Safeguarding

The request was partially successful.

Dear West Highland College,

How many students have you enrolled in your college in the following academic years, in the knowledge that they were listed on the Sex Offenders Register at that time?
2015-16
2016-17
2017-18 (to date)

How many of these students were subject to a MAPPA plan or similar conditions?

How many of these students failed to adhere to the conditions applied?

How many of these students attained the qualification they were seeking?

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Maclean

WHCfoi, West Highland College

Dear Mrs Maclean,

I can confirm that West Highland College UHI does not hold the information that you have requested.

Yours sincerely,

Matt Simpkinson

If you are not satisfied with the way in which your request has been dealt with you are entitled, in the first instance, to request a review.  Should you wish to request such a review, please write to myself within 40 working days of the date of this letter. If you remain unsatisfied, you are entitled to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision, details of that process can be fond here www.itspublicknowledge.info/appeals

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Dear Matt,
Thank you for your reply.
I would ask that you review it, due to its lack of clarity.
You state that the college:
'does not hold the information'.
There would seem to be many potential reasons for this, including:
1. Lack of safeguarding policy or procedure
2. You don't hold the data (worrying)
3. You actually don't know if you hold the data, due to 'need to know' issues
4. You don't want to discuss it, publicly or otherwise

Please review your reply, particularly the lack of clarity, as this will be referred to the Commissioner if your review response is not robust.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Maclean

WHCfoi, West Highland College

Dear Mrs Maclean,

Apologies for the lack of clarity in my response.

If an applicant was to declare a relevant conviction (which in the case of the sex offenders register they are obliged to do) then this would be passed to the safeguarding team and investigated and a risk assessment would be carried out taking in to account the conviction, any probation requirements and the course applied for. Depending on the outcome relevant checks/restrictions and or support would be put in to place and this would be recorded. However, once the risk assessment or Support Plan has been created then we do not separately record the type of conviction on a student record. Our Safeguarding processes have been independently audited and have been confirmed as very good and that they continue to meet the current legislation.

Yours sincerely,

Matt Simpkinson

If you are not satisfied with the way in which your request has been dealt with you are entitled, in the first instance, to request a review.  Should you wish to request such a review, please write to myself within 40 working days of the date of this letter. If you remain unsatisfied, you are entitled to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision, details of that process can be found here www.itspublicknowledge.info/appeals

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Dear Matt,
Thanks for your response, which clarifies some issues relating to policy and procedure.
Can I ask you one more time to go back to the original request, and supply the statistical data, as requested?
Many thanks,

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Maclean

WHCfoi, West Highland College

Dear Mrs Maclean,

As noted in my previous response we do not keep a separate record of conviction type but I can confirm that our student services team have not had to put a Support Plan in place relating to a student being listed on the sex offenders register in the time periods requested.

Yours sincerely,

Matt

If you are not satisfied with the way in which your request has been dealt with you are entitled, in the first instance, to request a review.  Should you wish to request such a review, please write to myself within 40 working days of the date of this letter. If you remain unsatisfied, you are entitled to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision, details of that process can be found here www.itspublicknowledge.info/appeals

show quoted sections