Conservative led KCC /CEO Peter Gilroy /Conflict of Interests?

Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your request for information.

As well as advise Lord Laming that he was "intending to write a piece for
the Conservative Shadow Government", Kent County Council's Chief
Executive, Mr Gilroy did in fact correspond with the Rt. Hon Ed Balls, the
Secretary of State, on the same subject at around the same time.
This clearly indicates that there is no conflict of interests, and that Mr
Gilroy has no political leanings. Mr Gilroy was simply offering not
only his considerable expertise in the field of Children's Social
Services but also his assistance to BOTH of the major political parties at
what was a very difficult time. A copy of the Secretary of State's
response is attached for your information.

The original request submitted by another user of the whatdotheyknow
website
[1]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/lo... only
asked for details of Mr Gilroy's communications specifically with Lord
Laming, which is why only limited information was provided to S Smith. The
subsequent request for review on 31st May (which I note you have copied
word for word) simply jumped to the incorrect conclusion that Lord Laming
was the ONLY person Mr Gilroy had communicated with regarding Haringey and
the resulting Child Protection Review. As you can see, this is not the
case.

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[2]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/831.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
[3]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[4]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your emails.

In Ed Balls' reply to Mr Gilroy (a copy of which we have already given
you), Ed Balls quotes "thank you for your letter of 11 December 2008"
which is surely evidence that Mr Gilroy wrote to him.

However, I have attached a copy of the 11th December letter that Mr Gilroy
sent to Ed Balls for your information and a copy of the article "a life in
social work" that accompanied it. This article was also published on the
MJ (Municipal Journal)'s website and in an edited version in that week's
MJ magazine.

Yes, Mr Gilroy also sent a similar letter around the same time with a copy
of this article to the Lib Dems spokesman (Shadow Secretary) on
Children, Schools and Families - David Laws MP.

If you are unhappy with this response, you can appeal to the Information
Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the Freedom of Information Act
2000. Details of what you need to do, should you wish to pursue this
course of action, are available from the Information Commissioner's
website [1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[2]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your emails dated 7th September (which we had
until yesterday to provide a response to - my apologies that we failed to
comply with statutory timescales) and 3rd October.

Kent County Council does not hold information to explain or justify why
the Chief Executive did not mention in his letter to Ed Balls that he had
already written to Lord Laming. Nor does KCC hold the information to
explain why he didn't mention to Lord Laming that he was intending to
offer the same advice and assistance to Ed Balls and the leaders of other
political parties.

Yes, the Chief Executive did sent a version of the "Ed Balls" letter to
all other political parties, but copies of these letters have not been
retained as there is no statutory requirement or business need to do
so. However, the text was standard for all letters and read as follows:-

Dear

I enclose a copy of an article on Child Protection I have written for the
Municipal Journal. I hope that in the current debate following the
Haringey case you may find that it contains some helpful proposals.

Yours sincerely

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/1040.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your request for information.

The Chief Executive has not broken his employment code of conduct at any
time, either by writing to all political leaders to offer his expertise in
relation to the "Baby P" situation, or for any other reason. Consequently
no disciplinary action has been discussed or taken, so no information is
held in this regard.

Whether a record should be retained or not and how long for depends on the
content of the information contained within; please see the attached
guidance.
The Chief Executive retained a copy of correspondence with Lord Laming &
Ed Balls for information although there was no statutory requirement for
him to do so. As I stated in my previous response, the text of the letters
sent to the other parties was identical to the letter sent to Ed Balls, so
there is clearly no need to save many versions of what is essentially the
same letter.

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/1144.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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