Thank you for your e-mail requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

We will proceed with the request which we received today. It is our
intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible
otherwise within the statutory 20 working days.

In consideration of the request, which may be subject to any exemptions/
exceptions the Council may rely on to refuse the request, some of which
are absolute and some of which only apply where the public interest in
maintaining the exemption/exception outweighs that in disclosing the
information.

Please note that should you be requesting information under the
Environmental Information Regulations although we provide free access to a
wide range of information through our website, access to any public
registers which we hold and for inspecting information at our offices, we
are allowed to charge you a reasonable fee for providing certain
information.  If applicable, we will issue you with a fee notice.  This
will detail the tasks involved in responding to the request, and
associated costs.  Further information is available on the EIR page of
Bedford Borough Council’s website at the following link:

[1]http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...

Please note that once a response has been forwarded to you an anonymised
summary of all requests appear on the Bedford Borough website at the
following link:

[2]http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...
Our current practise is that the information will be available to view on
the web for 2 years.

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to
this matter should be emailed to [3][Bedford Borough Council request email] .

Any emails containing personal or sensitive data will be sent as ‘secure
e-mails’.  In order for you to access a secure email you will be asked to
create an account and log into the Council’s secure e-mail reply service. 
If you do receive a secure email there will be instructions explaining how
to do this.

References

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2. http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...
3. mailto:[Bedford Borough Council request email]

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

Dear Shanti Das

Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No 14193

I refer to your recent enquiry for information held by the Council. 

Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the authority must
state whether or not the information exists and I confirm that we do hold
the information you requested.

Please find the information you requested enclosed. 

You requested:

How many pupils have received online tutoring at home that was paid for by
the council between September 1 2017 and August 31 2018? Please indicate
how many children were primary school age and how many children were
secondary school age.

Note: I am requesting information relating to ALL children who receive
some or all of their schooling at home. This would include those who are
electively home-schooled, as well as those who have some or all of their
classes at home as part of their mainstream schooling, or as part of
alternative provision.

For these children, I am requesting information relating to online
learning. This would include children who receive some or all of their
tuition over Skype (or similar services), or using e-learning tutoring
tools. It would include instances where the council has hired a member of
staff specifically to carry out this online tuition, as well as instances
where an external company is being paid to provide the service.

-Please provide the same information (total number of pupils, broken down
by primary/secondary) for the same period (Sept 1 - Aug 31) for each of
these years: 2016/17, 2015/16, 2014/15 and 2013/14.

-How much was spent on providing this online tutoring? Please provide the
figure in pounds for each of the school years listed above (2013/14 -
2017/18), broken down by school year.

-Please provide the name(s) of the organisation(s) providing the online
tutoring for home-schooled children.

Response: Bedford Borough Council do not provide or commission online
tutoring for any pupils.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder.  For
further information regarding Re-use of Public Sector information please
see link below.

If after viewing the information you are for whatever reason unhappy with
our response to your application you are entitled to pursue any
dissatisfaction through the Council's Internal Review Procedure.  Pursuant
to Section 17 (7) of the Act the procedure provided by the Council for
dealing with complaints about the determination of this request for
information is the Council’s FOI Complaints Procedure, a copy of which can
be obtained on request or is set out at: 
[1]http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...

Yours sincerely

Daniela Hanson
Freedom of Information Administrator (Children's Services)
Support Services
Children's Services
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Tel: 01234 276749 (Internal 44749)
Website: [2]www.bedford.gov.uk  
‘Bedford Borough Council – Working with our partners to make the Borough a
better place to live, work and visit.’

For up-to-date information on the Council follow us on:
Twitter: @bedfordtweets  
Facebook: [3]https://www.facebook.com/bedfordboroughc...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colin Foster, Director of Children’s Services
Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford MK42 9AP DX 117105 Bedford 4

Phone (01234) 267422   Minicom (01234) 221827   Web www.bedford.gov.uk

Information security classification of this email: OFFICIAL-Unsecure

EMAIL CLASSIFICATION DEFINED:

*** OFFICIAL-INTERNAL: This message is intended for internal recipients
only.

*** OFFICIAL-UNSECURE:  This message and any attached file(s) do not
contain personal or sensitive information which requires it to be sent
encrypted.

*** OFFICIAL-SECURE: Either this message or any attached file contains
either personal or commercially sensitive information that requires it to
be sent encrypted.

All email traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation. This email and any attached file are
the property of Bedford Borough Council. Any opinions expressed in this
mail do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Bedford Borough Council.

Bedford Borough Council is continuously working towards the requirements
of the Public Sector Network and Data Protection legislation.  Data
Subjects may exercise their information rights by contacting
[email address].

References

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http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...
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