Oxford Direct Services - Furloughed Staff & Use of Contractors
Dear Oxford City Council,
I would like to know if Oxford Direct Services have at anytime made use of third party companies, such as Trident Construction Ltd or Mitie Property Services s to supply painting contractors to carry out work on behalf of Oxford Direct Services while at the same time having there own painting contractors at home on furlough.
Yours faithfully,
Pat Mastelotto
Dear Pat Mastelotto,
Oxford City Council – Reference: 10102
Thank you for your email below. Your request was received on 10th May 2021 and you will be sent a response within 20 working days (of receipt) in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000/ Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), subject to the information not being exempt or containing reference to a third party.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recognises the unprecedented challenges all are facing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In particular they understand that resources, whether they are finances or people, may be diverted away from usual compliance or information rights work. Whilst the ICO can’t extend statutory timescales, they will not be penalising public authorities for prioritising other areas or adapting their usual approach during this extraordinary period.
Therefore while the Council will make every effort to comply with the Statutory Requirements you may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer
Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS | Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance. Get tested if you have symptoms.
Dear Pat Mastelotto,
Oxford City Council – Reference: 10102
Further to the acknowledgement below, I can respond to your Freedom of
Information Act 2000 request received on 10th May 2021 as follows:
I would like to know if Oxford Direct Services have at anytime made use of
third party companies, such as Trident Construction Ltd or Mitie Property
Services s to supply painting contractors to carry out work on behalf of
Oxford Direct Services while at the same time having their own painting
contractors at home on furlough.
The work awarded to both of the named companies was subject to competitive
quotes prior to the pandemic for seasonal work not carried out in house.
Due to the contractual commitment and timelines agreed for delivering this
work this arrangement could not be changed.
If you disagree with any part of the response to your request, you are
entitled to ask the Council for an internal review of the decision(s)
made. You may do this by writing to the Monitoring Officer, by either
email – [email address] – or by post to Monitoring Officer, Oxford
City Council, St Aldate’s Chambers, St Aldate’s, Oxford, OX1 1DS. After
the result of the internal review, if you remain dissatisfied, you may ask
the Information Commissioner to intervene on your behalf. You may do this
by writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer
Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City
Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.
Dear freedomofinformation,
Please provide details (dates and scope of work) when the contracts were signed with Trident Construction Ltd and Mitie Property Services.
Why were contract painters able to work but Oxford Direct Services own painters remained on furlough?
Yours sincerely,
Pat Mastelotto
Dear Pat Mastelotto,
Oxford City Council – Reference: 10102
Further to your email below, I can now respond as follows:
Please provide details (dates and scope of work) when the contracts were
signed with Trident Construction Ltd and Mitie Property Services.
Mitie has been an established sub-contractor to ODS since the company was
set up in April 2018. Trident were set up as an approved sub-contractor in
August 2020 to carry out pre- paint joinery seasonal work.
As approved sub-contractors, opportunities to submit competitive quotes
were issued to both sub-contractors plus two other sub-contractors; LA
Wood and Jones and Reeve. The four sub-contractors were invited submit
bids to carry out pre-paint joinery work.
A schedule of the work allocated to the sub-contractor for pre-paint
joinery over the last three years, together with the value and areas
worked, is provided below.
A contract is created for this type of work after a competitive quote is
received and accepted and a Purchase Order (PO) is issued and accepted by
the supplier to carry out the work.
There is no single overall contract put in place, however quotes are
obtained for all work.
Please see the attached spreadsheet.
Why were contract painters able to work but Oxford Direct Services own
painters remained on furlough?
ODS agreed to furlough staff in accordance with HMRC guidelines.
All non-essential work by ODS and or contract painting work only started
once the government confirmed that Covid-secure work could be commenced.
The seasonal pre-paint joinery work is carried out each year by external
contractors and is not work carried out by the in- house team
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer
Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City
Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.
Dear freedomofinformation,
Please provide the number of painters & decorators employed by Oxford Direct Services who were furloughed every month between March 2020 and June 2021
Yours sincerely,
Pat Mastelotto
Dear Pat Mastelotto,
Thank you for your email.
The new question you ask regarding, Please provide the number of painters & decorators employed by Oxford Direct Services who were furloughed every month between March 2020 and June 2021
Could you please submit this question separately using a new email link as the "what do they know" system is designed for one request per thread only.
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer
Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS | Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance. Get tested if you have symptoms.
Dear freedomofinformation,
Question: Why were contract painters able to work but Oxford Direct Services own
painters remained on furlough?
Answer: ODS agreed to furlough staff in accordance with HMRC guidelines.
Please provide copies of documents pertaining to the decision to furlough ODS painting staff while at the same time contracting painting work to third parties.
Was the decision to furlough ODS painting staff and subcontract work to third party contractors taken because it provided an opportunity to exploit the furlough regulations and was financially beneficial to ODS?
Yours sincerely,
Pat Mastelotto
Dear Pat Mastelotto
Further to your follow up question, we have received this response from
Oxford Direct Services:
Thank you for your latest question. As far as can be identified there have
been no communications issued relating specifically to the furloughing of
painting and decorating employees.
If you are able to provide any more detail regarding the type of
communications you think my have been issued we will undertake a further
search of this matter.
Please can you submit any FOI request through the Oxford City Council FOI
email address.
If you disagree with any part of the response to your request, you are
entitled to ask the Council for an internal review of the decision(s)
made. You may do this by writing to the Monitoring Officer, by either
email – [1][email address] – or by post to Monitoring Officer, Oxford
City Council, St Aldate’s Chambers, St Aldate’s, Oxford, OX1 1DS. After
the result of the internal review, if you remain dissatisfied, you may ask
the Information Commissioner to intervene on your behalf. You may do this
by writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Kind regards
Sal Bartlett | Information Governance Administrator| Law & Governance |
SA1.2B | Oxford City Council | St Aldates Chambers | St Aldates | Oxford |
OX1 1DS |
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.
Dear Oxford City Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Oxford City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Oxford Direct Services - Furloughed Staff & Use of Contractors'.
Thank you for your response of 30 July 2021:
You wrote: " As far as can be identified there have
been no communications issued relating specifically to the furloughing of
painting and decorating employees."
This is a rather vague response. Was there any written communication or cost analysis undertaken? Did ODS consider re-tasking their own employees to carry out the work undertaken by Mite or Trident or was it more lucrative to have them sat at home being paid by the taxpayer and subcontract the work out?
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/o...
Yours faithfully,
Pat Mastelotto
Dear Pat Mastelotto,
Thank you for your email below, which is not considered to be an internal
review.
Could you please submit your new question “Was there any written
communication or cost analysis undertaken?” separately using a new email
link as the "what do they know" system is designed for one request per
thread only. Then we will be able to progress this further.
Did ODS consider re-tasking their own employees to carry out the work
undertaken by Mite or Trident or was it more lucrative to have them sat at
home being paid by the taxpayer and subcontract the work out?
Any queries such as this do not fall within the remit of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 as they are not requests for recorded information
held but rather about a process or opinion/explanation.
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer
Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City
Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.
Dear freedomofinformation,
Was there any written communication? If so, please provide copies of the documentation.
Yours sincerely,
Pat Mastelotto
Dear Pat Mastelotto,
Oxford City Council – Reference: 10318
Thank you for your email. Your request was received on 4th August 2021 and you will be sent a response within 20 working days (of receipt) in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000/ Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), subject to the information not being exempt or containing reference to a third party.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recognises the unprecedented challenges all are facing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In particular they understand that resources, whether they are finances or people, may be diverted away from usual compliance or information rights work. Whilst the ICO can’t extend statutory timescales, they will not be penalising public authorities for prioritising other areas or adapting their usual approach during this extraordinary period.
Therefore while the Council will make every effort to comply with the Statutory Requirements you may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer
Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS | Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance. Get tested if you have symptoms.
Dear Pat Mastelotto,
Oxford City Council – Reference: 10318
Further to the acknowledgement below, I can respond to your Freedom of
Information Act 2000 request received on 4th August 2021 as follows:
Was there any written communication? If so, please provide copies of the
documentation.
All staff that were furloughed were done so in accordance with government
guidelines.
Oxford Direct Services has a Furlough statement on its website (copy
attached)
[1]https://www.odsgroup.co.uk/getmedia/d0b6...
ODS did not send any external written communications about furloughing of
staff. Individual staff affected by furlough were contacted by their line
managers.
If you are able to provide any more detail regarding the type of
communications you think my have been issued we will undertake a further
search of this matter.
If you disagree with any part of the response to your request, you are
entitled to ask the Council for an internal review of the decision(s)
made. You may do this by writing to the Monitoring Officer, by either
email – [email address] – or by post to Monitoring Officer, Oxford
City Council, St Aldate’s Chambers, St Aldate’s, Oxford, OX1 1DS. After
the result of the internal review, if you remain dissatisfied, you may ask
the Information Commissioner to intervene on your behalf. You may do this
by writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer
Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City
Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.
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