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Mark Walker made this Freedom of Information request to Cheshire West and Chester Council
The request was partially successful.
From: Mark Walker
31 December 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
By letter of 30 September 2009, The Secretary of State Ed Balls
appointed Maurice Smith to enquire into the "promotion of racism in
schools". Part of the review is aimed at determining whether
members of the British National Party (BNP) should be allowed to
work as teachers or in the wider school workforce.
At present there are a number of measures and safeguards in place
in place to protect children and young people in schools from
racially motivated discrimination and the promotion of political
doctrines that advocate discrimination and promote racist views.
These are:
• The requirement on schools to have equal opportunity policies
• The duty upon schools to promote racial equality
• Their duty to promote community cohesion
• The duty on governing bodies, headteachers and local authorities
to forbid the teaching of partisan political activities in schools
• The powers of the GTC (England) regarding suitability of
registration and where teacher conduct could bring the profession
into disrepute
I would like you to provide me with evidence of how effective these
measures are including whether they are sufficient to maintain
trust in the profession and protect children and young people.
Please provide the following information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.
1) What evidence is there that schools’ equal opportunity policies
are effective in combating racism?
2) What are schools in your area doing to promote racial equality
and promote community cohesion? Examples of measures deemed to be
good practice and recognised as being successful would be useful.
3) Can you provide me with any evidence that the measures listed
above have been effective (if this has not already been done)?
4) Are further measures required to either maintain trust in the
teaching profession or protect children and young people?
Yours sincerely
Mark Walker
Solidarity Trade Union
www.solidaritytradeunion.org
From: FOI West
Cheshire West and Chester Council
13 January 2010
Dear Mr Walker
Thank you for your email. It will be treated as a request within the meaning of the Act: this means that we will send you a full response within 20 working days, either supplying you with the information which you want, or explaining to you why we cannot supply it. If we need any further clarification or there is any problem we will be in touch.
In the meantime if you wish to discuss this further please contact me. It would be helpful if you could quote the log number 400498.
Yours sincerely
FOI West Team
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From: FOI West
Cheshire West and Chester Council
29 January 2010
Dear Mr Walker
Thank you for your FOI enquiry, below. We are in the process of formulating a response and anticipate being able to provide it by 5th February.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in our response.
Kind regards,
Yours sincerely
FOI West Team
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From: FOI West
Cheshire West and Chester Council
4 February 2010
Dear Mr Walker
Further to your recent request for information. Cheshire West and
Chester is a new authority, vested in April 2009. Our reply relates to
the period since that time.
1) What evidence is there that schools' equal opportunity policies
are effective in combating racism?
Too soon to assess.
2) What are schools in your area doing to promote racial equality
and promote community cohesion? Examples of measures deemed to be good
practice and recognised as being successful would be useful.
Cheshire West and Chester have updated guidelines to give schools and
other educational establishments advice in challenging and dealing with
racist incidents. Education providers have a legal responsibility to
make a written record of any racist incident which takes place on their
premises. Schools should also report all racist incidents to the local
authority.
3) Can you provide me with any evidence that the measures listed
above have been effective (if this has not already been done)?
Too soon to assess
4) Are further measures required to either maintain trust in the
teaching profession or protect children and young people?
We will closely monitor the situation and act accordingly.
Iris Chalmers
FOI West
Cheshire West and Chester Council
Tel: 01244 975968
Email: [email address]
Location: Room 283, County Hall, Chester CH1 1SF
Visit: cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
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