Autism Partnership Board, Autism Working Group and Associated Bodies Documents
Dear Southend on Sea Borough Council,
Please provide the following information:
- A copy of your Autism Strategy;
- The Terms of Reference, membership, constitution and similar documents for the Autism Partnership Board; and
- The minutes, agendas and reports or other documents and information that have been presented to that board since it's inauguration.
It is likely that you also operate or participate in an Autism Working Group or Autism Steering Group which is attended by yourself and the people/organisations responsible to commissioning services. Please provide:
- A copy of the agendas and minutes of any meeting of the above group;
- The terms of reference, constitutions, membership and similar governing documents for the Autism Working Group; and
- any reports, documents and other information produced for or presented to the Autism Working Group.
I am aware that the Autism Partnership Board operates (or has operated) a number of sub-groups, including (but not limited to) the 'Autism Training Pathway Task and Finish Group' and the 'Autism Employment Strategy Group'.
Please can you provide a list of each of these bodies, and for each of these bodies provide:
- any governing documents, including but not limited to the Terms of Reference;
- A copy of the minutes, agendas, reports and other documents and information presented to or produced by each of the bodies.
Yours faithfully,
S Marr
Please find attached our response to your request. The minutes have been
redacted as it is not our policy to release staff names under Group
Manager level.
Kind regards
Business Support Team – Department for People
Creating a Better Southend
( 01702
215000| [email address] |8 [1]www.southend.gov.uk
Department for People | Southend-on-Sea Borough Council | Civic Centre 1 |
Victoria Avenue | Southend-on-Sea | SS2 6ER
Please do not respond to this email as this inbox is not monitored
[2]Police
Safe – clean – healthy – prosperous – excellent – Creating a better
Southend
Dear Southend on Sea Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews. I am writing to request an internal review of Southend on Sea Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Autism Partnership Board, Autism Working Group and Associated Bodies Documents'. If you do not operate an 'internal review' process, please treat this as a complaint about your handling of my Freedom of Information Act request.
There are three grounds for an internal review:
1) In my request, I asked for a copy of your 'Autism Strategy'. I know that such a document exists by such a name, as I have seen the front cover of it. However, you have failed to provide me with a copy or issue a refusal notice explaining why you have refused to release it.
2a) In my request, I asked for "the minutes, agendas and reports or other documents and information that have been presented to [The Autism Partnership Board]. You responded giving a copy of the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Autism Partnership Board and it's Terms of Reference (asked for elsewhere). You stated in your response "The associated papers are embedded as part of the
minutes, and the amended TOR attached." However, the associated papers have not been embedded as part of the minutes.
2b) In my request, I asked for "the minutes, agendas and reports or other documents and information that have been presented to [The Autism Partnership Board] since it's inauguration".
You have responded giving a copy of the minutes of it's most recent meeting only and its terms of reference (which was asked for elsewhere in my request).
My request was clear in that it requested ALL the minutes, agendas and reports since it's inaugation which I believe was in 2014. You have failed to provide any of the minutes, agendas or reports except for a copy of the minutes of one meeting held on 06 April 2016. I did not limit the scope of my request to "since it's re-inaugation", but specifically said 'since it's inaugation.
3) In my request, I asked for the minutes and other documents that might have been associated with the 'Autism Steering Group' or 'Autism Work Group or any other such body that might exist that functions in that role as a meeting point between yourselves and other commissioners of services for people with Autism. You have failed to provide any of these documents nor acknowledge that request in your 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,
S Marr
Dear S Marr,
I have registered your below email onto our system, and handed it over for an FOI review to be conducted.
Kind regards,
Daniel Howard
Daniel Howard – Knowledge Support Officer – Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
Creating a Better Southend
C 01702 534929| | [email address] | www.southend.gov.uk
Policy, Engagement and Communication Group l Department for the Chief Executive l Southend-on-Sea Borough Council | Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, Southend, Essex, SS2 6ER
Dear Southend FOI requests,
Given that your Complaints Policy (under which Internal Review requests are dealt with) states that I can expect a full reply within ten days or an explanation of why a reply will take longer, I am now asking that this request for an internal review be taken to stage 2 of your complaints process.
Yours sincerely,
S Marr
Dear Mr S Marr,
I apologies for not contacting you regarding your review sooner.
With regards to your email dated 23^rd September I will arrange for this
to be dealt with as a stage 1 complaint within our internal complaints
process. I would like to advise the complaints process is separate from
the FOI internal review process, and there is no set time frame to conduct
FOI internal reviews, however we aim to conduct our internal reviews
within 20 working days. I apologies that this has not been the case.
A response regarding your stage 1 complaint will be sent within 10 working
days. In the event that this is not possible and interim response will be
provided with confirmation of when the final response can be expected.
Kind regards,
Daniel Howard
Daniel Howard – Knowledge Support Officer – Southend-on-Sea Borough
Council
Creating a Better Southend
( 01702 534929| *
[1][email address] |8 [2]www.southend.gov.uk
Policy, Engagement and Communication Group l Department for the Chief
Executive l Southend-on-Sea Borough Council | Civic Centre, Victoria
Avenue, Southend, Essex, SS2 6ER
_____________________________________________
From: S Marr [[3]mailto:[FOI #415688 email]]
Sent: 23 September 2017 20:47
To: Southend FOI requests
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Autism
Partnership Board, Autism Working Group and Associated Bodies Documents
Apolagies not done review, will arrange for his email email on 23rd spt to
be done a stage 1 (internal review process is separate). There is not sett
ime frame for review but we aim for 20 working days.
Send my overall email to Karen blows
Dear Southend FOI requests,
Given that your Complaints Policy (under which Internal Review requests
are dealt with) states that I can expect a full reply within ten days or
an explanation of why a reply will take longer, I am now asking that this
request for an internal review be taken to stage 2 of your complaints
process.
Yours sincerely,
S Marr
Dear Mr S Marr,
I apologies for not contacting you regarding your review sooner.
With regards to your email dated 23^rd September I will arrange for this
to be dealt with as a stage 1 complaint within our internal complaints
process. I would like to advise the complaints process is separate from
the FOI internal review process, and there is no set time frame to conduct
FOI internal reviews, however we aim to conduct our internal reviews
within 20 working days. I apologies that this has not been the case.
A response regarding your stage 1 complaint will be sent within 10 working
days. In the event that this is not possible and interim response will be
provided with confirmation of when the final response can be expected.
Kind regards,
Daniel Howard
Daniel Howard – Knowledge Support Officer – Southend-on-Sea Borough
Council
Creating a Better Southend
( 01702 534929| *
[1][email address] |8 [2]www.southend.gov.uk
Policy, Engagement and Communication Group l Department for the Chief
Executive l Southend-on-Sea Borough Council | Civic Centre, Victoria
Avenue, Southend, Essex, SS2 6ER
_____________________________________
From: S Marr [[3]mailto:[FOI #415688 email]]
Sent: 23 September 2017 20:47
To: Southend FOI requests
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Autism
Partnership Board, Autism Working Group and Associated Bodies Documents
Dear Southend FOI requests,
Given that your Complaints Policy (under which Internal Review requests
are dealt with) states that I can expect a full reply within ten days or
an explanation of why a reply will take longer, I am now asking that this
request for an internal review be taken to stage 2 of your complaints
process.
Yours sincerely,
S Marr
Southend FOI requests would like to recall the message, "Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Autism Partnership Board, Autism Working Group and Associated Bodies Documents".
Southend FOI requests would like to recall the message, "Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Autism Partnership Board, Autism Working Group and Associated Bodies Documents".
Dear Mr Marr,
Further to our email to you dated 25^th September informing you that we
are dealing with your request as a stage 1 complaint within our internal
complaints process. I am writing to inform you that due to an unexpected
high volume of work in the service area dealing with this we have been
unable to fulfil the request within the timeframe originally specified.
Please accept my apology for the delay. I can confirm that a response
will be provided to you by 21^st October.
If for any reason you are unhappy with this response then you can ask for
it to be reconsidered by the Director under Stage 2 of the Council’s
Complaint Procedure. If you wish to follow this course of action you
should write to Karen Blows, Department of the Chief Executive,
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, P.O. Box 6, Civic Centre, Victoria
Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS2 6ER, or e-mail
[1][email address] enclosing any additional information that
you want to be considered.
Regards
Lysanne
Lysanne Eddy – Group Manager - Policy, Engagement & Communication –
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
Creating a Better Southend
( 01702 215111 (Direct) | * [2][email address]
|8 [3]www.southend.gov.uk
Department of the Chief Executive l Southend-on-Sea Borough Council |
Civic Centre - Victoria Avenue - Southend-on-Sea - SS2 6ER
Safe – clean – healthy – prosperous – excellent – Creating a better
Southend
Dear Southend Borough Council (SBC henceforth),
I wrote to yourselves on 01 August 2017 asking for an Internal review of your response to a Freedom of Information Act request for information about your Autism Partnership Board and associated bodies/documents that I originally requested on 02 July 2017.
SBC acknowledged that request on 03 August 2017, and has stated that it will respond to Internal Reviews within 20 working days. It did not do so. I wrote to SBC again on 23 September 2017, and the request was acknowledged again on 25 September 2017 and a response promised in ten working days, which would mean it would have been due on 09 October 2017. I recieved a further on 06 October 2017 stating that due to a high volume of work the response to my complaint would not be recieved until 21 October 2017 (nineteen working days later).
It is now 14 November 2017 so the Internal Review has so far taken 86 working days, and the stage 1 complaint regarding the handling of the request has been ongoing for 36 working days.
May I please get a response as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
S Marr
Dear Mr Marr,
Firstly, I must apologise for the delay you have experienced in receiving
our response to your request for a review.
Whilst I acknowledge that this is frustrating for you, it has been caused
by sheer volume of work recently and competing demands.
That said, attached is a copy of the review now conducted on your request
to be provided with information missing from your original response. As
you will see, the review agrees that information was omitted and this will
now be sourced for you as a priority, where available.
I have asked Daniel Howard to liaise with departmental colleagues to
identify this information and to make contact with you directly to advise
you of progress. Daniel is copied into this message so you have a point
of contact going forward.
Many thanks
Lysanne Eddy
Lysanne Eddy – Group Manager - Policy, Engagement & Communication –
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
Creating a Better Southend
n 01702 215111 (Direct) | [email address]
|| [1]www.southend.gov.uk
Department of the Chief Executive l Southend-on-Sea Borough Council |
Civic Centre - Victoria Avenue - Southend-on-Sea - SS2 6ER
Dear Mr S Marr,
I am writing regarding the internal review which was carried out on 16
November 2017 regarding the response sent to your Freedom of Information
request, our reference FOI 05995.
Please find the completed review attached.
Kind regards,
Daniel Howard
Daniel Howard – Knowledge Support Officer – Southend-on-Sea Borough
Council
Creating a Better Southend
( 01702 534929| *
[1][email address] |8 [2]www.southend.gov.uk
Policy, Engagement and Communication Group l Department for the Chief
Executive l Southend-on-Sea Borough Council | Civic Centre, Victoria
Avenue, Southend, Essex, SS2 6ER
Safe – clean – healthy – prosperous – excellent – Creating a better
Southend
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