Race Impact Assessment on Policy towards term time holidays in local schools

Dear Steve Conway,

Re: Request for Information - Holidays in term time (impact assessment) -
Reference Number: CHS/869J3Z

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by
Manchester City Council on 8 June 2010.

You asked:

Can you please inform me if the city council has undertaken a race or
equality impact assessment on the policy of preventing parents taking
their children out of schools during term time?

If you have can you inform me of the findings of this assessment,if not
can you disclose the reasons why this policy has not undergone a race or
equality impact assessment?

It may take up to 20 working days (approximately four weeks) for the
Council to consider your request and to provide a formal response. If
this timescale needs to be extended to consider an exemption you will be
notified and kept informed.

If you have any queries, please contact me on the number above.

Yours sincerely,

Mick Wilson
Customer & Business Support Manager
Manchester City Council Children's Services
Overseas House
Quay Street
Manchester, M3 3BB
Tel: 0161 234 7228
Textphone: 0161 234 7452
Fax: 0161 274 7070
Email: [email address]

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Dear Steve Conway,

Re: Request for Information - Equality Impact Assessments - Reference
Number: CHS/869J3Z

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by
Manchester City Council on 8 June 2010 and has been considered under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We apologise for the
delay in responding.

You asked:

Can you please inform me if the city council has undertaken a race or
equality impact assessment on the policy of preventing parents taking
their children out of schools during term time?

If you have can you inform me of the findings of this assessment, if not
can you disclose the reasons why this policy has not undergone a race or
equality impact assessment?

In response to your request, I have summarised the information as follows.

The City Council has not undertaken a race or equality impact assessment
on the policy of preventing parents from taking their children out of
schools during term time.

In July 2009 The City Council issued finalised guidelines to schools on
Managing Leave of Absence. These guidelines were written in line with
National regulations and guidelines. This guidance emphasises that leave
of absence is not an entitlement whilst stressing that head teachers
retain a discretionary power to authorise leave of absence during term if
they believe there are extenuating or compassionate reasons for doing so.
Schools are encouraged to operate a leave of absence policy which is
flexible enough to respond to individual circumstances whilst strongly
discouraging unnecessary absence. Please see attached documents:
Guidance on Managing Leave of Absence, and Manchester Attendance Strategy.

The use of equality impact assessments (EIA) is currently being cascaded
throughout Children***s Services and the EIA guidelines were recently
disseminated to Strategic Leads and Project Managers. The most effective
way to apply these guidelines to Manchester***s Attendance Strategy,
including guidelines on leave of absence, is now under discussion and will
form a part of the Attendance Strategy implementation plan 2010/11 which
will be presented to The Attendance Board in September 2010.

This information may be subject to copyright. Freedom of Information does
not give you an automatic right to re-use this information in a way that
would infringe copyright, for example, by publishing the information or
making multiple copies.

Please note if you are not satisfied with this response you may ask for an
internal review. If you wish to complain you should contact me in the
first instance.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF .

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Andrews
Head of Education Services
(Strategic Inclusion)

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Dear Mr Conway

Thank you for your email dated 7 September 2010.

The response to your questions are as follows:

1. No, the Local Authority has not yet determined the extent to which EIA
can be applied to these leave of absence guidelines
2. No, schools are not instructed to undertake EIAs on attendance policies
3. There is recording at Council level of the attendance of ethic groups -
this shows the improvement in attendance across ethnic groups in line with
general authority wide improvements in attendance.

Should you wish any further assistance, please contact me on the number
below.

Yours sincerely

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Dear Mr Conway

Thank you for your email.

I have sent your request to the decision maker and I will respond as soon
as I receive a reply.

Regards,

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Dear Mr Conway

Thank you for your email.

I would like to respond as follows:

(i) No child has been excluded (permanently or on a fixed term basis) as a
result of unauthorized absence.
(ii) Manchester plans to undertake EIAs on the Attendance Strategy during
this academic year.

Regards,

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Dear Mr Conway

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by
Manchester City Council on 1 October 2010.

Under the Freedom of Information Act we are obliged to provide the
information requested within 20 working days. Unfortunately, the team this
request has been allocated to were in this case unable to provide the
information on time as they are still carrying out searches for some
relevant information. Please accept our apologies for this delay.

Regarding both questions asked I would like to clarify the following
points:

1. Please confirm what the connection is to exclusions and the attendance
policy.

2. Please specify the years for the data collection points.

We are working with the team to ensure that a response can be sent to you
as soon as possible, and we aim for this to be as soon as possible.

If you have any queries, please contact me on the number above, and quote
reference number CHS/869J3Z

Regards,

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