£305,000 Graham Badman, Kent County Council and the death of Tiffany Sellman Burdge

The request was refused by Kent County Council.

Dear Kent County Council,

Graham Badman was in charge of Kent County Council when Tiffany Sellman Burdge was killed. The father Christopher Sellman has been found guilty of manslaughter.

Many people will be repulsed by what you are about to read

It has emerged that the authority’s former education chief Graham Badman, whose salary and termination agreement meant that his earnings in the year amounted to £305,000. Source:

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/n...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...

1) Please provide a full breakdown of the payments made to Mr. Graham Badman by Kent County Council after the brutal death of this child.

2) Was Mr. Graham Badman in charge and responsible for social services when Tiffany Sellman Burdge was killed. YES/NO

3) For how many years prior to the death of Tiffany Sellman Burdge was he in charge?

4) Is there any record of any charitable donation ever having been made by Graham Badman during his time with Kent County Council

5) Is there any document regarding corporate responsibility within Kent County Council?

6) When was Graham Badman briefed on the death of Tiffany Sellman Burdge? Please provide any documentation.

7) Who took the decision to withhold the details of the case from all council members? On what basis was that decision reached, what was the rational behind that decision?

Yours faithfully,

kreynolds

kreynolds left an annotation ()

Just to annotate in Graham Badman was in charge of Kent Children’s Services as my stating paragraph does not make this clear.

Peter Gilroy Associates is the top man, I see on here something about a new company. Seriously would you wipe you shoe on this person? He is leaving shortly and taking £200,000 I hear for the privilege of leaving his employment? I guess you could coin a new phrase “Golden Goodbye” the Guardian had him down as “Joe Public”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepub...

To be fair on the basis of the Guardian article I give the man some credit.

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Reynolds
Thank you for your email.
Kent County Council acknowledges your request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.
You have already asked questions 2 & 4 (on 1st April - our reference
FOI/10/0396) so a response will be provided to this element under separate
cover.

With regard to the other five questions, assuming KCC holds this
information, we will endeavour to supply the data to you as soon as
possible but no later than 19th May 2010 (20 working days from date of
receipt).

We will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold this information
or if there are exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for providing
the information. Please quote our reference - FOI/10/0483 - in any
communication regarding this particular request.

Best regards

Corporate Access to Information Team, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room B.48, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 696265 or 01622 694261 - Fax: 01622 696075
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...

show quoted sections

kreynolds left an annotation ()

I do apologise regarding this oversight regarding duplicate questions.

I suggest this to be “an isolated incident of human error”.

The idea that the previous request would have just “popped” out of the system and even if it had, who is to say? Its professional judgment at the end of the day.

Except in the case of my FOI the death of a child is not involved so take your smart answers elsewhere

kreynolds left an annotation ()

I guess a clarification on that point would be “not directly involved

Dear Kent County Council,

Why is my request delayed by “law”.

Please explain.

Yours faithfully,

kreynolds

kreynolds left an annotation ()

SHAME

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...

t disclosed that the top earner in local government last year was Kent council's managing director of environment and regeneration, who pocketed £365,000.

Kent's director of children, families and education services was second on the list, taking home £305,000, helping the council to the top spot in the list of most generous councils.

Kent County Council paid 27 staff in excess of £100,000

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Reynolds

Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in
sending this information to you. I appreciate we have not complied with
statutory timescales on this occasion.

We have answered your questions in the order they were raised.

1, 2, 3 & 4) Graham Badman left KCC in November 2008. His salary at the
time of leaving was £171,600/pa. He received a cash award for his
performance in October 2008 of £17,160.00.

5) The key document setting out responsibilities for safeguarding can be
found on the DCSF website in the document 'Lead Members and the Director
of Children's Services Roles and Responsibilities'

6) It was custom and practice for the Director of Children's Social
Services to brief Graham Badman when a child died. Tiffany died on the
1st November 2008. Graham Badman left the authority in November 2008. I
am able to confirm that Mr Badman was briefed in respect of Tiffany 's
death and supported the case being referred to the KSCB Serious Case
Review panel for a full investigation. However all of the facts of the
case would not have been known to Mr Badman at that stage. The chair of
the KSCB wrote to agencies on the 1st December 2008 requesting that
agencies initiate an internal management review as part of the Serious
Case Review process.

7) There was no decision to withhold details of the case from council
members. In 2008, the practice was to inform the Lead Member when there
were concerns for the management of a case in which a child died and
was receiving a service from the authority. Subsequently as previously
communicated in earlier correspondence, this arrangement has been changed
at the request of council members.

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
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/10/.

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
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Regards

Michelle Hunt
Access to Information Co-ordinator
Communication & Information Governance
Children, Families & Education Directorate
Kent County Council
Room 2.35, Sessions House
Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ
External: 01622 696692
Internal: 7000 6692
Email: [email address]

__________________________________________

show quoted sections

Dear Kent County Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Kent County Council's handling of my FOI request '£305,000 Graham Badman, Kent County Council and the death of Tiffany Sellman Burdge'.

1, 2, 3 & 4) Graham Badman left KCC in November 2008. His salary at the
time of leaving was £171,600/pa. He received a cash award for his
performance in October 2008 of £17,160.00.

Cash reward is this from the council tax payer?

What was the “cash award for his performance” for? What did he achieve that was worthy of this “cash award”?

Also can you explain why the newspapers claim he earned £305,000. Please give me his full salary including cash award etc for the year when he left employment with Kent County Council. The figure should add up to £305,000 so even with the “cash reward” we are still running short. What is the balance and how is it worked out to the £305,000 paid to Badman.

7) There was no decision to withhold details of the case from council
members. In 2008, the practice was to inform the Lead Member when there
were concerns for the management of a case in which a child died and
was receiving a service from the authority. Subsequently as previously
communicated in earlier correspondence, this arrangement has been changed
at the request of council members.

It is reported in the media that the details of the murder were withheld from council members in the media. Why did this happen? The policy has changed; have you a copy of the new policy?

You also state in your response “a case in which a child died and
was receiving a service from the authority”. What service did the dead child Tiffany Sellman Burdge receive from Kent County Council? To my knowledge no service was provided. Or was a service provided after the child died?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/30...

Yours faithfully,

kreynolds