Dear Sir or Madam,

Can you please explain how you are classed as 'independent' as you
have quoted below:

'As we are an independent service within Children Social Services,
it is a stand alone database (i.e. it does not link with other
Children Social Services data).'

1)

Are you a 'truely' independent body or an at 'arms' length service.

2)

And whether or not your database will remain private and be
excluded from 'contactpoint' formerly known as 'child indexing' or
included alongside 'childrens social services'

Yours faithfully,

S Smith

Dear S Smith

Thank you for your email.

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 24th June
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/09/588 - in any
communication regarding this particular request.

Best regards

Corporate Access to Information Team, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 696265 or 01622 694261 - Fax: 01622 694383
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

show quoted sections

Dear S Smith

Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. I am pleased to provide the following response from
the County Manager of the FGC Service.

1) We are a stand alone service within Children Social Services. We
provide a service to families via referral from their social worker when
an assessment has been made that the child (children) meet FGC referral
criteria. A Head of Service has the lead overall but line management
accountability is then split from operational front line managers who make
case work decisions on individual children, ensuring that the operational
management of FGC remains independent from casework management.

2) The information contained in FGC database relates to FGC activity
only, when referral was made, who co-ordinated the FGC, date of FGC, when
case was closed to FGC etc. I would, therefore, not expect this
information to be included in 'Contact Point'.

The Council would like to forewarn you that future requests for
information on this subject will be refused. The Council believes that the
volume, extent, frequency and repeated nature of your requests, and the
inevitable follow-on queries and complaint to the response, has now become
such that your correspondence is taking up a disproportionate amount of
time and public resources to respond to. This is manifestly unreasonable
and could be construed as obsessive and a deliberate attempt to disrupt
the Council's operations. The Council has no obligation to respond to
requests that are perceived to be vexatious under section 14 of FOIA and
it is considered that collectively, your requests are vexatious. Although
your requests are not necessarily "repeated" in the sense that they are
requests for the exactly same information, when taken together they form a
pattern of obsessive requests of a similar nature such that the Council
may reasonably regard as vexatious. Neither the FOIA, nor scarce public
resources, are intended to be used in this way and, accordingly, no
further correspondence will be entered into in response to your requests
for information on these or related topics.

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/09/588.

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

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 Sir or Madam,

If the service is paid for and contained within Kent County
Council, it is not independent.

Yours sincerely,

S Smith

Thank you for your email. I am out of the office until Monday 22 June.
If your request is urgent please contact Debbie Percival (AM only) on ext
6357 or one of the following:

Sandra Town, KASS Information Governance Co-ordinator on ext 1790
Andrew Swan, CMY Information Governance Officer on ext 1621
Pauline Banks, E&R Information Governance Officer on ext 6915
Caroline Dodge, CED Access to Information Co-ordinator on ext 1652.

If you are sending a Freedom of Information request, please forward your
email to: [Kent County Council request email].

If you are sending a request for access to your personal data, please
forward your email to: [email address].

Otherwise, I will deal with your enquiry as soon as I can on my return.
Thank you.