Corporate Parents

Dear S Smith

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

I acknowledge your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. Assuming we hold this information, I will
endeavour to supply the data to you as soon as possible but no later
than 27 January 2009 (20 working days from date of receipt).

I will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold this information
or if there are exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for
providing the information. Please quote our reference - FOI/08/953 - in
any communication regarding this particular request.

Regards

Debbie Percival
Access to Records Officer
Room 2.35 Sessions House
Maidstone
Kent ME14 1XQ
01622 696357 (VPN 7000 6357)
[email address]

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Dear S Smith

Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in responding to your
request and I am equally sorry that we have neglected to keep you
informed of the progress of your request. I hope to have your response
completed within the next few days. However, if you still wish to
request an internal review I will forward this email to the appropriate
member of staff to action.

I am very sorry for any inconvenience this delay may have caused you.

Best regards

Michelle Hunt
Access to Information Co-ordinator
Communication & Information Governance
Children, Families & Education Directorate
Kent County Council
Room 2.35, Sessions House
Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ
External: 01622 696692
Internal: 7000 6692
Email: [email address]

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This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

[email address]

Dear S Smith

Thank you for your email. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, upon
receipt of a request for information, the Council has an obligation to
confirm whether it holds the information requested or not and if it does,
to supply it (subject to any fees or exemptions to disclosure) as soon as
possible but no later than 20 working days following receipt of the
request. The Council received your request on 29th December so you should
have had a reply no later than 27th January. I understand the Council's
response is still outstanding and I presume this is the reason for you
seeking an internal review.

A member of our Legal Department will investigate your complaint on behalf
of the Chief Executive. Their reply will be forthcoming within 28 days (by
27th February 2009)

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.102, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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Dear S Smith

Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay
in sending this information to you.

In answer to your request I am pleased to provide the attached report
that went to cabinet in December 2008 and which was approved by them
outlining Kent's corporate parenting framework.

The report includes a copy of KCC's definition of corporate parenting
and also references the NCB booklet, which has been provided to all
elected members to help them understand their role and responsibilities
as corporate parents. The report - and definition - uses the NCB
framework to explain corporate parenting - including the three levels of
corporate parents - and gives some explanation of which elected members
and senior officers within the local authority are the corporate parents
at each level.

I hope this satisfies your request. If you have a query with the
information provided, please contact me on 01622 696692. However, if you
are unhappy with this response, please follow our complaints process;
details can be found at this link
http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
s/complaints-procedure.htm#foi on our website. Please quote reference
FOI/08/953.

Best regards

Michelle Hunt
Access to Information Co-ordinator
Communication & Information Governance
Children, Families & Education Directorate
Kent County Council
Room 2.35, Sessions House
Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ
External: 01622 696692
Internal: 7000 6692
Email: [email address]

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Dear S Smith

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

I acknowledge your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. Assuming we hold this information, I will
endeavour to supply the data to you as soon as possible but no later
than 5 March (20 working days from date of receipt).

I will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold this information
or if there are exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for
providing the information. Please quote our reference - FOI/09/116 - in
any communication regarding this request.

Regards

Debbie Percival for Michelle Hunt
Access to Records Officer
Room 2.35 Sessions House
Maidstone
Kent ME14 1XQ
01622 696357 (VPN 7000 6357)
[email address]

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Dear S Smith

Thank you for your request for review which we assume was on the grounds
that the Council had not complied with statutory timescales as set out in
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

On behalf of the Director of Law & Governance, I have reviewed the
Council's handling of your request which we received on 29th December 2008
and I acknowledge that we had an obligation to respond to your request as
soon as possible but in any event, no later than 27th January 2009. I note
that the Council's reply to your request was finally emailed to you on 2nd
February 2009, 24 working days after receipt. I do hope that you are
satisfied with the information you have now received.

I therefore uphold your complaint that the Council has not complied
fully with the statutory timescales as set out in the Act and convey my
sincere apologies. However, if you remain unhappy with my response to
your request for 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
[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 1.102, 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 S Smith

Your 5th February email was acknowledged on 6th February as a new request
for information (our reference FOI/09/116) as you asked for information
not previously requested before, and the Council has until 5th March at
the latest to provide you with a response. Therefore, as yet, there are no
elements of non-compliance to investigate! If you are not not happy with
the way we have handled this communication, you should seek advice
from the Information Commissioner who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act
2000 [1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...
With regard to your original request submitted 27th December (our
reference FOI/08/953), you submitted three emails on 29th January, each
one asking for a review of the Council's handling of your request about
Corporate Parents and this was acknowledged on 30th January. An
investigation was conducted and a reply was sent to you on 19th February
upholding your complaint that we had not replied to your 27th December
request within statutory timescales. If you are not satisfied with our
apology, you should escalate your complaint to the Information
Commissioner
[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 S Smith

Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

The NCB guidance for elected members titled "Putting Corporate Parenting
into Practice - understanding the councillor's role" was published by
the NCB in 2008. The guide was commissioned by the DCSF as part of the
work supporting Care Matters (white paper) in helping elected members
understand their responsibilities as corporate parents.

1) The guide has been provide to all elected members of Kent County
Council and other chief officers within the local authority who are
deemed to be the corporate parent's within the authority for those
children and young people looked after by Kent County Council. The
guide has not been provided to district councillors by KCC. It is not
considered within Kent that district councillors are corporate parents.
While this may be different in a unitary authority, the way in which KCC
is structured means that the corporate parent role is specific to county
councillors. District councils would be expected to support the
corporate parents and local authority as a whole by working in
partnership with the local authority to deliver effective corporate
parenting. For example, this would include ensuring the district
housing authorities are supportive of enabling Care Leavers within the
authority to obtain suitable accommodation and also (as is beginning to
happen in some district councils, supporting the delivery of Kent's
Pledge to children and young people in and leaving care, through making
available free of charge access to district sport and leisure
facilities). it might also include bringing to the attention of the
county councillor any specific cases that a district councillor might
become aware of that they feel the child's corporate parent should be
made aware of an issue.

A copy of the guide can be obtained from the NCB (8 Wakely Street,
London. EC1V 7QE).

2) The report dealt with the structure of Kent's corporate Parenting
framework, rather than the implementation of specific government
guidance - such as education protects. it would not have been
appropriate for the report to have gone into details re this.

With reference to Education Protects there are south east area network
meetings which are held every three months, which KCC officers attend if
the agenda is relevant. The others who attend are leads within their
Local Authority for the education of Looked After Children, many now
holding the role of virtual Head Teacher since the DCSF pilot for this
role was launched. The two DCSF south east Education Protects
co-ordinators keep in regular contact via e-mail network, cascading and
canvassing views and information between members. The link below to a
document 'A councillor's guide to being a good parent' was from October
2003. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/educationprotects...

I hope this satisfies your request. If you have a query with the
information provided, please contact me on 01622 696692. However, if you
are unhappy with this response, please follow our complaints process;
details can be found at this link
http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
s/complaints-procedure.htm#foi on our website. Please quote reference
FOI/09/116.

Best regards

Michelle Hunt
Access to Information Co-ordinator
Communication & Information Governance
Children, Families & Education Directorate
Kent County Council
Room 2.35, Sessions House
Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ
External: 01622 696692
Internal: 7000 6692
Email: [email address]

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