Vetting of co-located social workers

The request was partially successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Can you please send me an electronic copy, via my @whatdotheyknow.com email address of the following information:

What levels of Security Clearance (SC) / Counter Terrorism Checks (CTC)/ and or Developed Vetting (DV) is required for prospective co-located staff, (Joint working between Local authorities and the Home Office/UKBA) such as Social Workers, when they are required by employers or sub-contracted by recruitment businesses (locum agency temp social-workers placed in local authorities)to undertake statutory social work at Government Sites/Facilities, such as Asylum Screeening Units (ASU) , Ports of Entry (POE) and Immigration Removal Centres (IRC)? [1]

1)Please also provide copies of the relevant Security Clearance/Counter Terrorism Checks/Developed Vetting forms required by such social work applicants.

and

2)Which level of clearance is required by such social workers to work at ASU's. Is it at SC, CTC, or DV level or a combination of one or more?

3)Which level of clearance is required by such social workers to work at POE. Is it at SC, CTC, or DV level or a combination of one or more?

4)Which level of clearance is required by such social workers to work at IRC's. Is it at SC, CTC, or DV level or a combination of one or more?

5)Please confirm that co-located social workers are also issued with ID cards that confirm that they can work within the aforementioned Government Sites/Facilities and that these ID cards are only issued if the social worker has been given SC, CTC, or DV approval?

6)If SC, CTC or DV clearance does not apply in these situations please advise what form of vetting is undertaken before social worker are issued with said ID.

6.1 Please provide a copy of the vetting forms social workers have to complete before being allowed to work on a co-located basis at ASU's , POE & IRC's.

7)Please provide copies of internal guidance you have which covers all of these vetting processes, including what happens should a social worker fail any vetting procedure to work on a co-located basis at ASU's , POE & IRC's and whether they can appeal against such and whether and how their employers or sub-contractors are informed they have failed.

8)In this context please advise on which agency or organisation conducts these vetting processes and procedures, who can revoke vetting clearance.

9) What processes and procedures are used for social workers who are have newly arrived in the UK, as migrant workers and whether different vetting applies to such migrants who are nationals of:

9.1 EU countries

9.2 Non EU countries

Your correspondence:
+ + + + + + + + + + +

Please ensure that any of your general correspondence, acknowledgements or holding letters etc are included or cut-and-pasted into the body of the email messages, using plain text, rather than as attachments. As this will mean your correspondence is much easier to access, read and respond to.

Accessibility
+ + + + + + + +

When providing any information disclosures please provide it in the original unrestricted format such as:

a. MS Word .doc or Rich Text Text .rtf format or equivalent
(suitable for disclosure of email messages)

b. Plain text .txt format

c.Spreadsheets in MS Excel .xls format or equivalent

d.Presentations in MS Powerpoint .ppt format or equivalent

or converted to Portable Document Format (PDF), ONLY if none of the above formats are available

if you only have a paper version (hard copy) available, please provide a Digital Photo Copier Scanned version in PDF format. If you do provide disclosures in PDF from a Digital Photo Copier Scan, please state that you have done so because no other format, such as a, b or c above, are available.

Please ensure any electronic disclosures are absolutely free of any Document Restrictions and Encryption or Passwords, as this is likely to render them less usable on a general basis and more specifically, inaccessible to Assistive Technology.

Providing correspondence and disclosed information via these means will also help ensure that text based information is accessible for use with a Screen Reader or a Magnifier for none text based information.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader>

Yours faithfully,

Cassidy, J

References:

[1] Special teams of social workers

  Teams of social workers are being specially established at five ports and asylum screening units principally to help identify the particular needs of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to help develop plans to safeguard their welfare. A team comprising five social workers, plus professional and administrative support, is already in place at the asylum screening unit in Liverpool. Teams, comprising seven social workers at the screening unit in Croydon; eight from Hillingdon at Heathrow; five from Kent based at Dover, and five from West Sussex based at Gatwick, will be in place later this summer. These arrangements complement the programme to reform the arrangements under which local authorities receive over £140 million each year from the Home Office to look after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ), UK Border Agency

Dear J Cassidy

Thank you for your recent e-mail concerning the above matter. Your Request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and we will respond shortly.

Regards

UKBA
FOI Team

show quoted sections

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of UK Border Agency's handling of my FOI request 'Vetting of co-located social workers'.

No acknowledgment or information response provided.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

UK Border Agency

2 Attachments

  • Attachment

    attachment.delivery status

    0K Download DSN: 5.2.2 Mailbox full

  • Attachment

    Internal review of Freedom of Information request Vetting of co located social workers.txt

    1K Download View as HTML

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

[email address]

show quoted sections

Sent a follow up to UK Border Agency again.

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ), UK Border Agency

Dear J Cassidy,

I note that the response to your below request was due yesterday and I
apologise for the delay. We will respond shortly.

However, if you check the full history of your request on the website
you will see that we acknowledge your request on the 16 April 2009.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Feakins,
Freedom of Information Team

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ),

To help with your response, one example of vetting would seem to be for the Croydon Council Social Worker(s) who work from within your Lunar House facility, as mentioned belolow:

"Because of the large number of unaccompanied minors who came to Lunar
House to make asylum claims, a Croydon social worker was based at Lunar House five days a
week."
http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/h...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ), UK Border Agency

4 Attachments

Dear J Cassidy,

Please find attached the response to your below request.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Feakins,
Freedom of Information Team

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ),

Thank you for your reply. However, the copy of the Disclosure form you have provided only seems to relate to Scotland and the background information I provided concerns England only. You have not provided copies of any relevant forms concerning "Baseline Standard of security clearance" from for use by the "Home Office Departmental Security Unit"

Background reference used in my original request.

"[1] Special teams of social workers

Teams of social workers are being specially established at five
ports and asylum screening units principally to help identify the
particular needs of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to help
develop plans to safeguard their welfare. A team comprising five
social workers, plus professional and administrative support, is
already in place at the asylum screening unit in Liverpool. Teams,
comprising seven social workers at the screening unit in Croydon;
eight from Hillingdon at Heathrow; five from Kent based at Dover,
and five from West Sussex based at Gatwick, will be in place later
this summer. These arrangements complement the programme to reform
the arrangements under which local authorities receive over £140
million each year from the Home Office to look after unaccompanied
asylum-seeking children."
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

In your letter you mention the following:

"Social Workers applying to work within Government sites would be classified as Contracted employees and as such would be required to hold BS clearance (Baseline Standard of security clearance) prior to being allowed access to the UKBA estate.

Once security clearance has been granted, all staff are issued with a photo-pass that affords them access to the UKBA Estate for the purpose of their official business.

Employees are not issued with ID cards, but are issued with a building access pass.

All persons issued with a building access pass, which includes permanent, agency or contractors, are subject to integrity, financial and police checks as part of the vetting process. Should an employee require a higher level of security clearance they would be subject to further checks dependant on the level of clearance required.

Security vetting is carried out by the Home Office Departmental Security Unit, and they have responsibility granting access to the UKBA estate"

Therefore as requested in my original email can you provide me with a copy of the forms or documents used to provide "Baseline Standard of security clearance" and the forms documents used for the "photo pass", "building access pass".

West Sussex Council have advised that staff working at the local Airport are required to obtain security clearance photo pass from the BAA ID Centre. Kent Council has also provided a satisfactory response to a similar request and one with Hillingdon Council is outstanding, but I imagine the response will be about the BAA. Therefore please advise what the relevant information would be for Social Workers working from within your Screening Units at Croydon and Liverpool and already employed as Social Workers by Croydon and Liverpool Council's.

"A team comprising five
social workers, plus professional and administrative support, is
already in place at the asylum screening unit in Liverpool. Teams,
comprising seven social workers at the screening unit in Croydon;"
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...

The copy of the Disclosure form you have sent seems to be the wrong one, it makes no reference to how "All persons issued with a building access pass" would secure anything concerning integrity or financial. The disclosure form you have sent is merely a Public document for use by all employers recruiting staff to work with children. The workers that are subject of this request are referred to as Social Workers and therefore they must already hold a Disclosure, issued by England's equivalent Criminal Records Bureau. You may have provided this form as the Home Office/UKBA use it for it's own employees. However, this is not the context of my request. It is about co-located social workers, who are employees of a local authority and the Home Office/UKBA has agreed for them to work from within it's, for example, Asylum Screening Units.

"Disclosure Scotland provides a valuable service protecting the vulnerable people in our society by helping organisations make safer recruitment decisions when duties involve contact with children or adults at risk."
http://www.disclosurescotland.co.uk/abou...

Part 7 of my request has not been responded to, please advise why this is.

"7)Please provide copies of internal guidance you have which covers
all of these vetting processes, including what happens should a
social worker fail any vetting procedure to work on a co-located
basis at ASU's , POE & IRC's and whether they can appeal against
such and whether and how their employers or sub-contractors are
informed they have failed."
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

I therefore consider my request has not been responded in full. Please advise when you will be providing the information I have requested on 15 April 2009, if you consider I am asking for new information please explain why and if this is evidenced please consider this email message a new request for information. I also request an Internal Review of how this request was handled, I expect that this review request should not be used to delay providing the information I requested on 15 April 2009 or above.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of UK Border Agency's handling of my FOI request 'Vetting of co-located social workers'.

The overall basis of this Internal Review request can be seen at:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ), UK Border Agency

Dear J Cassidy

Thank you for your recent e-mail concerning the above matter. We are
currently gathering all the information needed to complete this review
and we will respond shortly.

Kind Regards

Miss C. Fisher.
Information Access Policy Team

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ),

You have not provided any response to your 9 June 2009 promise, copy below. I understand you are breaking the law with regards not providing any response to my request for an internal review.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND )
UK Border Agency

9 June 2009

Dear J Cassidy

Thank you for your recent e-mail concerning the above matter. We are
currently gathering all the information needed to complete this review
and we will respond shortly.

Kind Regards

Miss C. Fisher.
Information Access Policy Team

show quoted sections

Dear Miss C. Fisher/Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ),

Your references: [FOI #10411 email] and 11667

I requested an Internal Review over 120 days ago, please advise why you have not undertaken your legal duty and are therefore acting illegally? The original request was made 6 months ago.

You can see the Internal Review request here
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Your earlier messages

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND )
UK Border Agency

9 June 2009

Dear J Cassidy

Thank you for your recent e-mail concerning the above matter. We are
currently gathering all the information needed to complete this review
and we will respond shortly.

Kind Regards

Miss C. Fisher.
Information Access Policy Team
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

Cassidy, J left an annotation ()

-----Original Message-----
From:
To: internalcomplianceteam@
Sent: Wed, Oct 14, 2009 6:55 am
Subject: Borders Agency refusing to provide a full response to an information request for 6 months.

Dear ICO,

Can you please investigate why the Borders Agency have refused to give a full response to my April 2009 information request and my follow on request for an Internal Review in June 2009. You can view all the correspondence here: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Sir or Madam,

Ref 11667

Can you please advise when you intend to respond to my request for an internal review?

You can see all my correspondence at: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

My original request for such a review was in June 2009.

Yours faithfully,

Cassidy, J

Cassidy, J left an annotation ()

-----Original Message-----
From:
To: casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk
Sent: Thu, Oct 29, 2009 1:01 pm
Subject: Re: Borders Agency refusing to provide a full response to an information request for 6 months.

Dear ICO,

Can you advise or confirm that you are following up on the emails below.(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...) I have just sent a further follow query to the Borders Agency which you can view online at: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Cassidy, J left an annotation ()

Extract from ICO email:

complaint about UK Border Agency - lack of internal review[Ref. FS50273792]

From:
casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk
To:
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:20 (21 hours 11 mins ago)

11 November 2009
Case Reference Number FS50273792

Dear Ms Cassidy

Further to our letter of 10 November(?), I am writing to inform you
that this case has been allocated to me to investigate.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Extract from ICO email:

complaint about UK Border Agency - lack of internal review[Ref. FS50273792]
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

Please see confirmation that the ICo is now handling a complaint against your refusal to carry out an internal review.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

Yours faithfully,

Cassidy, J

Freedom Of Information Team \( IND \), UK Border Agency

Dear Ms. Cassidy,

Thank you for your email of the 12 November 2009 to the UK Border Agency
Freedom of Information Team. I am very sorry for the delay in conducting
an internal review into your FOI request 11667 which you requested in June
2009. We are in liaison with the Information Commissioners Office and in
line with their recommendation we will aim to complete the review and send
a response to you by the 10 December 2009.

Regards

Stephen Quick

Information Access Policy Team

show quoted sections

Dear Stephen Quick, Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ),

Thanks you for your eventual reply. Please note that due to your refusal being of a prolonged length and my additional correspondence, I may have also requested further information to be disclosed and not just an Internal Review of my initial request.

"I therefore consider my request has not been responded in full.
Please advise when you will be providing the information I have
requested on 15 April 2009,(and any date thereafter) if you consider I am asking for new
information please explain why and if this is evidenced please
consider this email message a new request for information. I also
request an Internal Review of how this request was handled, I
expect that this review request should not be used to delay
providing the information I requested on 15 April 2009 or above."
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...
Of 5 June 2009

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ),

RE: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ve...

As a note in point, all social workers are required to have an Enhanced Disclosure from the Criminal Records Bureau before being able to work as a social worker, my information request concerned the additional clearance undertaken to enable them to work at places like the Asylum Screening Unit Lunar House, on behalf of Croydon Council's Team for Unaccompanied Minors.

"Where are we?

The assessment service is based at Taberner House, with a part of
the service being based in the Asylum Screening Unit of the Home
Office (ASU), where social workers assess what services each
individual is entitled to."
http://www.croydon.gov.uk/healthsocial/f...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ), UK Border Agency

2 Attachments

Dear Ms. Cassidy,

Please find enclosed an internal review into the handling of your FOI
Request 11667. I once again would like to apologise on behalf of the UK
Border Agency for the delay in responding.

Regards

Stephen Quick
Information Access Policy Team
Resource Management Group
UK Border Agency

Web: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ), UK Border Agency

1 Attachment

Dear J Cassidy

Please find the attached in response to your FOI request. We sent you a
previous letter in response to this request which had an incorrect
date. Please ignore our previous letter as this a replacement.

I apologise for any confusion caused.

Kind regards

Freedom of Information Team
UK Border Agency

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.