in depth questionnaire- elective home education

Tania Berlow made this Freedom of Information request to Lancashire County Council

The request was successful.

From: Tania Berlow

29 August 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

The DCSF have just released a list of the 25 LA's who took part in
the in depth questionnaire which followed on from the 60
questionnaire for the Review of Elective Home Education.

Lancashire apparently answered.
Therefore please supply the responses given by this LA to the in
depth questionnaire.

Yours faithfully,

Tania Berlow

Link to this

From: Freedom of Information
Lancashire County Council

1 September 2009

Dear Ms Berlow,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

We are writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 29^th August
2009, in which you request the disclosure of information under the
provisions of the above Act.

We have begun a search for the information you require and shall contact
you again when we are in a position to respond further. Should we envisage
any delays, or require more details from you, we will contact you
immediately.

In the meantime, if you have any queries about the above, please do not
hesitate to contact us, quoting ref. RFI/599/2009.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information | Access to Information Team

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78,

County Hall, Preston, PR1 8XJ

Tel: 01772 533997 | Fax: 01772 530949

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Lancashire, a place where everyone matters

********************

Link to this

From: Freedom of Information
Lancashire County Council

3 September 2009

Dear Ms Berlow,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Further to your email, dated 29th August 2009, in which you request a copy
of the Authority's response to the home education review, we are now in a
position to respond.

The information you have requested has already been disclosed to the
'whatdotheyknow' website, and can be found at the following URL:
[1]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...

In the event that you wish to complain about the manner in which your
enquiry has been handled, you should write in the first instance to The
Freedom of Information Officer, Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78,
County Hall, Preston PR1 8XJ, or email
[2][Lancashire County Council request email]

If, after this stage, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer
the matter to the Information Commissioner, whose contact details are as
follows:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700

Email: [3][email address]

Website: [4]http://www.ico.gov.uk

If you have any queries regarding our response, or you require any
additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

Preston

PR1 8XJ

Tel: (01772) 531116

Fax: (01772) 530949

Email: [5][Lancashire County Council request email]

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Lancashire, a place where everyone matters

********************

References

Visible links
1. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...
2. mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
5. mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]

Link to this

From: Tania Berlow

3 September 2009

Dear Freedom of Information,

sorry but this is not the questionnaire I am asking about.
Lancashire said yes to question 4 in the questionnaire you have
just linked me to- this questions asks if you would be willing to
participate in further in depth research. this questionnaire can be
found in my link below and it was based on this questionnaire that
the statistics for the review were gathered. lancashire is one of
only 25 who answered and are included in these stats.

here is the link- it has a few stats filled out but no identifiers
so please ignore the figures .

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/17...

Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

Link to this

From: Freedom of Information
Lancashire County Council

3 September 2009

Dear Ms Berlow,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your email, and apologies for the earlier
misunderstanding.  We shall make enquiries with regard to the additional
questionnaire and contact you again when we are in a position to respond
further.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

Preston

PR1 8XJ

Tel: (01772) 531116

Fax: (01772) 530949

 

show quoted sections

Link to this

From: Tania Berlow

15 September 2009

Dear Freedom of Information,

this time you have sent me an entirely blank copy of the
questionnaire.
I am alrteady aware of the contents of the questionnaire.

I am asking for your LA's responses.
If deemed neccessary , redact case studies and any identifiers but
please leave in the answers you gave to the Badman review regarding
safeguarding cases, concerns and educational concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

Link to this

M Stafford left an annotation (16 September 2009)

Efficient and suitable for the job eh, perfectly equipped to monitor home educators NOT!

I am sorry but this is unbelievable, no wonder many can't understand or apply the current law and guidelines.

Link to this

Richard Taylor left an annotation (16 September 2009)

The council has contacted WhatDoTheyKnow to say:

" It has since been brought to our
attention that it has been possible for individuals to be identified
from the information we disclosed. Although we felt the information had
been redacted suitably, the home education community is apparently quite
small and well connected.

As such, I was wondering if you could remove our response from the
website so that we can re-issue a new response (within the 20 days).
Given the potential seriousness, I would be grateful if you could give
this your prompt attention."

Their latest response has been removed from the correspondence thread above.

--

Richard - WhatDoTheyKnow.com volunteer

Link to this

Tania Berlow left an annotation (16 September 2009)

Actually one of the three attached documents had NO identifiers and is what I was expecting to get.
Any chance Richard that the qeustionairee i was aksing for could be put back on and the two case reviews excluded (of course)?

Link to this

From: Freedom of Information
Lancashire County Council

17 September 2009

Attachment 599 2009 Response Doc.pdf
91K Download View as HTML

Dear Ms Berlow,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Further to previous emails, please find attached a copy of the
questionnaire response that was supplied by Lancashire County Council.

We have withheld the 2 case studies and a minimal amount of information on
the questionnaire response, as it has become apparent that it will be
possible to identify the individuals concerned from that information. 
This would be unfair on the individuals concerned, and thus a breach of
the first Data Protection principle, as set out at Schedule 1 to the Data
Protection Act 1998.  This information is therefore absolutely exempt
from disclosure by virtue of Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information
Act.

In the event that you wish to complain about the manner in which your
enquiry has been handled, you should write in the first instance to The
Freedom of Information Officer, Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78,
County Hall, Preston PR1 8XJ, or email
[1][Lancashire County Council request email]

If, after this stage, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer
the matter to the Information Commissioner, whose contact details are as
follows:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700

Email: [2][email address]

Website: [3]http://www.ico.gov.uk

If you have any queries regarding our response, or you require any
additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

Preston

PR1 8XJ

Tel: (01772) 531116

Fax: (01772) 530949

Email: [4][Lancashire County Council request email]

 

show quoted sections

Lancashire, a place where everyone matters

********************

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
4. mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]

Link to this

From: Tania Berlow

30 September 2009

Dear Freedom of Information,

I understand that you had to take down that last response as it
included identifying case studies . However the replacement
document is blank for the all important numbers I am looking for .
21 out of the 25 Local authorities have now provided their
responses to the in depth questionnaire . Please resubmit the
questionnaire with answers to questions one and two intact

Yours sincerely,

Tania Berlow

Link to this

From: Freedom of Information
Lancashire County Council

1 October 2009

Dear Ms Berlow,

The questionnaire we have provided is as was sent to the DCSF, with the exception of a small amount of information removed from Section 3 (as disclosure of that information would be likely to lead to the identification of individuals).

As you will see from the text provided on the questionnaire, our colleagues in the EHE team wrote (in regard to the figures requested in Section 1):

"...although this information would be held in other departments within the LA the EHE team currently are not in receipt of it";

And, with regard to Section 2, the EHE team wrote:

"Unable to answer this on behalf of other departments within the LA"

We have not removed any figures from the boxes in Sections 1 and 2, they simply were not added to the questionnaire in the first place. As such, the document already supplied comprises the entire questionnaire, with the exception of two additional case studies and a small amount of information from the response to Section 3; as previously advised, these are absolutely exempt from disclosure by virtue of Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act.

In light of the above, we would be grateful if you could confirm whether or not you wish to pursue your request for an internal review.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information
Lancashire County Council
PO Box 78
County Hall
Preston
PR1 8XJ

Tel: (01772) 531116
Fax: (01772) 530949
Email: [Lancashire County Council request email]

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Lancashire, a place where everyone matters
********************

Link to this

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