Revenue Vs Administrative expenses request

The request was partially successful.

Dear Flintshire County Council,

Could you please provide information regarding the following 2 council spending areas:

1) How much did the council make in fixed penalties in 2016/17 from parents taking children out of school, and how much did it cost the council in administrative expenses to do this?

2) What is the figure for last year's spend on mobile phones and ipads/laptops for councillors in Flintshire?

Yours faithfully,

Jane Bellis

Leah Newton, Flintshire County Council

Dear Ms Bellis,

I write to acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information request which has been given the reference number R015593. If you send any further correspondence about this request, please include the reference number and either e.mail it to [Flintshire County Council request email], or post it to Freedom of Information, Flintshire County Council, Information Governance, County Hall, Mold, Flintshire, CH7 6NA.

Your request has been forwarded to the Freedom of Information Act Contact Officer for Education & Youth to process and this Officer will be in contact with you.

Regards,

FOI Contact Officer
____________________________________________________________________________________
FOI Contact Officer | Swyddog Cyswllt Rhyddid Gwybodaeth
Governance | Llywodraethu
Flintshire County Council | Cyngor Sir y Fflint
____________________________________________________________________________________
Tel | Ffôn | 01352 702121
Email | Ebost | [Flintshire County Council request email]
http://www.flintshire.gov.uk | http://www.siryfflint.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Joss Simcock, Flintshire County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Bellis

 

I refer to your FOI request for authority information in which you asked
“How much did the council make in fixed penalties in 2016/17 from parents
taking children out of school,…”

 

The Council does hold some of this information and the response is
provided below.

 

The total the council made in fixed penalties in 2016/17 was £360.

 

In reference to the remainder of your initial question in which you asked
“…and how much did it cost the council in administrative expenses to do
this?”

 

We estimate that it will take us in excess of 18 hours to determine
appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract the information in
reference to your request. Therefore, this element of the request will not
be processed further.

 

In reference to your second question in which you asked “What is the
figure for last year's spend on mobile phones and ipads/laptops for
councillors in Flintshire?”

 

The response to this request is below, with additional material attached.

 

Year Mobile spend IPAD data sim spend
2015-2016 £2799.62 £554.77
2016-2017 £1004.99 £563.40

 

 2016-2017: ipads/laptop spend: £305.99

 

The contents of this communication and any enclosed documents may be
subject to copyright protection.  It has been sent to you for your
information and you may use it for any non-commercial research you may be
doing or undertaking.  Its contents can also be used for the purposes of
news reporting.  Any other re-use, for example, commercial publication or
publication on a website, requires the permission of this Council.  If you
wish to re-use this information please contact us, letting us know how you
wish to re-use it and what the intended audience will be so that we can
consider your request.  This information should be sent to:  The Records
Manager, Flintshire County Council, County Hall, Mold, Flintshire  CH7
6NB, or [1][email address]

 

I hope this is helpful to you but if you have any queries, please do not
hesitate to contact me.  If you are dissatisfied with any aspects of this
response please refer to the Council's FOI Complaints Procedure below.

 

Freedom of Information Act: Complaints Procedure
If you are dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request for
information, you can ask for an internal review within 2 months of the
date of this response. Where your complaint is a complex one it may not be
possible to deal with it within the above timescales. In such a situation
a progress report will be sent within the above timescales.

 

Requests for an internal review should be addressed to the Council’s
Information Governance Manager at:

Information Governance Team,

County Hall,

Mold,

CH7 6NA

 

Or by emailing [2][Flintshire County Council request email]

 

Please remember to quote your original request’s reference number.

 

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at the following address:

Information Commissioner’s Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF.

 

However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a
complaint until it has been through our own internal review process.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Joss Simcock

FOI Contact Officer

___________________________________________________________________________________

Email | Ebost | [3][email address]
____________________________________________________________________________________
[4]http://www.flintshire.gov.uk | [5]http://www.siryfflint.gov.uk
[6]http://www.twitter.com/flintshirecc |
[7]http://www.twitter.com/csyfflint

 

**********************************************************************

We welcome correspondence in Welsh. We will respond to correspondence
received in Welsh without delay.

Opinions advice, conclusions and other information in this

message that do not relate to the official business of

Flintshire County Council shall be understood as neither

given nor endorsed by it or on its behalf, and consequently

Flintshire County Council shall bear no responsibility

whatsoever in respect thereof.

Rydym yn croesawu gohebiaeth Gymraeg. Ymatebwn yn ddi-oed i ohebiaeth a
dderbynnir drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg.

Deellir na fydd unrhyw safbwyntiau, na chynghorion, na

chasgliadau nac unrhyw wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon,

nad ydynt yn berthnasol i waith swyddogol

Cyngor Sir y Fflint, yn cael eu cynnig na'u cadarnhau ganddo

nac ar ei ran, ac felly ni fydd Cyngor Sir y Fflint yn derbyn

unrhyw gyfrifoldeb am y rhannau hynny o'r neges.

**********************************************************************

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[Flintshire County Council request email]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/
5. http://www.siryfflint.gov.uk/
6. http://www.twitter.com/flintshirecc
7. http://www.twitter.com/csyfflint

Dear Joss Simcock,

Thank you for your response.

I would like to ask for further clarification please.

A member of another county asked a similar question regarding fixed penalties vs admin expenses and was given an immediate answer that showed a significant loss and potentially wasted funds and so I feel that in light of the current issues facing FCC this is one of many areas that our council could be made leaner and more efficient and help towards the problems on the horizon for 2019/20 when it comes to School funding.

I feel that there should have been a proper cost/benefit analysis for a scheme such as this and that there should be a basic figure somewhere planned in for personnel/wages to implement and collect these fees. There should also have been a monitoring and evaluation procedure set up from the offset so it should be easy to locate such figures without spending 18 hours of research to find out if it has been successful or efficient surely?

It is concerning to me that other councils have found themselves losing thousands of pounds to collect mere hundreds of pounds of fees when the time and money could be better spent elsewhere - and concerns me even further that FCC are either choosing to withhold information which doesn’t cast them in a very good light, or have not managed the scheme properly at all to be unable to provide basic figures which should have been planned in at the beginning and monitored throughout?

Any further light you can shed on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Bellis

Joss Simcock, Flintshire County Council

Dear Ms Bellis

Thank you for bringing these queries to me. I will bring these queries to the relevant departments. We aim to bring you a written response within ten working days.

Kind regards

Joss Simcock
FOI Contact Officer
Education and Youth | Addysg ac leuenctid
Flintshire County Council | Cyngor Sir y Fflint
___________________________________________________________________________
Email | Ebost | [email address]
____________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.flintshire.gov.uk | http://www.siryfflint.gov.uk
http://www.twitter.com/flintshirecc | http://www.twitter.com/csyfflint

show quoted sections

Joss Simcock, Flintshire County Council

Dear Ms Bellis

 

Thank you for your query regarding FOI: R015593.

To assist with the context for your question, the following is provided;

 

1/ Flintshire  introduced these fines in February 2015

2/ The numbers of fines are as follows

2014-15: 21        

2015-16: 10        

2016-2017: 43    

2017-2018: 15

3/ Flintshire does not employ additional staff to deliver this requirement

 

The 'processing' of the fine is dealt with as follows:

 

4/ The Education Welfare Service follows the documentation within the ‘All
Wales Attendance Framework’ – An operating toolkit for the Education
Welfare Service.

5/  The Education Welfare Service undertakes proceedings on behalf of the
LA in respect of parents who do not ensure their children’s regular
attendance at school or enrol them at school or education otherwise than
at school.

6/ The Education Welfare Service complete assessments and action plans in
partnership with pupils, parents, schools and other relevant parties
concerning attendance at school or alterative educational provision.

7/ A letter is then processed

8/ A fine is administered through the finance section.

 

To complete a cost analysis of the processing around the levying of a
fine, requires analysis of each case processed in accordance with the
steps above. We estimate that it will take us in excess of 18 hours to
determine  appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract the
information in  reference to your request. Therefore, this element of the
request will not  be processed further.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request for 
information, you can ask for an internal review within 2 months of the 
date of this response. Where your complaint is a complex one it may not
be  possible to deal with it within the above timescales. In such a
situation  a progress report will be sent within the above timescales.
Requests for an internal review should be addressed to the Council’s 
Information Governance Manager at:  Information Governance Team,  County
Hall,  Mold, CH7 6NA   Or by emailing [1][Flintshire County Council request email].  Please
remember to quote your original request’s reference number.

 

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at the following address:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF.

 

However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a
complaint until it has been through our own internal review process.

 

Kind regards

 

Joss Simcock
FOI Contact Officer
Email | Ebost | [2][email address]
____________________________________________________________________________________
[3]http://www.flintshire.gov.uk | [4]http://www.siryfflint.gov.uk
[5]http://www.twitter.com/flintshirecc |
[6]http://www.twitter.com/csyfflint

 

**********************************************************************

We welcome correspondence in Welsh. We will respond to correspondence
received in Welsh without delay.

Opinions advice, conclusions and other information in this

message that do not relate to the official business of

Flintshire County Council shall be understood as neither

given nor endorsed by it or on its behalf, and consequently

Flintshire County Council shall bear no responsibility

whatsoever in respect thereof.

Rydym yn croesawu gohebiaeth Gymraeg. Ymatebwn yn ddi-oed i ohebiaeth a
dderbynnir drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg.

Deellir na fydd unrhyw safbwyntiau, na chynghorion, na

chasgliadau nac unrhyw wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon,

nad ydynt yn berthnasol i waith swyddogol

Cyngor Sir y Fflint, yn cael eu cynnig na'u cadarnhau ganddo

nac ar ei ran, ac felly ni fydd Cyngor Sir y Fflint yn derbyn

unrhyw gyfrifoldeb am y rhannau hynny o'r neges.

**********************************************************************

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Flintshire County Council request email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/
4. http://www.siryfflint.gov.uk/
5. http://www.twitter.com/flintshirecc
6. http://www.twitter.com/csyfflint