October 12, 2009

Person Dealing: Andrea Hughson
Direct Dial: 01597 829418

Dear Mr. Walker,

FREEDOM of INFORMATION ACT 2000
Reference No: F-2009-00404

Thank you for your request for information, received at this office on
October 9, 2009, in which you requested details of the following:

1. Has your authority ever found a member of the BNP or any other
political Party guilty of a disciplinary offence related to their Party
membership in the last three years?
If so please give information as to when and how many.
2. Has any parent complained to you regarding the Party membership of any
employee or the expression of political views within School classrooms
under your authority during the last three years?
3. What safeguards do you currently have in place to prevent members of
any political Party promoting their views within Schools?
Your request will now be considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act, subject
to the information not being exempt or containing a reference to a third
party. In some circumstances Powys County Council may be unable to achieve
this deadline. If this is likely you will be informed and given a revised
time-scale at the earliest opportunity.

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information you request. If this is the case you will be informed and
the 20 working day timescale will be suspended until we receive payment
from you. If you choose not to make a payment then your request will
remain unanswered.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transference to
another public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest
possible way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.

The due date for responding to this request for information is November 6,
2009.

Should you need to discuss this further please contact the officer dealing
with your request as identified at the beginning of this letter or
Information Management on 01597 825013.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in
Powys County Council.

Yours sincerely,

Andrea Hughson
Rheolwr Cofnodion a Chydymffurfiaeth
Records & Compliance Manager
__________________________________________

Powys County Council
Information Management
Unit 29,
Ddole Road Enterprise Park
Llandrindod Wells
Powys
LD1 6DF
01597 825013

http://www.powys.gov.uk/index.php?id=46&...

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November 6, 2009

Person Dealing: Andrea Hughson
Direct Dial: 01597 829418

Dear Mr. Walker,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000
Reference No: F-2009-00404

Thank you for your request for information dated October 9, 2009
concerning teachers who are members of political parties.

This is to inform you that your request has been considered and I can
provide the following response:

1. Has your authority ever found a member of the BNP or any other
political Party guilty of a disciplinary offence related to their Party
membership in the last three years?
If so please give information as to when and how many.
There have been no cases in Powys County Council where being either a
member of the BNP or any other political party has been considered as part
of any disciplinary action taken.

2. Has any parent complained to you regarding the Party membership of any
employee or the expression of political views within School classrooms
under your authority during the last three years?
Powys County Council is not aware of any complaint being received from
parents regarding the political party membership of any employee or the
expression of political views within school classrooms under this
Authority's control during the last three years.

3. What safeguards do you currently have in place to prevent members of
any political Party promoting their views within Schools?
A number of safeguards are in place that would prevent members of any
political party promoting their views within school. These include the
General Teaching Council for Wales Statement of Professional Values and
Practice and the leaflet, produced by the General Teaching Council for
Wales entitled Professionalism in Practice. These documents set out the
professional expectations of teachers and make it plain that teachers
should ensure that they do not allow professional relationships with
colleagues, pupils or students be prejudiced by views about their
lifestyle, culture, disability, beliefs, colour, gender, sexuality or age.
Learning Support Assistants and other non-teaching staff are line managed
by teachers and, therefore, similar professional standards apply.

In addition, the various teachers* organisations have high professional
conduct expectations of their members. These may include a professional
conduct code which is often quite strictly enforced by the organisation in
accordance with the membership rules.

I trust we have met your information requirements at this time. We believe
that this request is now complete and shall be closed immediately. Should
any further information be requested regarding this topic, a separate
request will need to be submitted.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in
Powys County Council.

Yours sincerely,

Andrea Hughson
Rheolwr Cofnodion a Chydymffurfiaeth
Records & Compliance Manager

If you are dissatisfied with the service you have received in relation to
your request and wish to make a complaint, please contact Information
Management. Our complaints procedure is available on request or on our
website.

If you are still not satisfied following this, you can make an appeal to
the Information Commissioner, who is the statutory regulator. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner*s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone 01625 545 700
[1]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

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