FOI REQUEST RE Childrens Social Services
Dear Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea,
1. How many meetings, both within (professionals) the council and outside of council offices (for training and/work purposes) did social workers attend in total from January 1st 1998 to December 8th 2009?
2.How many days were spent off sick and on holiday or other leave by all social workers between January 1 2000 and December 8th 2009?
3. How many complaints have been lodged by parents between January 1st 2000 and December 8th 2009?
4. How many workshops/training events have been attended by social workers either within the council buildings/s or externally between January 1st 2000 and December 8th 2009 and what were the names of the businesses/experts/workshops attended/consulted for training purposes?
5. What are the annual wages of the Heads of Childrens'Social Services and other Childrens' Services Departments and do they claim expenses?
6. How many children and families have requested and are awaiting services currently?
7. How many complaints were settled out-of-court involving Childrens' Services (including Children with Disabilities) from January 1st 1996 to December 8th 2009 and how much in total (including external consultations) was spent in compensation?
* All social workers referred to here are those working under 'Childrens Services' or 'Children with Disabilities' or Children and Families'
Yours sincerely
Liz R
Dear Ms R
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REF: 2009-750
I am writing to confirm that we received your information request on 9
December 2009. For your information and future communications your request
has been allocated the reference number FOI2009-750. Please quote this
reference in any future correspondence.
We will consider your request and respond in accordance with the
requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Our duty is to
respond promptly or at least within 20 working days.
Yours sincerely
Robin Yu
Information Protection Assistant
FOIA Team, Business Protection Unit
Information Systems Division (ISD)
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX
Tel: 020 7938 8226
Web: [1]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk
Dear Ms R
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST REF: 2009-750
I am responding to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
which we received on 9 December 2009 for information held by the Council.
You requested:
1. How many meetings, both within (professionals) the council and outside
of council offices (for training and/work purposes) did social workers
attend in total from January 1st 1998 to December 8th 2009?
   Â
2. How many days were spent off sick and on holiday or other leave by all
social workers between January 1 2000 and December 8th 2009?
   Â
3. How many complaints have been lodged by parents between January 1st
2000 and December 8th 2009?
   Â
4. How many workshops/training events have been attended by social workers
either within the council buildings/s or externally between January 1st
2000 and December 8th 2009 and what were the names of the
businesses/experts/workshops attended/consulted for training purposes?
   Â
5. What are the annual wages of the Heads of Childrens' Social Services
and other Childrens' Services Departments and do they claim expenses?
   Â
6. How many children and families have requested and are awaiting services
currently?
   Â
7. How many complaints were settled out-of-court involving Childrens'
Services (including Children with Disabilities) from January 1st 1996 to
December 8th 2009 and how much in total (including external consultations)
was spent in compensation?
1, 2, 4. The information for these questions might be retrievable.
However, we have estimated that it will cost more than the appropriate
limit to respond to these questions. The appropriate limit is set at
£450; this represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2.5
working days or 18 hours in locating, retrieving and extracting the
information.
Under FOIA, we are obliged to offer advice and assistance when a request
is refused on cost grounds. We might be able to retrieve some information
if you are able to narrow/clarify your request. Please contact me if you
require assistance doing so.
3. The available information we hold is:
2001 - 2002 - 53 complaints
2002 - 2003 - 49 complaints
2003 - 2004 - 70 complaints
2005 - 2006 - 59 complaints
2006 - 2007 - 24 complaints
2007 - September 2008 - 20 complaints
September 2008 - present - 21 complaints
5. Salaries of Council Staff earning over £100,000 are published by the
Taxpayers Alliance here:
[1]http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/CSU2-ri...
Heads of services do claim expenses.
6. This question to too vague, could you clarify which services you are
referring to please?
7. No information held.
Copyright
Please note, all material provided by the Royal Borough of Kensington and
Chelsea in response to your request for information is for your personal,
non-commercial use. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea reserves
all rights in the copyright of the information provided. Any unauthorised
copying or adaptation of the information without express written
confirmation from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea will
constitute an infringement of copyright. Any intention to re-use this
information commercially will require consent. Please forward any requests
for re-use of information to the FOI officer ([2][RBKC request email]).
Complaints
I trust this has satisfied your request. Should you be unhappy with the
handling of your request, the Council has an internal complaints process
for handling FOI Act complaints. Complaints are reviewed by the Town Clerk
and Chief Executive or his nominee. A form is available from our website
to lodge your complaint
[3]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/councilanddemocra...
Please contact us if you do not have website access and we can provide you
with a copy of the form.
Following this review, should you still be unhappy with how your
information request has been handled, you have a further right to appeal
to the Information Commissioner who is responsible for ensuring compliance
with the FOI Act.
Yours sincerely
Robin Yu
Information Protection Assistant
FOIA Team, Business Protection Unit
Information Systems Division (ISD)
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX
Tel: 020 7938 8226
Web: [4]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk
References
Visible links
1. http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/CSU2-ri...
2. mailto:[RBKC request email]
mailto:[RBKC request email]
3. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/councilanddemocra...
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/councilanddemocra...
4. http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/
http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/
Dear Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea,
Thank you for your kind, hard work. I have noted your department though, is misinformed and underfunded as the requests could all relate to children and the Childrens'Act takes primacy over anything else - in other words there should be no limit on public information on public spending regarding social services as we need more transparency here and it's law. An example is that Mr.Myers has said the annual budget for adoption of children is over 7 million pounds this year, and yet so little information is available to the pubic for us to see where this 7 million could perhaps be reduced and how funds could be better distributed and legally so and to help us help prevent things such as too many adoptions, and Childrens Law primacy not being noted and kept by your department []. I do understand your funding availability/issues, it doesn't make it right or legal and so I need to request an internal review and feel forced to insist on seeing "decision notices" which explain, with reference to exemptions in the FOI act, why any of my requests have been rejected despite your clear explanation your funds are limited, it doesn't make it legally correct. This does not detract in any way from your kind and good work.
On a brighter note; It's good to note complaints have dropped.
Yours sincerely,
Liz R
Dear Ms R
I have considered your request for a review of the Council's earlier
response to your FOI request dated 9 December.
I have decided the Council has made a reasonable attempt to assist and
that the decision to refuse information on cost grounds but to reconsider
a request cast more narrowly is reasonable.
Derek Myers
Town Clerk & Chief Executive
Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea
Dear Mr.Myers,
Thank you for your consideration here. As you're more aware of the issues than I, I will leave it to your discretion, if I may, to decide on the information that is avalable as set out in your response,
Yours sincerely,
Liz R
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