Temporary Spending by School

Dear Sir/Madam,

I acknowledge your request for information received at this office on 16th February 2010. This request has been considered as a request for under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your request may take up to 20 working days to process

Please be advised that if an exemption applies to the information requested, the statutory period may be exceeded in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

Please also note that a charge may be applicable. You will be advised of this in due course. If a charge is made, the clock will stop in respect of the 20 working days, until the fee is received.

Yours sincerely

Janet Hardman

show quoted sections

Dear Sir/Madam,

I apologise for the delay in responding to your FOI request of 16th February.

I can confirm that the information you request is not held by Salford City Council but with each individual school. The schools can go to any agency they choose and they are then invoiced directly from the agency. The invoices are paid from the schools own bank accounts.

If you are dissatisfied with the way your request has been handled, or wish to appeal this decision, you may wish to contact David Sackfield on 0161 793 2141.

Details on how to lodge an appeal can be found at www.salford.gov.uk

If you are still dissatisfied following any internal appeal, you may wish to contact the Office of the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF - www.ico.uk Tel: 01625 545700.

Yours sincerely

Janet Hardman

show quoted sections

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am in receipt of your e-mail received by us on 20th April.

Any expression of discontent with a decision made in relation to a request under the Freedom of Information Act is considered an appeal / complaint and dealt with under this procedure (in accordance with The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs' Code of Practice on the discharge of public authorities' functions, under Part I of the Freedom of Information Act 2000,Issued under section 45 of the Act).

You will receive notification explaining the results of the investigation within 20 working days or, if the investigation is not completed, the likely timescale for its completion.

This process will be independent of any initial decision taken and Officers involved in the initial decision will not be involved in the decision making process of this appeal.

I trust this clarifies the position.

Yours sincerely,

Janet Hardman

show quoted sections

Dear Sir/Madam

I refer to your request for an internal review, received on 20 April 2010,
in respect of the council's response to your Freedom of Information
request of 16 February.

Your request was for details of expenditure by schools on temporary staff.
The council responded on 23 March by informing you that the information is
not held by the council but by each individual school. You have queried
this decision, indicating that you believe the council does hold names of
schools and the amount spent by each school on temporary staff. I have now
fully reconsidered the council's decision and am able to confirm the
following:

First, in respect of the time it took the council to respond to your
Freedom of Information request, I acknowledge that we did not respond
within the required 20 working days. I apologise for the slight delay and
any inconvenience this may have caused.

Second, having regard to the timeliness of this response, I find the
council to have exceeded the time limit permitted under the FOI regime for
responding to internal reviews. The FOIA does not require an authority to
have a review procedure in place however if it chooses to have one, the
Information Commissioner's view is that a reasonable time for completing
an internal review is 20 working days from the date of the request for
review. Please accept my apologies for the lateness of this response.

Turning now to the actual response, I can confirm that I am in full
agreement with the original decision. Although you believe the council
holds the information you have requested regarding expenditure on
temporary staff, I can only reiterate that the information is not held by
the council. The council is not responsible for the recruitment of
temporary school staff. As explained previously, schools can go to any
agency they choose and they are invoiced directly by the agency. The
invoices are then paid directly by the school. In other words, this is
school expenditure and it is for this reason that the information is held
by each individual school and not by the council.

To summarise, I find that the council's decision that the information is
not held was the right one. I hope that this response has explained the
position clearly. This completes the council's review of its handling of
your Freedom of Information request. However, should you remain
dissatisfied, you may take the matter up with the ICO, as previously
advised

Yours sincerely,

Samantha Betts
Head of Workforce Strategy

HR Division
Salford City Council
Customer & Support Services Directorate
Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton, M27 5BN
Tel: 0161 607 8602
[mobile number]
Email: [1][email address]
Web: [2]www.salford.gov.uk

DISCLAIMER: The information in this message is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee.

Access to this message by anyone else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, or distribution of the message, or any action or omission taken by you in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
As a public body, Salford City Council may be required to disclose this email [or any response to it] under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, unless the information in it is covered by one of the exemptions in the Act.
Please immediately contact the sender if you have received this message in error.

For the full disclaimer please access http://www.salford.gov.uk/e-mail. Thank you.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.salford.gov.uk/