ACMF 2014-15 Successful application for funding - Whitehaven School (now Whitehaven Academy)

The request was partially successful.

Dear Education Funding Agency,

Whitehaven School, now Whitehaven Academy were successful in securing £202,310 for Boiler & heating system repair/replacement from the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund 2014-15.

Please can you explain the bidding process for applying to this fund together with what practices are in place to ensure allocated funds are spent on the project applied for.

Do quotations have to be submitted with the application?

In addition to the questions above, please can I have a copy of any correspondence including the application paperwork relating to this grant of £202,310 and any follow up documents which would show a breakdown of how this amount was spent on boiler and heating system repairs/replacement.

Yours faithfully,

Julie Robinson

Education Funding Agency

Dear Ms Robinson

Thank you for your recent enquiry. A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information; the departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2016-0042113

Thank you

Department for Education
Ministerial and Public Communications Division
Tel: 0370 000 2288

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Education Funding Agency

Dear Ms Robinson,

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 9 September 2016. You requested an explanation of the bidding process for applying to the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund (ACMF) 2014-15 and confirmation of whether quotations had to be submitted with the application.

You also for asked for a copy of any correspondence (including the application paperwork) relating to the grant of £202,310 to the Whitehaven School, now Whitehaven Academy, from the fund.

In addition you have requested a copy of follow up documents which would show a breakdown of how this amount was spent on boiler and heating system repairs/replacement by the school.

I am dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”).

The department holds the information you have requested. However, I consider that the following exemption applies to your request:

Section 36 of the Act is a qualified exemption which means a public interest test needs to be carried out, in doing so the following factors have been fully considered:
The department believes that the publication of full details pertaining to capital funding bids would prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs by inhibiting schools from submitting bids to the Condition Improvement Fund ( which replaced ACMF) and may lead to genuine condition needs being unaddressed.

The Act obliges the department to respond to requests promptly and in any case no later than 20 working days after receiving your request. However, where one of the exemptions listed above is applicable, the department must consider whether the public interest lies in disclosing or withholding the information. In these circumstances the Act allows the time for response to be longer than 20 working days.

In your case the department estimates that it will take an additional 20 days to take a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies. It is anticipated that you will receive a full response by 10 October 2016. If it appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we will keep you informed.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should make a complaint to the department by writing to me within two calendar months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original consideration of your request.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Yours sincerely,

Toby Macer
EFA Capital Correspondence Team
Web: https://www.education.gov.uk<https://www.education.gov.uk/>
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

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Education Funding Agency

Dear Ms Robinson,

Please accept my apologies for a mistake in my previous email. I stated: 'In your case the department estimates that it will take an additional 20 days to take a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies. It is anticipated that you will receive a full response by 10 October 2016. If it appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we will keep you informed.'

The expected response date of 10 October I stated is incorrect. This date is the original FOI deadline of 20 days. The department anticipates that a full response  will take an additional 20 working days from this date as the department must consider whether the public interest lies in disclosing or withholding the information.

As previously stated, in these circumstances the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("the Act") allows the time for response to be longer than 20 working days.

I apologise for any confusion this may have caused.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours Sincerely,

Toby Macer
EFA Capital Correspondence Team

Web: https://www.education.gov.uk<https://www.education.gov.uk/>
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

[https://www.education.gov.uk/images2/iri...

Education Funding Agency

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Robinson,
Thank you for your request for information which was received on 12 September 2016. You requested in connection with Whitehaven School (now Whitehaven Academy):

"Please can you explain the bidding process for applying to this fund (the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund 2014-15) together with what practices are in place to ensure allocated funds are spent on the project applied for?

Do quotations have to be submitted with the application?

In addition to the questions above, please can I have a copy of any correspondence including the application paperwork relating to this grant of £202,310 and any follow up documents which would show a breakdown of how this amount was spent on boiler and heating system repairs/replacement?"

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”).

Information about the 2014-15 ACMF process was published at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academies-ca...
I have also included a hard copy of the guidance for applicants which was issued in 2013 and 2014 and which addressed your questions about the application process.

The Department holds the information you have requested about the specific bid by the Whitehaven School (now Whitehaven Academy). However, I consider that the information we hold within scope of your request might be exempt from release under section 36 (c) of the Act as it would otherwise prejudice, or would be likely otherwise to prejudice, the effective conduct of public affairs.

We believe that the publication of full details pertaining to a school’s application would prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs by inhibiting schools from submitting further bids to the Condition Improvement Fund (which succeeded the ACMF scheme) and may lead to genuine condition needs being unaddressed.
The arguments for and against release have been considered and it is our view that the balance of public interest falls in favour of the maintenance of this exemption in relation to the information relating to this request.

Most documents produced by a government department or agency will be protected by Crown Copyright. Most Crown copyright information can be re-used under the Open Government Licence (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...). For information about the OGL and about re-using Crown Copyright information please see The National Archives website -http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor....

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communication.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should make a complaint to the department by writing to me within 2 calendar months of the date of this letter. Any complaint would be considered by an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original consideration of your request.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Yours sincerely,

Toby Macer
EFA Capital Correspondence Team

Web: https://www.education.gov.uk<https://www.education.gov.uk/>
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

[https://www.education.gov.uk/images2/iri...