATION
Total cost of legal services
Legal costs: of which for 'technical' legal work
Legal costs: of which for legal admin and support work
% Cost of Legal Services
Legal % spend on technical work (not admin)

KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (KIM)
Total cost of KIM
% Cost of KIM
Quality: % FOI/EIR requests addressed "in time"
Quality: No. of datasets made available on data.gov.uk
KIM Survey: % measure of how well staff can access information to
allow them to function effectively

Yours faithfully,

Brian Farnet

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From: FOI
Haringey Borough Council

4 April 2011

Attachment employment profile apr09 mar10.doc
1.1M Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Farnet,

Although you have indicated that you wish to make a request for
information, further to your 'right to know' contained in section 1 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), your email contains an enquiry
rather than a specific request for recorded information held by Haringey
Council.

Most of the information that you have asked for is available in the public
domain, through Haringey Council's website. [1]http://www.haringey.gov.uk

The council budget is available through:
[2]www.haringey.gov.uk/index/council/performance_and_finance/council_budget.htm

Please note that we do not hold budget percentages.

With regards to HR details -please see the attached employment profile for
2009-10.

You may want to look at the information that is available on the site and
consider submitting a specific request for copies of information held by
the council. Alternatively, we can direct your query to the appropriate
council team to be dealt with as a normal `course of business' enquiry.
Please advise how you would like to proceed.

Regards,

Sirkku Pietikäinen

Feedback and Information Officer

Feedback and Information Team

Tel: 020 8489 2552

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From: Brian Farnet

5 April 2011

I am unable to identify from that lengthy document where the key
figures are. There is a requirement on public bodies to point
requesters in the right direction to where the information is.
Please either answer my request or identify where the info is.

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From: FOI
Haringey Borough Council

8 April 2011

Dear Mr Farnet,

Freedom of Information Request: Reference 810003749

I acknowledge your request for information received on 05.04.2011.

This information request will be dealt with in accordance with the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 and we will send the response by 09.05.2011.

Your request is being dealt with by Feedback and Information Team.

If you have any queries please contact:

Feedback and Information Team

Haringey Council

River Park House

225 High Road

London N22 8HQ

Tel: 020 8489 2552

Fax: 020 8489 3992

Yours sincerely,

Ms Sirkku Pietikäinen

Feedback and Information Officer

Feedback and Information Team

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From: FOI
Haringey Borough Council

5 May 2011

Dear Mr Farnet,

Freedom of Information Request: Reference 810003749

Thank you for your request for information dated 5 April.    

Under Section 21 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act, we are not
required to provide information in response to a request if it is already
reasonably accessible to you.  You have asked for a considerable amount
of information, some of which will be available from information on our
website ([1]http://www.haringey.gov.uk).

For example:  The council budget and financial planning information is
available through:

[2]www.haringey.gov.uk/index/council/performance_and_finance/council_budget.htm

[3]http://www.haringey.gov.uk//index/counci...

There is also information about decisions made by the Council's Cabinet on
our website:

[4]http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/council...

While there is a requirement to advice and assist requesters, you have
used definitions in your query that relate to central not local
government, which makes it hard for us to point you to the information
that you are seeking.  In addition, we simply do not understand some of
your questions, e.g. "Cost of the HR function %", ""run and maintain"
Resource (RDEL) IT expenditure.

Whilst we are obliged to advise and assist, we are not obliged to collate
for you from the various sources, information that has already been
published. It would seem that our published accounts and financial plan
would be your best starting point.  We suggest that you look at the
information that is available and then if necessary submit a request for
specific recorded information.  

This letter is a refusal notice as required by the Freedom of Information
Act.

If you have any further queries, or are unhappy with how we have dealt
with your request and wish to make a complaint or request an Internal
Review, please contact the Feedback and Information Team as below.

Feedback and Information Team

River Park House

225 High Road

N22 8HQ

Telephone: 020 8489 2550

Fax: 020 8489 3992

Email: [email address]

You may also complain to the Information Commissioner's office, who may be
able to help you.  However they would normally expect the local
authority to have undertaken a complaint investigation or Internal Review
of the request before they will accept the referral.  You can contact
the Commissioner at:

Postal address: Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF
Phone help line: 0845 6306060, or 01625 545745
Fax: 01625 545510
Website: www.ico.gov.uk

Regards,

S Dyos

Haringey Council

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