key reforms to services for child asylum seekers

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 Winstanley, Carl,

Please advise me what your reference number is for this FOI
request? I cannot see one on your response letter.

Please ensure the information I requested is sent to me via email,
in the original format, such as MS Word, PDF Portable Document
Format or scanned via a Digital Copier.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Winstanley, Carl,

RE: 52618 & 'Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - key
reforms to services for child asylum seekers '

Thanks you for your reply, it is very helpful. The
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com system does not show Subject boxes.
This may be because it is thought that applicants original Subject
box line would remain unchanged.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Sir or Madam,

Your ref: 52618

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

The request 52618 is currently overdue a response from Liverpool
City Council. By law, the response had to be prompt but no later
than 16 March 2009

I am writing to request an internal review of Liverpool City
Council's handling of my FOI request 'key reforms to services for
child asylum seekers'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ke...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Information Requests,

RE: 52618

You have sent a response to the wrong information request. In fact
you have not responded to my request or an internal review, both of
which are expected to be completed within 40 days. I will be
forwarding a complaint to the ICO due to the unlawful nature of
your failures.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Symm, Kevin,

RE: reference number is 52618

Thanks you for the disclosures you have sent me, via:

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

However, it seems to me that you have converted documents from the
original MS Word format to PDF, which in contradiction to my
original request. Therefore can you please resend me copies of
information you have disclosed in the original format.

Copy of original request:

" Cassidy, J

16 February 2009

Dear Winstanley, Carl,

Please advise me what your reference number is for this FOI
request? I cannot see one on your response letter.

Please ensure the information I requested is sent to me via email,
in the original format, such as MS Word, PDF Portable Document
Format or scanned via a Digital Copier.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J"
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ke...

Providing disclosed information via these means will help ensure
that text based information is accessible for use with a Screen
Reader or a Magnifier for none text based information and will
prevent any further and separate representations under the
Disability Discrimination Act. If you are unable to meet these
reasonably practicable accessibility requests please state why and
provide a copy of any internal information, such as a policy relied
upon that would explain such a decision.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Symm, Kevin,

RE: Your ref 52618
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ke...

With regards your opinion "All attachments have been sent in their
original form." What I mean by 'original' is that the electronic
format the disclosures were held in before you converted them to
PDF, the meta data contained in the PDF documents clearly indicate
they have been converted to PDF. I conider I made a clear request
for the original format, such as MS Word. Can you therefore please
provide the disclosures in the formats I requests. Or an explicit
statement that every document disclosed was only held in paper
format and was therefore scanned to PDF?

"Please ensure the information I requested is sent to me via email,
in the original format, such as MS Word, PDF Portable Document
Format"
16 February 2009
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ke...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Sir or Madam,

I also note that Page 5 of the disclosure named

'cassidytow.pdf'
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/81...

clearly indicates it was originally an MS Word document, (having a
.doc file extension) with the document having a footer akin to:

C:\Documents and Settings\Renshalla\Local Settings\......ACDS ADASS
minutes 9-04-08.doc

this footer also indicated it came from Alen Renshall of Liverpool
Council?

I therefore request you sent me all the information I requested in
it's original format, as requested in February 09.

The background for this request is to enable the use of a Screen
Reader (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader), which requires
access to text, the scanned documents you have provided are mere
images, which yu generated using a TOSHIBA e-STUDIO520 Digital
Scanner, which uses a PDF producer called MFPImgLib V1.0

Providing disclosed information via these means
will help ensure that text based information is accessible for use
with a Screen Reader or a Magnifier for none text based information
and will prevent any further and separate representations under the
Disability Discrimination Act. If you are unable to meet these
reasonably practicable accessibility requests please state why and
provide a copy of any internal information, such as a policy relied
upon that would explain such a decision.

It is worth noting that it took Liverpool Council over 60 days to
provide the information I requested.

Please pass this email to the person who conducts Internal Reviews,
sue to the format failures mentioned herein.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J