Qualified Social Work staff

The request was successful.

Dear General Social Care Council,

Please confirm how many paid employees of the GSCC there are and how many of these are themselves qualified Social Workers.

Yours faithfully,

A. Dignan

Rupinder Panesar, General Social Care Council

Dear A Dignan

I would like to acknowledge your Freedom of Information request received
today. We will respond to you within 20 working days.

The reference number FOI-430-003-1011 has been assigned as your request
number and that this, for ease of reference, should be quoted in any
future correspondence.

Yours sincerely,

Rupinder Panesar
Corporate Support Executive
General Social Care Council
Goldings House
2 Hay's Lane
London SE1 2HB


Direct Line: 020 7397 5144
Fax: 020 7397 5145
www.gscc.org.uk

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Rupinder Panesar, General Social Care Council

Dear A Dignan

I write further to my email of 30 July.

As at 2 August 2010, there are 224 paid employees that are employed
directly by GSCC. We do not hold details of whether these employees are
qualified social workers as it is not a condition of their employment
with GSCC.

Kind regards

Rupinder Panesar
Information Governance Support Officer
General Social Care Council
Goldings House
2 Hay's Lane
London SE1 2HB

Direct Line: 020 7397 5144
Fax: 020 7397 5145
www.gscc.org.uk

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they
are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify
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This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by
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Dear General Social Care Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of General Social Care Council's handling of my FOI request 'Qualified Social Work staff'.

I have received clarification on the number of staff employed by the GSCC. I have not, however, received confirmation how many of these are qualified Social Workers, on the basis that this is not a condition of their employment.

I am not enquiring whether it is a condition of employment. I assume that, through application processes, applicants are requested to provide details of any organisations they are a member or registered with, or have an interest in.

Further, it seems unusual that the GSCC would not have a record on whom is registered with their own organisation. This information should be easily accessible and I therefore find it unreasonable that it cannot be provided through a freedom of information request.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/qu...

Yours faithfully,

A Dignan

Rupinder Panesar, General Social Care Council

Dear A Dignan

Thank you for your email below.

The information sought is not captured as a matter of course. However,
we are looking into whether the data can be retrieved and collected and
will get back to you in due course.

Kind regards

Rupinder

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Dear Rupinder Panesar,

You should note that I formally requested an internal review of your original decision not to release this information. You have responded without clarifying whether you have conducted this review, which would be inappropriate given you dealt with the original request.

I do not accept that the information is not readily held by the GSCC, given your website states that registered Social Workers must always provide the GSCC with information as to by whom they are employed.

Thus, even if your recruitment processes do not request clarification of membership bodies, your organisation holds the information as to how many qualified, registered Social Workers are employed by the organisation.

As the information is readily accessible, and you do not appear to be follow procedure regarding my request for an internal review, I would be grateful if you could please now provide the information within the 20 working day period from my original request.

Yours sincerely,

A Dignan

Rupinder Panesar, General Social Care Council

Dear A Dignan

I acknowledge receipt of your email below.

Please note that my email of 2 August does not amount to "a decision not
to release this information". I stated that we we do not record this
information as a matter of course.

However, as stated in my email of 4 August, we are looking into whether
the data can be retrieved and collected and will revert to you as soon
as this exercise has been concluded.

Kind regards

Rupinder Panesar

show quoted sections

Rupinder Panesar, General Social Care Council

Dear A Dignan

I write further to my email of 6 August.

As at 10 August 2010, there are 224 paid employees that are employed
directly by GSCC. We are able to confirm that 12 of these paid employees
are registered with the GSCC as qualified social workers. There may
however be other paid employees that are qualified social workers for whom
we do not record details of their qualification, because registration is
not a condition of their employment with the GSCC. We are therefore unable
to provide you with any further information.

If you are unsatisfied with how we have dealt with your request you have
the right to direct your complaint to the Information Commissioner's
Office:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

[1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public.aspx

Yours sincerely,

Rupinder Panesar

Information Governance Support Officer

General Social Care Council

Goldings House

2 Hay's Lane

London SE1 2HB

Direct Line: 020 7397 5144

Fax: 020 7397 5145

[2]www.gscc.org.uk

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they
are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify
the system manager.

This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by
McAfee and Blackspider Technologies for the presence of computer viruses.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public.aspx
2. http://www.gscc.org.uk/