Dear Sir or Madam,

Policy documents - Common Purpose

Please supply

1. copies of your organisation's policy documents relating to the
selection of personnel for Common Purpose training.

2. copies of ALL correspondence (email, letters, memos etc)
relating to the selection of personnel for Common Purpose training.

By "Common Purpose", I mean the training organisation of that name:
http://www.commonpurpose.org/home.aspx

Yours faithfully,

John Walker

Dear Mr Walker

The application that was received by the Council on 4th August 2008 has
now been considered and this letter is a full response to that
application.

Your request was for: Copies of policy documents relating to the
selection of personnel for Common Purpose training. Copies of ALL
correspondence (email, letters, memos etc)relating to the selection of
personnel for Common Purpose training.

In developing the skills of its senior officers, Plymouth City Council
can engage National Common Purpose as a training provider. However,
there is no recorded information relating to our use of National Common
Purpose.

Please note that the information supplied to you continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any noncommercial research
you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse,
for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the
Council.

If you are not satisfied with the way your request has been handled you
may ask for an internal review to take place.

I hope that we have now supplied the information that you have
requested. If you wish to discuss this letter or the information that is
supplied then my contact details are below, but please leave a contact
telephone number if I am unavailable.

Sue Kirby
HR Business Manager
Floor 4
Civic Centre
Plymouth
PL1 2AA

Tel: 01752 304011
E-mail: [email address]

Important: The email (including any attachments) should only be used if
you are the intended recipient. Email should not be used to convey
personal, sensitive or privileged information over the public network.
Errors may be present and you should carry out your own virus check.
This message may be supplied to an applicant under UK legislation. If
the message is marked private it does not represent the views of
Plymouth City Council

Remember your responsibility under the Data Protection Act and treat
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safeguarded against unauthorised access or disclosure.

Dear Kirby, Sue (CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S DEPT),

We have already established that Plymouth City Council has spent
thousands of pounds of public money on Common Purpose courses:

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

and you tell me that "there is no recorded information relating to
our use of National Common Purpose."

I find this staggering. Thousands of pounds of public money spent
with no transparent procedure or records being in place.

I therefore ask the following questions:

1. What is the procedure for selecting personnel for Common Purpose
training? (There must be some sort of procedure, even if it simply
entails drawing names from a hat.)

2. What are the names, ranks/grades and job titles of the people in
your organisation who have the authority to recommend personnel for
Common Purpose training?

3. What are the names, ranks/grades and job titles of the people in
your organisation who have the authority to authorise payment to
Common Purpose for Common Purpose training?

Yours sincerely,

John Walker

Dear Mr Walker

Thank you for your email asking for clarification over how the Council
authorises attendance on Common Purpose training courses.
I am sorry that my original statement "However, there is no recorded
information relating to our use of National Common Purpose." was not
sufficient or clear.
I intended to convey that the information you requested is not held, as
the Council does not have a procedure that is specific to any particular
training provider and so there is not any recorded information to
provide that details how authorisation is provided specifically for
staff attendance on Common Purpose training courses.

The general process for authorising any externally provided training is
for staff appraisals to identify any staff development needs, where
appropriate a suitable training course is identified. If this is an
externally provided course then the line manager and budget holder
consider the application and can authorise attendance.

In response to your particular questions:

1) Staff appraisals may identify that a training course is required.
Relevant training providers and their particular courses are then
considered and the line manager and budget holder decide whether to
authorise attendance.

2) All line managers who have responsibility for a training budget can
authorise staff attendance on an external training course. There is no
officer within the Council who has the role of recommending staff to
attend a training course provided by the 'Common Purpose' organisation.

3) The staff who can authorise attendance on a 'Common Purpose'
organisation training course are those who have delegated budgetary
authority for training budgets, providing the line manager has agreed
that the particular course is in line with the identified staff
development requirement.
We do not supply a general list of managers, but if the contact details
for the service that you require are not available on the Council's web
pages www.plymouth.gov.uk then please let me know.

Please note that the information supplied to you continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any noncommercial research
you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse,
for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the
Council.

I have also attached my response to your original request for your
information. << FOI request>>
If you are not satisfied with the way your request has been handled you
may ask for an internal review to take place.

I hope that we have now supplied the information that you have
requested. If you wish to discuss this letter or the information that is
supplied then my contact details are below, but please leave a contact
telephone number if I am unavailable.

Yours sincerely

Sue Kirby
HR Business Manager
Human Resources
Plymouth City Council

Tel: 01752 304011

Dear Kirby, Sue (CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S DEPT),

Thank you for the reply above.

You say "the Council does not have a procedure that is specific to
any particular training provider".

In that case, please supply

1. Details of the general procedures involved in selecting training
providers for your organisation

2. Details of the tendering procedures involved in selecting
training providers for your organisation

3. Copies of the tenders issued for all training courses which were
eventually won by Common Purpose

4. Copies of any and all contracts between your organisation and
Common Purpose

5. Details of how your organisation audits the integrity and value
of training courses attended by your staff

Yours sincerely,

John Walker

Dear John Walker
Your new application for information addressed to Sue Kirby was received
today.
The application for information detailed below is a separate request to
your previous applications to the Council and a response will be
provided within the next 20 working days.
Yours sincerely

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[mobile number]

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or [email address]

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the intended recipient. Email should not be used to convey personal,
sensitive or privileged information over the public network. Errors may
be present and you should carry out your own virus check. This message
may be supplied to an applicant under UK legislation. If the message is
marked personal it does not represent the views of Plymouth City
Council.

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Walker

The application that was received by the Council on 11th August 2008 has
now been considered and this letter is a full response to that
application.

Your request was for:

1. Details of the general procedures involved in selecting training
providers for your organisation

2. Details of the tendering procedures involved in selecting
training providers for your organisation

3. Copies of the tenders issued for all training courses which were
eventually won by Common Purpose

4. Copies of any and all contracts between your organisation and
Common Purpose

5. Details of how your organisation audits the integrity and value
of training courses attended by your staff

In answer to question 1. Depending on the course and how specialised it
was Plymouth City Council would talk to and interview a selection of
suppliers based upon price, location, reputation, and from this process
would select a supplier to run the course. See also below - answer to
question 2 for additional details.

In answer to question 2. Please find attached an e-mail link to our
internet page relating to tendering:
www.plymouth.gov.uk/doingbusinesswiththe...

In answer to questions 3 and 4. Plymouth City Council do not have any
contracts or tenders between our organisation and Common Purpose. Any
agreement below the threshold would not require tenders or contracts
(please refer to website link above).

In answer to question 5. Plymouth City Council's Learning and
Development Section would audit the integrity and value of training by
an evaluation process that measures delegates satisfaction following the
course and the difference it had made to that delegate 3 months and 6
months on, including how they were able to use that information back in
the workplace. On occasions the Council also has it's own trainers
sitting in on courses to carry out their own evaluation.

Please note that the information supplied to you continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any noncommercial research
you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse,
for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the
Council.

If you are not satisfied with the way your request has been handled you
may ask for an internal review to take place.

I hope that we have now supplied the information that you have
requested. If you wish to discuss this letter or the information that is
supplied then my contact details are below, but please leave a contact
telephone number if I am unavailable.

Sue Kirby
HR Business Manager
Floor 4
Civic Centre
Plymouth
PL1 2AA

Tel: 01752 304011
E-mail: [email address]

Important: The email (including any attachments) should only be used if
you are the intended recipient. Email should not be used to convey
personal, sensitive or privileged information over the public network.
Errors may be present and you should carry out your own virus check.
This message may be supplied to an applicant under UK legislation. If
the message is marked private it does not represent the views of
Plymouth City Council

Remember your responsibility under the Data Protection Act and treat
this sensitive information in confidence, ensuring that it is
safeguarded against unauthorised access or disclosure.