Child asylum seeker specialist council plan

Dear Sir or Madam,

Further to the recent article 'Child asylum seeker specialist
council plan remains stalled' available online at:

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/...

can you please provide me with copies of any minutes, handouts or
presentations provided at any meetings or workshops your authority
has been represented on with the UKBA on the matter of "key reforms
to services for child asylum seekers" (1) over the last six months.

Please also provide me with copies of any minutes, handouts or
presentations you hold that relate to a set of regional
meetings/forums/workshops your authority was requested to attend or
be represented at (2), although these meetings were planned for
October 2008 I understand they actually took place in November
2008. (3)

Please provide any information you hold that suggest why the "key
reforms to services for child asylum seekers" will not take place
until at least 2010.

"Solihull chief executive Mark Rogers told
Community Care this week he did not expect
the scheme to be fully implemented until
April 2010" (4)

Please also provide full details of how or whether your local
authority is planning to or already is "piloting" some of the "key
reforms to services for child asylum seekers". Please specifically
confirm or deny whether your local authority is involved in such
"piloting".

"..he did not expect the scheme to be
fully implemented until April 2010,
following a period of piloting." (5)

Please confirm of deny whether your local authority has been
formally or informally requested to provide 'Expressions of
Interest' or make "Bids" made in connection with acting in any as a
"specialist authority" for these "key reforms to services for child
asylum seekers" . Please provide copies of any of these
'Expressions of Interest' or "Bids", whether or not they have been
finalised or sent to the UKBA, as requested by them end of January
2009 deadline. (6)

Yours faithfully,

Cassidy, J

Notes:

(1) Planning better outcomes and support for unaccompanied asylum
seeking children - a consultation
http://ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/siteconten...

(2) Asylum-seeking children plan could face delay
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/...

(3) Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) Reform Programme
UKBA also ran regional UASC Reform events in November.
http://www.refugeeaccess.info/uploads/y&...

and

Letter to Chief Executives of Local Authorities and Directors of
Children’s Services Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) –
New Dates For Regional Workshops
The dates for the rearranged workshops are as follows:-
Region Date Time Location Midlands 6 November 14.00 to 17.00
Birmingham North East 11 November 14.00 to 17.00 Newcastle South
West and Wales 12 November 14.00 to 17.00 Cardiff North West 13
November 14.00 to 17.00 Manchester Yorkshire and Humberside 18
November 14.00 to 17.00 Leeds
UKBA

(4) Asylum-seeking children plan could face delay
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/...

(5) Asylum-seeking children plan could face delay
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/...

(6) YHRMP policy update – December 2008
Local Authorities are in the process of developing their bids while
UKBA is looking at how they can alleviate some of their concerns.
Expressions of interest for UASC specialist authorities are due by
January 2009.
http://www.refugeeaccess.info/uploads/y&...

Dear Sir or Madam,

FOI Reference no. FOI-2802

Please provide the information, via email in electronic format, in
the original MS Word or plain
text format if available, or alternatively in PDF format, only if
MS Word or plain text formats are not available. If you only have
paper (hard copy) copies please provide a Digital Photo Copier
Scanned version in PDF format.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Sir or Madam,

Your ref: FOI 2802

Thanks for providing the information requested.

However, I requested the information in the original format such as
MS Word, can you resend the information in MS Word. The meta data
of the information you sent indicated you have unfortunately
converted then to PDF today at about 18:30. This makes it quite
difficult to use a Screen Reader.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader>

Extract from my request:

"Please provide the information, via email in electronic format, in
the original MS Word or plain text format if available, or
alternatively in PDF format, only if MS Word or plain text formats
are not available. If you only have paper (hard copy) copies please
provide a Digital Photo Copier Scanned version in PDF format."

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thanks, it is true the PDFs can be considered cross platform, but
from a Screen Reader point of view they are far from second best.

But I do appreciate the speed of your response, as ever Leeds
Council, seems to have a quite a positive mindset to information
requests and how they are dealt with. So please accept my
compliments for all your efforts and those of your colleagues.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J