Questions yet to be answered - Childrens Services

Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your request for information and your reminder commenting
that you had not received an acknowledgement of your request. As I'm sure
you are aware, there is no requirement within the Freedom of Information
Act that makes the sending of an acknowledgement mandatory although it is
of course good customer service and best practice to do so. My
colleagues and I endeavour to acknowledge most requests unless we
anticipate being able to provide a response within a few days of receipt;
unfortunately the increased volumes of requests received in the past few
months (in particular from the whatdotheyknow website) has put
considerable pressure on my colleagues and me making it difficult for us
to meet statutory requirements, let alone self-imposed ones. Anyway,
please accept my apologies for the slight delay in responding to you. I
appreciate the Council has not complied with statutory timescales on this
occasion.

1. Referring to a request made to Kent County Council by another user of
the whatdotheyknow website,
[1]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/sa...
you asked what information Kent County Council holds on its records to
explain why an elected member who is responsible for children's services
can not answer in full a direct question.

Firstly, although "Susan Web" addressed her request for information to the
Cabinet Member, by using the whatdotheyknow website, she is actually
sending her request to KCC which is appropriate because it is the public
authority that is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, not
individual employees or elected members. However, for this particular
request, KCC does not believe that the applicant is using her real name
which is a necessary requirement for a request to fall under the scope of
FOIA in the first place. As soon as "Susan Web" provides proof that this
is her real name, KCC will be happy to consider her request.
Alternatively, she can contact Ms Hohler directly by letter, fax, phone or
from her personal email account
[2]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ... - this
would not be possible via the whatdotheyknow website, although there is
nothing to stop users of the site communicating "off site" and then
posting any responses they receive onto it.

The process that KCC has in place for dealing with requests to
[3][Kent County Council request email] is that one of the access to
information team will log the request and will then refer it out to the
operational units that may hold the information. Responses are then
collated, and either an access to information officer or one of the five
Directorate Coordinators will send the reply out. For the purposes of the
Act, it is irrelevant who replies on behalf of the Council. Please see the
attached guidance to employees & members on recognising formal requests
for information.

2. Also referring to a request made by another user,
[4]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...
you asked whether Geoff Wild does in fact sign care order application
forms.

Mr Wild, KCC's Director of Law & Governance, does not personally sign care
orders and as I advised you on 5th October he has never attended a Common
Purpose training course. Care orders are usually signed by the social
worker for the family whose children are the subject of the application,
but they will have been seen and vetted by the solicitor with conduct of
the care proceedings first.

3. Finally referring to an annotation of another
request [5]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...,
you asked for an explanation of A Wilson's quote of 21st August. I am
afraid KCC does not hold information to explain the rationale for comments
made by a member of the public based on their own interpretations of a
reply KCC has sent to them.

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
[6]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/1042.

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
[7]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
[8]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

show quoted sections