Changing of the Fir Tree Nursery to a nursery class

Sheila Oliver made this Freedom of Information request to Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Dear Stockport Borough Council,

This seems to be a last minute decision and one being made against ovewhelming informed opposition.

Please may I see all emails, minutes of meetings, hand written notes, letters or any other written communication regarding why this decision was made. Surely, if the case for this is as compelling as the Council would have us believe, the matter would have been properly sorted out before this late stage.

Yours faithfully,

Sheila Oliver

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mrs Oliver,

Thank you for your request for information below which has been given
reference FOI 3565. Please quote this on any correspondence regarding your
request.

Stockport Council will respond to your request within 20 working days. If
there will be a charge for disbursements e.g. photocopying in order to
provide the information, we will inform you as soon as possible to see if
you wish to proceed; however such charges are usually waived if they
amount to less than £10.

Yours sincerely,

Claire Naven

Claire Naven

Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mrs Oliver,

Further to your request for information below (ref 3565), please note that
the decision taken by the Executive was to publish a statutory notice. The
proposal for Fir Tree Nursery School has been the subject of wide-ranging
consultation and following a period of statutory representation will be
referred to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator for a final decision on
whether or not to implement. Documents relating to the reasons for the
decision to publish the statutory notice are attached for your information
as requested. At the end of the document are links to already published
items which relate.

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request you are
entitled to ask for an internal review. Any internal review will be
carried out by a senior member of staff who was not involved with your
original request. To ask for an internal review, contact
[1][email address] in the first instance.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of any internal review, you are
entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner. To do so, contact:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

[2]www.ico.gov.uk

01625 545 745

Yours sincerely,

Corporate Information Services

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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Dear FOI Officer,

Maybe the decision has not yet been made, but they have altered to school plans already to accommodate it.

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

Dear Stockport Borough Council,

Thank you for your reply. I have seen the details officially put before the Executive Committee and the letter to the Governors, but there seems to be a lack of detail about council officers' work on this matter. I doubt the matter landed in front of the Executive Councillors without any kind of background emails or minutes of meetings to discuss this matter.

The Council is changing their promise of a nursery school to a nursery class, making several staff who expected to get jobs redundant. They are banking on the Schools Adjudicator backing their very, very last minute decision (we all know the consulation comments of interested parties could be safely ignored by the Council, which is the standard procedure). I suspect you haven't given me all the information. There must have been some sort of internal communication on this issue by officers - it couldn't simply have landed out of the blue.

I look forward to receiving the rest of the information.

Kind regards

Sheila

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mrs Oliver,

I am writing in response to your email below (ref 3565).

The officers involved in the original review and progressing work at this
stage have done so through formal reporting and communications. No further
documents exist which set out the reasons for the Executive's decision as
per the original request. Prior to the formal reports being finalised,
reports and letters may well have been circulated by email but these are
unlikely to be routinely kept and there are no such records available from
the officers responsible for providing the information requested.

Yours sincerely,

Corporate Information Services

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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Dear Corporate Information Services

I have experience of the sort of documents that are kept by the Council. This matter involves the last minute changing of a planning application, the taking of the issue (last minute again) to the Schools Adjudicator and generally enraging local residents and education professionals. You have done all this with nothing being put down on paper until the final submission to the Executive with the exception of a few unrecorded chats? I very much doubt that is the truth.

I personally am sure this is being done because the Ueberschool is not big enough for purpose, as I have said all along, in which case the facts of the matter would need to be kept secret - and I suspect that is the reason for non-disclosure

Please have a look round for some documents on this matter. We both know they exist.

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mrs Oliver,

I am writing in response to your email below (ref FOI 3565).

If you are requesting that the Council carries out an internal review of
your request, please clarify what you are asking to be reviewed. The
Council has previously responded to provide you with information in
response to your request, as well as an additional reply. If you believe
information exists which has not been provided to you, please clearly
state what you think this information is and why you think it exists, to
enable us to proceed with your request for review.

Once we receive this clarification we will respond to your request within
20 working days.

Yours sincerely,

Corporate Information Services

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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Dear FOI Officer,

I said why before:-

"You have done all this with nothing being put down on paper until the final submission to the Executive
with the exception of a few unrecorded chats? I very much doubt that is the truth."

Please carry out an internal review and state the name of the officer who makes the final judgement.

Thank you

Sheila Oliver

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

5 Attachments

Dear Mrs Oliver,

I am writing in response to your request for an internal review (Ref FOI
3565). Please find this below:

FOI Request Review (3565)

Subject: Fir Tree Nursery

Investigator: Pat Morgan, Head of School Support Services

Dear Mrs Oliver,

Firstly may I offer my sincere apologies for the delay in you receiving
the response to my review. The delay was due in small part to being absent
due to illness and the resultant backlog during a very busy time for the
service. My profuse apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused
you.

I have had the opportunity to review the responses to you and to discuss
the matters involved with those contacted for completion of the request.
In looking at the information already given I will be looking to see if
there was any information that you did not receive and whether there was
any other information recorded on the internal systems that would relate
to your enquiry.

Following my interviews with the officers concerned the chronology of
responses and process regarding the consultation and related meetings was
as follows:

Original Request received 03/12/10 and response sent 23/12/10 - attached
email.

Follow-up Request received 27/12/10 and further response sent 10/01/11 -
attached email.

Chronology of Events in relation to Fir Tree Nursery Review

Date Description Attachment
Sep 08 Headteacher and Vice Chair of Governors Letter attached
invited to meet officers regarding the with NORT tool
outcome of the NORT exercise, i.e. score appended (pages
below threshold and setting requiring "a 1-3)
more intensive review".
Sep 08 Meeting between Headteacher, Vice Chair of Not minuted
Governors and officers to discuss NORT
outcome.
Nov 09 Meeting between Headteacher, Chair of Not minuted
Governors and officers to discuss future
nursery provision following previous
outcome meeting.
Apr/May 10 Discussions between officers regarding Discussions not
timing of proposal in light of progression minuted.
of new school building. Conclusion to
refresh NORT review information and take to
Exec Cllr for decision on whether to
undertake consultation. Refreshed
information
contained in Exec
Cllr report.
Jul 10 Vice Chair and Headteacher invited to meet email attached (new
with Stephen Bell, Viki Packman, Sue Guy. information)
Email on file however it does not reference
purpose of meeting.
Jul 10 Meeting took place advising school leaders Not minuted.
of proposal to consult.
Aug 10 Report to Executive Cllr seeking permission Response (pages 7-9
to consult upon the proposal.
Aug 10 Decision Record published Response (pages
10-11
Sep 10 Meeting with Headteacher and governor Not minuted, but
representatives to discuss decision and timeline presented
outline timetable for consultation and now provided - new
decision-making referral information.
Sep 10 Letter to full governing body, notifying of Response (Pages
process. 12-13)
Sep 10 Consultation commences Link to documents
on page 13
Nov 10 Consultation ends
Nov 10 Consultation outcomes reported to Executive Link to report and
meeting. appendices on page
13
Dec 10 Decision called in to Scrutiny
Dec 10 Report to Scrutiny Committee Link to report and
appendices on page
13
Dec 10 Statutory Notice Published Attached
Dec 10 Statutory Proposals Published Attached
Various Updates have been given to various meetings Those which refer
however notes have not been included where attached in
they do not include reference to the response (page 5)
"reasons for the decision".

The Officers concerned follow the recommended practice of not keeping
draft documents when these have been superseded by another draft up to the
final document so there can be no confusion caused by varying and out of
date drafts being in circulation. They also manage their email accounts so
they do not hold non-current emails as this contributes to a strain on the
Council's system. Having gone through their systems with them I did not
see any emails which would relate to your request. The folders on the
officers' systems contained the documents and information already sent as
part of previous responses to you. I therefore concur with previous
responses that you have been given all information in relation to your
enquiry with the additions of the attached documents you will receive as
part of this response; but I hope that the above additions will be
helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Pat Morgan

Head of School Support Services

If you are unhappy with the outcome of this internal review, you are
entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner. To do so, contact:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

[1]www.ico.gov.uk

01625 545 745

Yours sincerely,

Corporate Information Services

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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Dear FOI Officer,

Gracious! I am astonished.

Many thanks

Yours sincerely,

Sheila Oliver