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Employee code of conduct administration in Children's services

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Dear Wandsworth Borough Council,

Under the FOI legislation could you please provide me with the following information in relation to your children’s services

1 Anonymised details of all employees since 1 April 2015 who have had periods of suspension from their employment. For each case give the period of time that the suspension lasted, the salary paid during the suspension period and whether the employee returned to work.

Your employee code of conduct (as revised May 2013) has the following clauses:
Para:
6.3.3 Employees who are informed that they are to be prosecuted for a criminal offence relevant to their type of work, must immediately they are charged, inform their employing director
7.1 All staff above Scale 6 to obtain written consent to any outside employment.
8.1 Declaration to the director any financial interests in the event of there being a potential conflict with the Council’s interests

With reference to the administration of the WBC employment code of conduct in children’s services. Could you provide me with the following information:

Since 1 April 2015, in each of the financial years since then:

2 how many notifications have been received as required under para 6.3.3 above? Can you confirm that the notification was immediate ?

3 how many written applications have been received as required under para 7.1 and was consent given or not?

4 how many such declarations have been made as required under para 8.1 above

Yours faithfully,

Ben Bennett

Public

Request for Information - 2019/1964 - Code of conduct

Thank you for your request for information received on 04/11/2019.

This will be processed in accordance with the appropriate access to
information regime.

Regards

FOI and DPA Officer
[1][email address]

IMPORTANT:
This email and any of its attachments are intended solely for the use of
the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received
this message in error you must not print, copy, use or disclose the
contents to anyone. Please also delete it from your system and inform the
sender of the error immediately. Emails sent and received by Richmond and
Wandsworth Councils are monitored and may be subsequently disclosed to
authorised third parties, in accordance with relevant legislation.

References

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1. mailto:[email address]

Official

Mr Bennett,

 

I do apologise for the delay in responding to your request for information
received on 4/11/2019. Please see below our response.

 

Under the FOI legislation could you please provide me with the following
information in relation to your children’s services.

 

1 Anonymised details of all employees since 1 April 2015 who have had
periods of suspension from their employment. For each case give the period
of time that the suspension lasted, the salary paid during the suspension
period and whether the employee returned to work.

 

Your employee code of conduct (as revised May 2013) has the following
clauses:

Para:

 

6.3.3 Employees who are informed that they are to be prosecuted for a
criminal offence relevant to their type of work, must immediately they are
charged, inform their employing director.

 

 

7.1 All staff above Scale 6 to obtain written consent to any outside
employment.

 

8.1 Declaration to the director any financial interests in the event of
there being a potential conflict with the Council’s interests

 

With reference to the administration of the WBC employment code of conduct
in children’s services. Could you provide me with the following
information:

 

Since 1 April 2015, in each of the financial years since then:

 

2 how many notifications have been received as required under para 6.3.3
above? Can you confirm that the notification was immediate?

 

3 how many written applications have been received as required under para
7.1 and was consent given or not?

 

4 how many such declarations have been made as required under para 8.1
above

 

 

We are unable to provide this information as we consider the cost to do so
would exceed the FOI appropriate limit, as specified in the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004; therefore section 12(1) of the Act applies.

 

The appropriate limit has been set at £450 and may include working hours
of any person acting on our behalf at a rate of £25 per hour. This equates
to 18 hours to locate and extract the relevant information.

 

To comply with your request would take in excess of 18 hours. In making
this assessment we have considered the costs which would be reasonably
incurred including:

• Determining whether we hold the information;
• Locating and retrieving that information (or any document which may
contain that information); and
• Extracting and collating that information

 

The information you have requested is not held in a readily extractable
format and would require a manual undertaking to review at least 10 ex and
current employees’ records. These records will include substantial
documentation, which will all require manual review in order to properly
fulfil your request.

 

Even at a conservative estimate of 1 minute per case file it would take in
excess of 50 hours to identify, locate, retrieve and extract the relevant
information. This significantly exceeds the appropriate limit under the
Act.

 

Under section 16 of the Act, the Council has a duty to provide advice and
assistance so as to hopefully enable you to obtain some of the information
you are seeking.  Whilst we cannot guarantee that any subsequent request
will be successful, you may want to consider reducing the scope of your
request in the following ways:

 

• A reduction in the time period being requested
• In relation to point 1 of your request the information can be provided
relatively easily for 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 and information to
date for 2019/20
• For points 2 to 4 of your request records relating to the current
calendar year are held centrally, so would also be relatively easy to
collate

 

We have not provided partial information at this stage because you may not
receive the information you are seeking, as you may be primarily concerned
with different times or elements of the request. In cases such as this it
is established ICO good practice that we should seek to gain a better
understanding from you as to what specific information you are requesting.
By doing this, we ensure that you have the chance to reduce or clarify the
request as you see fit, which we will then consider.

 

I hope this information meets your needs. If you do not understand the
information provided or wish to discuss anything further, please feel free
to contact me and I, or another member of the team will be able to assist
you. Likewise, if you would like to clarify and reduce the scope of your
request please contact me. I note for completeness that you are not
required to tell us the reasons for your interest in the information you
are seeking, and that this request for clarification only aims to clarify
what information you are seeking. We will of course consider any further
request on its own merits, provide you with information where we can, and
provide you with an explanation of our reasoning where we cannot. 

 

Please note, all material provided by Wandsworth Council in response to
your request for information is for your personal, non-commercial use.
Wandsworth Council reserves all rights in the copyright of the information
provided. Any unauthorised copying or adaptation of the information
without express written confirmation from Wandsworth Council may
constitute an infringement of copyright. Any intention to re-use this
information commercially may require consent. Please forward any requests
for re-use of information to the FOI officer.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the information provided in relation to your
request you may make representations to the Chief Executive. 
Correspondence should be addressed to:

 

Room 162

Wandsworth Town Hall

Wandsworth High Street

London

SW18 2PU

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Kind regards,

 

Katrina Waite

 

Data Protection Officer

 

 

IMPORTANT:
This email and any of its attachments are intended solely for the use of
the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received
this message in error you must not print, copy, use or disclose the
contents to anyone. Please also delete it from your system and inform the
sender of the error immediately. Emails sent and received by Richmond and
Wandsworth Councils are monitored and may be subsequently disclosed to
authorised third parties, in accordance with relevant legislation.

Dear Katrina

Ok thanks I will narrow down my request significantly.

My request can be confined to the 'youth services' of the children's services directorate.

In terms of dates. For number 1) could you please confine your response to:
1 April 2016 to date as you suggest

For point 2 - the current financial year to date is ok from 1 April 2019. Also to clarify in relation to each case:
- the date that the criminal charge was made
- the date that the director was notified
- the form that the notification took ie letter? email?

For points 3 and 4 could you please confine the time period to the 2015/16 financial year ie year commencing 1 April 2015.

That should considerably reduce the administrative burden of my request. Hopefully you can respond quickly now
Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Ben Bennett

Request for Information - 2019/2112 - Code of Conduct

 

Thank you for your request for information received on 04/12/2019.

 

This will be processed in accordance with the appropriate access to
information regime.

 

 

Regards,

 

FOI and DPA Officer

[1][email address]

 

IMPORTANT:
This email and any of its attachments are intended solely for the use of
the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received
this message in error you must not print, copy, use or disclose the
contents to anyone. Please also delete it from your system and inform the
sender of the error immediately. Emails sent and received by Richmond and
Wandsworth Councils are monitored and may be subsequently disclosed to
authorised third parties, in accordance with relevant legislation.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Official

 

Dear Mr Bennett

 

Request for Information - 2019/2112 - Code of Conduct

 

I refer to your request for information received on 4/12/2019.  Please
accept our apologies for the delay in responding to you.  I set out,
below, your FOI application, with the Council’s response in bold text: -

 

1. Anonymised details of all employees since 1 April 2016 who have had
periods of suspension from their employment?  For each case give the
period of time that the suspension lasted, the salary paid during the
suspension period and whether the employee returned to work.

6 members of staff have been suspended, from 1 April 2016, for periods of
approximately, 3 months, 1 week, 2 months, 2 years, 3 months, and 7
months.  2 staff members resigned, 3 returned to work and 1 suspension is
ongoing.  Approximate payments made are as follows: £5,412, £7452,
£1,424.38, £6,734.27 and £419,24.”

Your employee code of conduct (as revised May 2013) has the following
clauses:
Para:
6.3.3 Employees who are informed that they are to be prosecuted for a
criminal offence relevant to their type of work, must immediately they are
charged, inform their employing director
7.1 All staff above Scale 6 to obtain written consent to any outside
employment.
8.1 Declaration to the director any financial interests in the event of
there being a potential conflict with the Council’s interests
With reference to the administration of the WBC employment code of conduct
in children’s services. Could you provide me with the following
information:
Since 1 April 2015, in each of the financial years since then:

2. how many notifications have been received during the current financial
year as required under para 6.3.3 above? Can you confirm that the
notification was immediate? Also to clarify in relation to each case:

- the date that the criminal charge was made

- the date that the director was notified

- the form that the notification took ie letter email

 

Since April 2019, the current Director / Assistant Directors (Children
Services) have been made aware of two declarations of criminal charge.

Case 1. There was no requirement for notification, as the Council was
already aware of the case.

Case 2. The employee verbally informed the Council on the next working day
following the charge.

Please note that – Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Section
40(2) –  we consider the dates requested to be exempt, as it is the
personal data of a third party. The Data Protection Act 2018 defines
personal data as: 'any information relating to an identified or
identifiable living individual.'  

In coming to the decision to withhold the information, consideration has
been given to the Data Protection Act principles that: the processing of
personal information should be lawful and fair. In addition, such
processing should be transparent in relation to the rights of the data
subject. Furthermore, such information should be processed in accordance
with the rights of the data subject who would have a legitimate
expectation that the information would not be disclosed to members of the
public.

We have therefore concluded that it is neither in accordance with data
protection principles nor in the public interest to release this specific
data. This response acts as a partial refusal of your request.

 

3. how many written applications were received during the 2015/16
financial year as required under para 7.1 and was consent given or not?

Information not held.  For reference, during the period 1 April 2015 to 31
March 2019, staff were required to inform their employing director,
therefore, this was locally managed, no central records were held.  I can
confirm that the email account of the director in office during the
2015/16 financial year has been deleted in line with the Council’s records
management policy.

 

4. how many such declarations were made during the 2015/16 financial year
as required under para 8.1 above?

 

Information not held.  For reference, during the period 1 April 2015 to 31
March 2019, staff were required to inform their employing director,
therefore, this was locally managed, no central records were held.  I can
confirm that the email account of the director in office during the
2015/16 financial year has been deleted in line with the Council’s records
management policy.

 

I hope this information meets your needs. If you do not understand the
information provided or wish to discuss anything further, please feel free
to contact me and I, or another member of the team will be able to assist
you.

 

Please note, all material provided by Wandsworth Council in response to
your request for information is for your personal, non-commercial use.
Wandsworth Council reserves all rights in the copyright of the information
provided. Any unauthorised copying or adaptation of the information
without express written confirmation from Wandsworth Council may
constitute an infringement of copyright. Any intention to re-use this
information commercially may require consent. Please forward any requests
for re-use of information to the FOI officer.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the information provided in relation to your
request you may make representations to the Chief Executive. 
Correspondence should be addressed to: 

 

Room 162, Wandsworth Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street, London, SW18 2PU

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:  

 

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

 

 

Regards

 

Wandsworth FOI Team

 

 

From: Ben Bennett <[FOI #617450 email]>
Sent: 04 December 2019 13:26
To: FOI WBC <[email address]>
Subject: Re: FOI 2019 - 1964 Code of Conduct Draft Response

 

Dear Katrina

Ok thanks I will narrow down my request significantly.

My request can be confined to the 'youth services' of the children's
services directorate.

In terms of dates. For number 1) could you please confine your response
to:
1 April 2016 to date as you suggest

For point 2 - the current financial year to date is ok from 1 April 2019.
Also to clarify in relation to each case:
- the date that the criminal charge was made
- the date that the director was notified
- the form that the notification took ie letter? email?

For points 3 and 4 could you please confine the time period to the 2015/16
financial year ie year commencing 1 April 2015.

That should considerably reduce the administrative burden of my request.
Hopefully you can respond quickly now
Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Ben Bennett

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