Letters to academy trusts re rebrokering without going through formal route

Department for Education did not have the information requested.

Dear Department for Education,

I have seen a letter dated 17 November 2015 from Jennifer Bexon-Smith, the Regional School Commissioner for East Midlands and Humber, to Sandhill Multi Academy Trust in which she told the trust that while she considered there was 'sufficient evidence' for her to 'issue Termination Warning Notices' her 'preference' would be to rebroker the trust's academies without going through the 'formal route'. She explained this was to 'save the trustees from further reputational damage'.

I should be grateful if you could send me copies of letters sent by RSCs to any MAT facing rebrokerage in which the RSC says s/he will not go down the formal route of issuing Termination Warning Notices.

Yours faithfully,

J Downs

Dear Department for Education,

On 20 March 2017 I sent a Freedom of Information request asking for copies of letters to academy trusts re rebrokering without going through the formal route.

I have not received a reply although the statutory period for response has passed. I should be grateful to receive an answer. I do not wish to request an Internal Review - it takes up your time and mine. However, I will have no option but to do so if I do not receive a reply by 25 April 2017.

Yours faithfully,

J Downs

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear J Downs,

 

Thank you for your request for information (2017-0023228), which was
received on 20/04/2017.

 

You requested:

 

Dear Department for Education,

 

On 20 March 2017 I sent a Freedom of Information request asking for copies
of letters to academy trusts re rebrokering without going through the
formal route.

 

I have not received a reply although the statutory period for response has
passed.  I should be grateful to receive an answer.  I do not wish to
request an Internal Review - it takes up your time and mine.  However, I
will have no option but to do so if I do not receive a reply by 25 April
2017.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

J Downs

 

I am dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

We have looked through our systems, checking with a number of teams and
none of them have any record of the previous request you are referring to.
The only record we can find is your posting on “What do they Know?” It
would appear there may have been a technical glitch either at What do they
Know? or subsequently at our end, but either way there is no record in our
system of this query.

 

Whilst we appreciate this may be frustrating, as we were not aware of the
case, we have not answered it at this point. We have now logged the
original request and will be answering it in due course. The reference
number for this case will be 2017-0024402, with the deadline for this case
being 25/05/2017.

 

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter.  Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, which were not involved in the original
consideration of your request.    

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

Ewan Bishop

Dear Department for Education

REFl 2017-0024402

I have received a letter via WhatDoTheyKnow claiming the reason I have had no response to my FoI request asking for copies of letters to academy trusts re rebrokering without going through the formal route was a 'technical glitch' either at WhatDoTheyKnow or at the DfE.

The WhatDoTheyKnow site says my original request was delivered. The site 'received a delivery status notification from the mailserver belonging to the authority.' It appears the glitch was at the DfE.

I am pleased that the request has been acknowledged at last although, as you say, it is frustrating that I will not receive a reply until 25 May 2017.

Yours faithfully,

J Downs

Doug Paulley left an annotation ()

I can confirm that the email containing the FOI request was indeed successfully transferred to the Department for Education, whose mail server responded with the message "250 ok 1490017403 qp 4477 server-8.tower-33.messagelabs.com!1490017403!86007893!1"

The mail server log is as follows:
Mar 20 13:43:23 leopard exim[7057]: 2017-03-20 13:43:23 [7057] 1cpxak-0001po-MO => ministers@education.gov.uk F=<request-396013-redacted@whatdotheyknow.com> P=<request-396013-redacted@whatdotheyknow.com> R=dnslookup_returnpath_dkim T=remote_smtp_dkim_returnpath S=2621 H=cluster5.eu.messagelabs.com [195.245.230.51]:25 X=TLS1.2:DHE_RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:128 CV=no DN="C=US,ST=California,L=Mountain View,O=Symantec Corporation,OU=Symantec.cloud,CN=mail33.messagelabs.com" C="250 ok 1490017403 qp 4477 server-8.tower-33.messagelabs.com!1490017403!86007893!1" QT=1s DT=0s

I note that the DFE uses mail filtering service messagelabs.com. I suspect that this is the culprit.
--
Doug - volunteer administrator, WhatDoTheyKnow.com

J Downs left an annotation ()

Thanks, Doug, for confirming the FoI request was delivered.

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear J Downs 

 

"Thank you for your request for information, which was received on
26/04/2017 00:00 . You requested  

 

 

‘I have seen a letter dated 17 November 2015 from Jennifer Bexon-Smith,
the Regional School Commissioner for East Midlands and Humber, to Sandhill
Multi Academy Trust in which she told the trust that while she considered
there was 'sufficient evidence' for her to 'issue Termination Warning
Notices' her 'preference' would be to rebroker the trust's academies
without going through the 'formal route'. She explained this was to 'save
the trustees from further reputational damage. I should be grateful if you
could send me copies of letters sent by RSCs to any MAT facing rebrokerage
in which the RSC says s/he will not go down the formal route of issuing
Termination Warning Notices.’

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(“the Act”).

Following a search of the Department’s paper and electronic records, I
have established that no such letters are held.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by an
independent review panel, who review panel, who were not involved in the
original consideration of your request. 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office."

 Chris Senior 

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