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Alternative Provision and SEND Expenditure for 2021, 2022 and 2023

Robbie O'Driscoll made this Freedom of Information request to Bedford Borough Council Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

We're waiting for Robbie O'Driscoll to read recent responses and update the status.

Robbie O'Driscoll

Dear Bedford Borough Council,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting the following information regarding your expenditures on Alternative Provision (AP) and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services:

Expenditure Details:
The total annual expenditure on Alternative Provision (AP) services and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services for the past three years (2021, 2022, 2023).

Supplier Information:
A list of all suppliers (both registered and unregistered) providing AP and SEND services, including the amount spent on each supplier annually for the past three years.
The nature of the services provided by each supplier.

Contract Information:
Details of the contracts with each supplier, including the start and end dates of the contracts.
Information on how these suppliers are contracted (e.g., through framework agreements, direct contracts etc.).

Please provide the information in an electronic format.

If this request is too broad or unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the Act, you are required to advise and assist requesters.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Yours faithfully,

Robbie O'Driscoll

Request For Information, Bedford Borough Council

Thank you for your e-mail requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

 

We will proceed with the request which we received today. It is our
intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible
otherwise within the statutory 20 working days.

 

In considering the request, it may be subject to exemptions that the
Council rely on to refuse the information. Some exemptions are absolute
and some only apply where the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs that of disclosing the information.
[1]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

 

Please note that should you be requesting information under the
Environmental Information Regulations although we provide free access to a
wide range of information through our website, access to any public
registers which we hold and for inspecting information at our offices, we
are allowed to charge you a reasonable fee for providing certain
information.
If applicable, we will issue you with a fee notice. This will detail the
tasks involved in responding to the request, and associated costs. Further
information is available on the EIR page of Bedford Borough Council’s
website at the following link:

[2]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

  

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to
this matter should be emailed to [3][email address]

 

Any emails containing personal or sensitive data will be sent as ‘secure
e-mails’. In order for you to access a secure email you will be asked to
create an account and log into the Council’s secure e-mail reply
service. If you do receive a secure email there will be instructions
explaining how to do this.

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
2. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
3. mailto:[email address]

Request For Information, Bedford Borough Council

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

Dear Robbie O'Driscoll,

Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No. RFI-01880

Thank you for requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We will proceed with the request which we received on the 01 July 2024. It is our intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible otherwise within the statutory 20 working days – by 29 July 2024.

Request:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting the following information regarding your expenditures on Alternative Provision (AP) and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services:

Expenditure Details:
The total annual expenditure on Alternative Provision (AP) services and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services for the past three years (2021, 2022, 2023).

Supplier Information:
A list of all suppliers (both registered and unregistered) providing AP and SEND services, including the amount spent on each supplier annually for the past three years.
The nature of the services provided by each supplier.

Contract Information:
Details of the contracts with each supplier, including the start and end dates of the contracts.
Information on how these suppliers are contracted (e.g., through framework agreements, direct contracts etc.).

In consideration of the request, which may be subject to any exemptions the Council may rely on to refuse the request, some of which are absolute and some of which only apply where the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs that in disclosing the information.

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to this matter should be emailed to [email address] .

Yours sincerely

Maria Scapini
Customer Feedback Officer
Customer Services & Customer Feedback
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Website: www.bedford.gov.uk  
‘Bedford Borough Council – Working with our partners to make the Borough a better place to live, work and visit.’

For up-to-date information on the Council follow us on:
Twitter: @bedfordtweets  
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bedfordboroughc...

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Request For Information, Bedford Borough Council

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

Dear Robbie O'Driscoll,

Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No. RFI-01880

Thank you for your recent enquiry for information held by the Council.

Unfortunately we are unable to process your request as we have insufficient detail from you to identify the information you require.

You requested:
The total annual expenditure on Alternative Provision (AP) services and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services for the past three years (2021, 2022, 2023).

Clarification needed: When you make reference to expenditure on SEND Services please can you clarify what particular spend you are referring to? is this just in relation to AP?

When we have received your response, we will contact you again to provide details of when you might expect to receive the information from us.

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to this matter should be emailed to [email address] .


Yours sincerely

Maria Scapini

Customer Feedback Officer
Customer Services & Customer Feedback
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Website: www.bedford.gov.uk  
‘Bedford Borough Council – Working with our partners to make the Borough a better place to live, work and visit.’

For up-to-date information on the Council follow us on:
Twitter: @bedfordtweets  
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bedfordboroughc...

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Robbie O'Driscoll

Dear Maria,

Thank you for your response to my Freedom of Information request (RFI-01880). I would like to clarify the details of my request to ensure you can provide the necessary information.

Expenditure Details:
- I am seeking information on the total annual expenditure specifically for Alternative Provision (AP) services and for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services separately. This includes any expenditures related to AP services, as well as those related to other SEND services that are not categorised under AP.

Supplier Information:
- A list of all suppliers (both registered and unregistered) providing AP services and a separate list for those providing SEND services.
- The amount spent on each supplier annually for the past three years (2021, 2022, 2023).
- A very brief description of the nature of the services provided by each supplier.

Contract Information:
- Details of the contracts with each supplier, including the start and end dates of the contracts.
- Information on how these suppliers are contracted (e.g., through framework agreements, direct contracts, etc.).

Please provide this information in an electronic format.

Thank you for your time and assistance. If you require any further clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Robbie O'Driscoll

Request For Information, Bedford Borough Council

Thank you for your e-mail requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

 

We will proceed with the request which we received today. It is our
intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible
otherwise within the statutory 20 working days.

 

In considering the request, it may be subject to exemptions that the
Council rely on to refuse the information. Some exemptions are absolute
and some only apply where the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs that of disclosing the information.
[1]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

 

Please note that should you be requesting information under the
Environmental Information Regulations although we provide free access to a
wide range of information through our website, access to any public
registers which we hold and for inspecting information at our offices, we
are allowed to charge you a reasonable fee for providing certain
information.
If applicable, we will issue you with a fee notice. This will detail the
tasks involved in responding to the request, and associated costs. Further
information is available on the EIR page of Bedford Borough Council’s
website at the following link:

[2]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

  

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to
this matter should be emailed to [3][email address]

 

Any emails containing personal or sensitive data will be sent as ‘secure
e-mails’. In order for you to access a secure email you will be asked to
create an account and log into the Council’s secure e-mail reply
service. If you do receive a secure email there will be instructions
explaining how to do this.

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
2. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
3. mailto:[email address]

Request For Information, Bedford Borough Council

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

Dear Robbie O'Driscoll,

Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No. RFI-01880

Thank you for your email clarifying your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We will now proceed with the request. It is our intention to have the information delivered to you by 30 July 2024.

The request is subject to any exemption which the Council may rely on to refuse the request, some of which are absolute and some of which only apply where the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs that in disclosing the information.

Once the information has been identified, the Council may also ask that a fee be paid for processing and delivering the information to you. Details of any fee to be charged will be notified to you as soon as possible.

Please note that once a response has been forwarded to you an anonymised summary of all requests appear on the Bedford Borough website at the following link:

https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to this matter should be emailed to [email address] .

Yours sincerely

Maria Scapini
Customer Feedback Officer
Customer Services & Customer Feedback
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Website: www.bedford.gov.uk  
‘Bedford Borough Council – Working with our partners to make the Borough a better place to live, work and visit.’

For up-to-date information on the Council follow us on:
Twitter: @bedfordtweets  
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bedfordboroughc...

show quoted sections

Request For Information, Bedford Borough Council

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

Dear Robbie O'Driscoll,

Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No. RFI-01880

Request:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting the following information regarding your expenditures on Alternative Provision (AP) and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services:
Expenditure Details:
The total annual expenditure on Alternative Provision (AP) services and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services for the past three years (2021, 2022, 2023).
Supplier Information:
A list of all suppliers (both registered and unregistered) providing AP and SEND services, including the amount spent on each supplier annually for the past three years.
The nature of the services provided by each supplier.
Contract Information:
Details of the contracts with each supplier, including the start and end dates of the contracts.
Information on how these suppliers are contracted (e.g., through framework agreements, direct contracts etc.).

Response:
Further to your request for information dated 01 July 2024. I can confirm that the information you requested is held under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. However, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not oblige the Council to comply with a request for information if it estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit.”

This appropriate limit has been set in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, which provides that for a local authority the appropriate limit is £450. This is calculated by reference to a maximum of 18 hours being taken and the cost of staff time being set in the Regulations as £25 per hour. The Regulations also say that In calculating the amount the Council may, “for the purpose of its estimate, take account only of the costs it reasonably expects to incur in relation to the request in:

(a) determining whether it holds the information,
(b) locating the information, or a document which may contain the information,
(c) retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the information, and (d) extracting the information from a document containing it.”

The Council does not store or hold the information requested in an easily accessible manner. This information sits across different departments and schools, and in order to respond to this request, it will require a manual task of searching, locating and extracting this data from each department and school which will take over the appropriate limit set in the FOI Act 2000.

The Council has therefore decided to refuse your request.

If for whatever reason you are unhappy with our response to your application you are entitled to pursue any dissatisfaction through the Council's Internal Review Procedure. Pursuant to Section 17 (7) of the Act the procedure provided by the Council for dealing with complaints about the determination of this request for information is the Council’s FOI Complaints Procedure, a copy of which can be obtained on request or is set out at: https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

Yours sincerely

Maria Scapini
Customer Feedback Officer
Customer Services & Customer Feedback
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Website: www.bedford.gov.uk  
‘Bedford Borough Council – Working with our partners to make the Borough a better place to live, work and visit.’

For up-to-date information on the Council follow us on:
Twitter: @bedfordtweets  
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bedfordboroughc...

show quoted sections

Robbie O'Driscoll

Dear Bedford Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Bedford Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Alternative Provision and SEND Expenditure for 2021, 2022 and 2023'.

I understand that Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act allows an authority to refuse a request if the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit. However, it seems unlikely that the necessary data cannot be accessed without surpassing the cost threshold if the Council is following its internal processes effectively.

Most local authorities in England utilise standard financial and contract management systems, which typically include:

1. Central Financial Management Systems (FMS): These systems should allow for the extraction of expenditure data across departments.
2. Contract Registers: Authorities are required to maintain a register of contracts, which should provide details on suppliers and the nature of services provided.

Given these systems are in place, it should be possible to compile the requested expenditure and supplier information within the cost limits. Specifically, accessing data from a contract register and financial management system should not necessitate a manual search across different departments and schools, thus remaining within the £450 cost threshold.

I would appreciate if you could reconsider my request, possibly by narrowing the scope to ensure it is manageable within the cost limits, or by utilising the Council's financial management and contract systems to facilitate a more efficient response.

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

Yours faithfully,

Robbie O'Driscoll

Request For Information, Bedford Borough Council

Thank you for your e-mail requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

 

We will proceed with the request which we received today. It is our
intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible
otherwise within the statutory 20 working days.

 

In considering the request, it may be subject to exemptions that the
Council rely on to refuse the information. Some exemptions are absolute
and some only apply where the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs that of disclosing the information.
[1]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

 

Please note that should you be requesting information under the
Environmental Information Regulations although we provide free access to a
wide range of information through our website, access to any public
registers which we hold and for inspecting information at our offices, we
are allowed to charge you a reasonable fee for providing certain
information.
If applicable, we will issue you with a fee notice. This will detail the
tasks involved in responding to the request, and associated costs. Further
information is available on the EIR page of Bedford Borough Council’s
website at the following link:

[2]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...

  

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to
this matter should be emailed to [3][email address]

 

Any emails containing personal or sensitive data will be sent as ‘secure
e-mails’. In order for you to access a secure email you will be asked to
create an account and log into the Council’s secure e-mail reply
service. If you do receive a secure email there will be instructions
explaining how to do this.

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
2. https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
3. mailto:[email address]

Request For Information, Bedford Borough Council

1 Attachment

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

 

Dear Robbie O'Driscoll,

 

Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No.
RFI-01880

 

Thank you for your email. We are sorry to hear that you are dissatisfied
with the Council’s response to your information request.

 

The matter has been passed to the relevant service area within the Council
to undertake a review.

 

Once we have received a response, we will contact you again.

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Hanson
Customer Feedback Officer
Customer Services & Customer Feedback
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Website: [1]www.bedford.gov.uk  
‘Bedford Borough Council – Working with our partners to make the Borough a
better place to live, work and visit.’

For up-to-date information on the Council follow us on:
Twitter: @bedfordtweets  
Facebook: [2]https://www.facebook.com/bedfordboroughc...

[3]bbc logo

 

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Request For Information, Bedford Borough Council

1 Attachment

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

 

Dear Robbie O’Driscoll,

 

Further my email below, I am writing to confirm that the council is in the
process of reviewing the response provided to you.

As part of the review process, it would be helpful if you can clarify the
points below in blue bold.

 

•              Expenditure Details:

The total annual expenditure on Alternative Provision (AP) services and
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services for the past
three years (2021, 2022, 2023).

 

Is this just Local Authority spending or school spending?

What is the definition you are using for AP?

Is the spend just for pupils with SEND ?

What is the definition of SEND services, as there are many in a LA?

 

•              Supplier Information:

A list of all suppliers (both registered and unregistered) providing AP
and SEND services, including the amount spent on each supplier annually
for the past three years.

 

Is this just LA spend?

What is your definition of SEND services?

 

Alternatively, if you were able to limit your request to just young people
who have an EHCP and just LA spend we estimate that a response can be
provided within the 18 hours cost limit.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

 

Daniela Hanson
Customer Feedback Officer
Customer Services & Customer Feedback
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Website: [1]www.bedford.gov.uk  
‘Bedford Borough Council – Working with our partners to make the Borough a
better place to live, work and visit.’

For up-to-date information on the Council follow us on:
Twitter: @bedfordtweets  
Facebook: [2]https://www.facebook.com/bedfordboroughc...

[3]bbc logo

 

From: Request For Information <[email address]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 7, 2024 11:09 AM
To: Robbie O'Driscoll <[FOI #1143552 email]>
Subject: RE: [External] Internal review of Freedom of Information request
- Alternative Provision and SEND Expenditure for 2021, 2022 and 2023
(Request No. RFI-01880)

 

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

 

Dear Robbie O'Driscoll,

 

Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No.
RFI-01880

 

Thank you for your email. We are sorry to hear that you are dissatisfied
with the Council’s response to your information request.

 

The matter has been passed to the relevant service area within the Council
to undertake a review.

 

Once we have received a response, we will contact you again.

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Hanson
Customer Feedback Officer
Customer Services & Customer Feedback
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Website: [4]www.bedford.gov.uk
‘Bedford Borough Council – Working with our partners to make the Borough a
better place to live, work and visit.’

For up-to-date information on the Council follow us on:
Twitter: @bedfordtweets
Facebook: [5]https://www.facebook.com/bedfordboroughc...

[6]bbc logo

 

show quoted sections

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Robbie O'Driscoll please sign in and let everyone know.