Fostering allowance and skills payments

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Staffordshire County Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Staffordshire County Council,

I wish to be provided with information on fostering allowances and skills payments for a 10 yr old.

I want the information detailed in seperate amounts for each payment and total amounts combined

Yours faithfully,

F. McGeough

Dear Staffordshire County Council,

The response to your request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, the authority should have responded by now and it has not. I would like a full response without disclosing my personal and identifiable information online. I would like an official internal reveiw of all circumstances occuring during this FOI request and reasons why this has not been reported under GDPR by yourselves

Yours faithfully,

Fiona McGeough

Access Information, Staffordshire County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Fiona McGeough

Checking our records we have received two requests from you. These are as follows -

Our ref. F0001124 - Received 5 June and closed 17 June 2019 - 'I would like evidence, by way of a disclosure through a freedom of information request, that the SGO payment you have offered is equitable. I would like full disclosure on finances involved in all SGO payments arranged through Staffordshire County Council in the last 3 years. Redacted will suffice’ and clarification - 'I wish to have a full disclosure on all payments made to persons undertaking Special Guardianship Orders.'

The response below was sent to one of your personal email addresses provided -

' Dear Fiona McGeough

Thank you for your request for information held by Staffordshire County Council. –

‘I would like evidence, by way of a disclosure through a freedom of information request, that the SGO payment you have offered is equitable. I would like full disclosure on finances involved in all SGO payments arranged through Staffordshire County Council in the last 3 years. Redacted will suffice’

Although you have requested financial information the nature of the information means that it is effectively someone else’s personal information.

The information as requested relates individual payments which are based on each person, means test to identify what allowances they are provided including benefit allowances, outgoings and income to determine the figure. This information will have been provided to us for the specific purpose of calculating entitlement and amount of SGO payments and the individuals would have the expectation that their personal data would not be disclosed to third parties.

The information is therefore considered to be exempt from release under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) as it is a request for someone else’s personal information disclosure of which may breach data protection principles.

Allowances are reviewed annually to ensure that payments reflect people’s financial situation and any changes that to their circumstances.

Payments are calculated in line with the Local Authority’s policy on Financial Support for Children Subject to a Special Guardianship Order in line with the government guidance; Regulation 6 of the Special guardianship guidance. Statutory guidance for local authorities on the Special Guardianship Regulations 2005 (as amended by the Special Guardianship (Amendment) Regulations 2016); January 2017

If you have any questions or comments relating to how your request has been handled by our authority you should contact us in the first instance. Send your question, comment or complaint to [email address]

If you then have any further comments relating to how your request has been handled by our authority, please contact the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.'

Our ref. F0001198 - Received 18 June and closed 9 July 2019 -

'I wish to be provided with information on fostering allowances and skills payments for a 10 yr old. I want the information detailed in seperate amounts for each payment and total amounts combined'

The response was sent in a reply to a What Do They Know email address

'Attached is a copy of the fostering handbook. This contains the information requested. ... Pages 143 - 156 are the relevant sections.

The service advises that there is no more detailed information available to anyone including us other than this document.'

A response has also been provided in relation a complaint about our handling of this request. The complaint response from the Access Manager was sent to your personal email address on 2 August.

We have checked and can find no record of receiving any other FOI requests from you. If your email below does not relate to either of these please can you send the request to [email address] and we will action it.

Regards
  
David Portch

Access Team
Staffordshire County Council
1 Staffordshire Place
Stafford
ST16 2DH

Telephone:  01785 278176

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