Request for numbers of social workers employed by Children's services who have be subject to disciplinary action

The request was refused by Hertfordshire County Council.

Dear Hertfordshire County Council

I would like to request the information under the freedom of information (FOI) statistical information for the following Financial Years 2014-15, 2016-17 and 2017-18 April to August only.

The number of social workers employed by Children's Services who have be subject to disciplinary action on the following criteria:
A. Failure to declare conflicts of interest
B. Failure to declare acceptance of gifts or services which exceeds the authority limits
C. The number of social workers employed either as council employed - permanent, agency , or under contractual arrangements who have accesed confidential case notes without an acceptable reason to do so.

Please provide details of governance arrangements for when these official documents within the selected years these polices where reviewed , including the governance to ensure adherence.

At a public fitness to practice hearing with the appropriate regulatory body the evidence provided from this department outlined areas ineffective governance and deviation from statements made under FOI requests.

The request is for statistical information and not identifiable to individuals, however if the request is declined then please outline the governance arrangements to ensure information provide to regulatory bodies is in accordance with current protocols.

Kind regards and thank you for your consideration of this FOI.

Yours faithfully,

NS Wright

Mail Delivery System,

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

[Hertfordshire County Council request email]
retry timeout exceeded

Sent request to Hertfordshire County Council again, using a new contact address.

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

3 Attachments

Dear NS Wright

 

Reference number: FOI/RAP/09/17/14275

 

Thank you for your correspondence of the26th September 2017 requesting the
following information:

 

I would like to request the information under the freedom of information
(FOI) statistical information for the following Financial Years 2014-15,
2016-17 and 2017-18 April to August only.

 

The number of social workers employed by Children's Services who have be
subject to disciplinary action on the following criteria:

A. Failure to declare conflicts of interest

B. Failure to declare acceptance of gifts or services which exceeds the
authority limits

C. The number of social workers employed either as council employed -
permanent, agency , or under contractual arrangements who have accesed
confidential case notes without an acceptable reason to do so.

 

Please provide details of governance arrangements for when within the
selected years these polices where reviewed , including the governance to
ensure adherence.

 

As well as this request you have placed an identical request under the
reference [1][email address]

 

 

Your request for information is being considered under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 .  We will respond to your request as quickly as
possible, and by close of 23^rd October 2017 at the latest.

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference number above.

 

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Information Access Team

Postal Point CHN320

Hertfordshire County Council, County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford, SG13 8DE

t: 01992 555848 Comnet / Internal: 25848

Fax: 01992 588117

Email: [2][Hertfordshire County Council request email]

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Wright

 

Reference number: FOI/RAP/09/17/14275

 

On  26^th September 2017 Hertfordshire County Council received the
following request for information from you:

 

“I would like to request the information under the freedom of information
(FOI) statistical information for the following Financial Years 2014-15,
2016-17 and 2017-18 April to August only.

 

The number of social workers employed by Children's Services who have be
subject to disciplinary action on the following criteria:

A. Failure to declare conflicts of interest B. Failure to declare
acceptance of gifts or services which exceeds the authority limits C. The
number of social workers employed either as council employed - permanent,
agency , or under contractual arrangements who have accesed confidential
case notes without an acceptable reason to do so.

 

Please provide details of governance arrangements for when these official
documents within the selected years these polices where reviewed ,
including the governance to ensure adherence.”

 

Your request for information has been considered under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. I can confirm that Hertfordshire County Council does
hold the information you have requested and can respond as follows:

 

For the following Financial Years 2014-15, 2016-17 and 2017-18 April to
August only.

 

The number of social workers employed by Children's Services who have be
subject to disciplinary action on the following criteria:

A. Failure to declare conflicts of interest B. Failure to declare
acceptance of gifts or services which exceeds the authority limits C. The
number of social workers employed either as council employed - permanent,
agency , or under contractual arrangements who have accesed confidential
case notes without an acceptable reason to do so.

Hertfordshire County Council have no statistical information for any of
the three stated time periods; 2014-15, 2016-17 or for 2017-18 April to
August only.

 

Please provide details of governance arrangements for when these official
documents within the selected years these polices where reviewed ,
including the governance to ensure adherence

The official Hertfordshire County Council document would be the Code of
Conduct Policy.  This document was reviewed in August 2013 and again in
July 2016.

 

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference number on this correspondence. To find out more about
Freedom of Information, please visit
http://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/your-cou...

 

If you are unhappy with the way the County Council has handled your
request for information you may request an internal review of the request.
This will be carried out by a member of the County Council Legal Services
Team, who has had no prior involvement with the request. Requests for an
internal review should be sent to the Information Governance Unit at the
address above (within 2 months of this correspondence) and should detail
in writing your grounds of appeal.

 

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the internal review you are
entitled to ask the Information Commissioner to investigate your
complaint. You should write to: FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution, Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Information Access Team

Postal Point CHN320

Hertfordshire County Council, County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford, SG13 8DE

t: 01992 555848 Comnet / Internal: 25848

Fax: 01992 588117

Email: [1][Hertfordshire County Council request email]

Dear Hertfordshire County Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Hertfordshire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Request for numbers of social workers employed by Children's services who have be subject to disciplinary action'.

C. The number of social workers employed either as council employed - permanent, agency , or under contractual arrangements who have accesed confidential case notes without an acceptable reason to do so.
The response provided may be factually incorrect as information in a fitness to practice hearing contradicts your authorities response to the foi request.

There please conduct and internal review of the accuracy of your response, or if your statement is correct there there is serious governance issues on statements provided to the professional regulator for this cohort of professionals. Statements providing evidence in fitness to practice hearings show concerns around information governance.

in addition the original response provided. No identity to gender you have used additional information to indicate a gender in your reply.
I was under the impression this forum did not identify gender therefore you might like to review your process and respect the wishes of the originator
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Yours faithfully,

Ns wright

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Wright

 

Reference number: FOI/RAP/09/17/14275

 

Thank you for your correspondence of 20^th October 2017 requesting an
internal review to be carried out in relation to your request for
information (reference above).

 

Your request for an internal review has been passed to Hertfordshire
County Council's Legal Services Team.  As stated, the review will be
carried out by a member of the Legal Services Team who has had no prior
involvement with the request.  We will endeavour to respond to you by 20
working days, which is  17^th November 2017.

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us, quoting
the reference number on this correspondence.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Information Access Team

Postal Point CHN320

Hertfordshire County Council, County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford, SG13 8DE

t: 01992 555848 Comnet / Internal: 25848

Fax: 01992 588117

Email: [1][Hertfordshire County Council request email]

Judith Gower, Hertfordshire County Council

3 Attachments

Please find attached my review of the above request.

 

Judith Gower

Solicitor

Legal Services

Resources

My Ref: JG/008938/01777533

Hertfordshire County Council, County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford SG13 8DN

t: 01992 556242 Comnet/Internal: 26242

 

Please note that we no longer subscribe to DX delivery services

 

 

[1]herts-county-council logo  [2]twitter icon  [3]facebook icon

 

Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

 

 

****Disclaimer****

The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is
intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have
received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified.
The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those
of Hertfordshire County Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware
that emails sent to or received from Hertfordshire County Council may be
intercepted and read by the council. Interception will only occur to
ensure compliance with council policies or procedures or regulatory
obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential
maintenance or support of the email system.

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.hertsdirect.org/
2. http://twitter.com/hertscc
3. http://www.facebook.com/Hertsdirect

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

3 Attachments

Dear NS Wright

 

Reference number: FOI/RAP/09/17/14275

 

Your request that the following question be looked at again by
Hertfordshire County Council:

 

C. The number of social workers employed either as council employed -
permanent, agency , or under contractual arrangements who have accesed
confidential case notes without an acceptable reason to do so.

The response provided may be factually incorrect as information in a
fitness to practice hearing contradicts your authorities response to the
foi request.

 

Please conduct an internal review of the accuracy of your  response, or if
your statement is correct then there is serious governance issues on
statements provided to the professional regulator for this cohort of
professionals.  Statements providing evidence in fitness to practice
hearings show concerns around information governance.

 

 

Your request is being considered under the Freedom of Information Act
2000.  We will respond to your request as quickly as possible, and by
close of ten working days from 17^th November which is 1^st December 2017
at the latest.

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference number above.

 

 

Information Access Team

Postal Point CHN320

Hertfordshire County Council, County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford, SG13 8DE

t: 01992 555848 Comnet / Internal: 25848

Fax: 01992 588117

Email: [1][Hertfordshire County Council request email]

show quoted sections

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

3 Attachments

 

Dear NS Wright

 

Reference number : FOI/RAP/09/17/14275

 

Further to our e-mail of  the internal review dated 17^th November 2017,
Hertfordshire County Council is processing your request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

 

For the following Financial Years 2014-15, 2016-17 and 2017-18 April to
August only.

C. The number of social workers employed either as council employed -
permanent, agency , or under contractual arrangements who have accesed
confidential case notes without an acceptable reason to do so.

The response provided may be factually incorrect as information in a
fitness to practice hearing contradicts your authorities response to the
foi request.

 

There please conduct and internal review of the accuracy of your 
response, or if your statement is correct there is serious governance
issues on statements provided to the professional regulator for this
cohort of professionals.  Statements providing evidence in fitness to
practice hearings show concerns around information governance.

 

We apologise for the delay in responding to your request and will
endeavour to provide the requested information before 15^th December 2017
if at all possible.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Information Access Team

Postal Point CHN320

Hertfordshire County Council, County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford, SG13 8DE

t: 01992 555848 Comnet / Internal: 25848

Fax: 01992 588117

Email: [1][Hertfordshire County Council request email]

show quoted sections

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear NS Wright

 

Reference number: FOI/RAP/09/17/14275

 

On  17th November  2017 Hertfordshire County Council agreed to look again
at our response to the following question following an internal review:

 

I would like to request the information under the freedom of information
(FOI) statistical information for the following Financial Years 2014-15,
2016-17 and 2017-18 April to August only.

“C. The number of social workers employed either as council employed -
permanent, agency , or under contractual arrangements who have accesed
confidential case notes without an acceptable reason to do so.

 

Your request for information has been considered under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. I can confirm that Hertfordshire County Council may
hold the information you have requested and can respond as follows:

 

C. The number of social workers employed either as council employed -
permanent, agency , or under contractual arrangements who have accesed
confidential case notes without an acceptable reason to do so.

 

Due to the Data Protection Act 1998, this information is not held
centrally, nor on a database, but if it exists, would be contained either
on individual personal records in HR or on record by an individual’s line
manager within Children’s Services.  In order to find information relevant
to this request we would be required to look through individual records in
both HR and Children’s Services.

We estimate that the cost of carrying out this work would exceed the
appropriate limit of £450, which has been specified under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and associated regulations. This represents the
estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining
whether Hertfordshire County Council holds the information, and locating,
retrieving and extracting the information.

Hertfordshire County Council statutory return for the Children’s Social
Workforce Census shows as at 30^th September 2017 we employed 492
qualified social workers including Qualified Managers in Children’s
Services. Based on these current numbers, and taking a conservative 5
minutes to peruse each record, this would take 41 hours work. To
extrapolate the Financial Year 2017-18 April to August only, would take
more time to work through this list to find the relevant time span.

To find the historical records of past Social Workers employed by
Children’s Services, some of whom will have left the service (and
therefore records will be filed elsewhere), for the Financial Years of
2014-15 and 2016-17 would add considerably to this time factor.

To add to this, there are some roles outside that of the main Social
Worker listing which may also be relevant but would need investigation to
find out  - Children’s Practitioner, Consultant Social Worker, Adoption
Social Worker, Family Safeguarding Social Worker, Qualified Social Worker,
Supervising Social Worker and Targeted Support Social Worker to name some
examples

Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 we are not obliged
to comply with requests for information which exceed this appropriate
limit, and will not be undertaking this additional work.

 

To advise and assist you, you can view the numbers of Social Workers
employed by HCC for the years April 2014 to April 17, on our public
website, although they are not broken down into departments, and you can
see the roles listed outside that of Social Worker mentioned above:
Children’s Practitioner, Consultant Social Worker, Adoption Social Worker,
Family Safeguarding Social Worker, Qualified Social Worker, Supervising
Social Worker and Targeted Support Social Worker.

Please use this link to view “List and Count of Job Titles at HCC” for
April 2014 through to April 17

[1]https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/about-t...

 

 

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference number on this correspondence. To find out more about
Freedom of Information, please visit
[2]http://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/your-cou...

 

 

If you are unhappy with the way the County Council has handled your
request for information you may request an internal review of the request.
This will be carried out by a member of the County Council Legal Services
Team, who has had no prior involvement with the request. Requests for an
internal review should be sent to the Information Governance Unit at the
address above (within 2 months of this correspondence) and should detail
in writing your grounds of appeal.

 

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the internal review you are
entitled to ask the Information Commissioner to investigate your
complaint. You should write to: FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution, Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Information Access Team

Postal Point CHN320

Hertfordshire County Council, County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford, SG13 8DE

t: 01992 555848 Comnet / Internal: 25848

Fax: 01992 588117

Email: [Hertfordshire County Council request email]

show quoted sections

Dear Hertfordshire County Council,
FAO Judith Gower
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Hertfordshire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Request for numbers of social workers employed by Children's services who have be subject to disciplinary action'.

The response process provided is clearly unfit for purpose , and fails to answer the original request.

Therefore please conduct an additional service internal view of the original request and provide the information as requested. The response provided as part or your internal review would imply if correct , then statements provided at fitness to practice hearings by the regulatory body for this cohort of professionals is factually incorrect or statements used as evidence and listed in the public domain by this regulatory body are made which lack governance and do not reflect official statements made to freedom of information requests.

If your organisation seems to have complied with request , therefore under the Freedom of information I would like to now what is the governance procceedure with this cohort of professionals when evidence is provided in support of fitness to practice hearings the evidence is factual reflects actual practice and adheres to the authorities governance procedure.
The response provided would indicate the three cases in this period outlined by the original FOI request is not in accordance correct procedures.
When this cohort of professionals have been found to be subject fitness to practice hearings and conditions attached concerning their fitness to practice how many cases are reviewed if any. Please provide information which is correct and not the poor standard designed to circumvent the original request.

Should you deem the response as acceptable , and where is the response for the challenge on your conduct of presuming of gender. This request was made through this forum without identification of gender, and whilst your organisation applied additional intelligence in an attempt to identify gender , where is the response to f your internal review of how you handle foi requests.

Kind regards

NS Wright

[ GIVE DETAILS ABOUT YOUR COMPLAINT HERE ]

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

Yours faithfully,

Ns wright

Judith Gower, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear NS Wright

 

I am writing in response to the review of the above request.  I note that
on 19 December you sent another email marked for my attention:

 

“I am writing to request an internal review of Hertfordshire County
Council's handling of my FOI request 'Request for numbers of social
workers employed by Children's services who have be subject to
disciplinary action'.

 

The response  process provided is clearly unfit for purpose , and fails to
answer the original request.

 

Therefore please conduct an additional service  internal view of the
original request and provide the information as requested. The response
provided as part or your internal review would imply if correct , then
statements provided at fitness to practice hearings by the regulatory body
for this cohort of professionals is factually incorrect or statements used
as evidence and  listed in the public domain by this regulatory body are
made which lack governance and do not reflect official statements made to
freedom of information requests. 

 

If your organisation seems to have complied with request , therefore under
the Freedom  of information I would like to now what is the governance
procceedure with this cohort of professionals when evidence is provided in
support of fitness to practice hearings the evidence is factual reflects
actual practice and adheres to the authorities governance procedure.

The response provided would indicate the three cases in this period
outlined by the original FOI request is not in accordance correct
procedures.

When this cohort of professionals have been found to be subject fitness to
practice hearings and conditions attached concerning their fitness to
practice how many cases are reviewed if any. Please provide information
which is correct and not the poor standard designed to circumvent the
original request.

 

Should you deem the response as acceptable , and where is the response for
the challenge on your conduct of presuming of gender. This request was
made through this forum without identification of gender, and whilst your
organisation applied additional intelligence in an attempt to identify
gender , where is the response to f your internal review of how you handle
foi requests.”

 

 

An internal review has already been conducted. As was explained in the
second response,  for data protection purposes the information is not held
in one place. As there are 429 qualified social workers, as explained to
you,  it would take a considerable time to look through all the
information. The Council will not be prepared to  carry out another review
of this request.

 

You refer to a cohort of professionals however the dictionary definition
of the word cohort is a group of people with a shared characteristic or
with a common statistical characteristic. The council would usually use to
to refer to the professionals who trained or qualified at the same time.
 Could you please explain what you mean by cohort in your request?

 

You refer to information in the public domain - If information is listed
in the public domain could you please let me know where it is so I may
look at it.

 

Could you please clarify what you mean by the paragraph highlighted yellow
above. There is no mention of three cases anywhere in the original
request.

 

The last paragraph of your email is not clear but my response did thank
you for reminding us that we should reply to the requestor by the same
name as the request had been made. The officer who responded has been made
aware of this.

 

If you wish further response then please respond to the questions in bold
otherwise you may complain to the Information Commissioners Office.

 

Kind Regards

 

Judith

 

show quoted sections