Unpublished Papers for Council of Governors' Meetings

The request was partially successful.

Dear Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,

Could you please release the agendas, attendance record, papers and minutes for meetings of the council of governors held since the 17th of November 2016 and the dates times and locations of any upcoming council of Governors meetings other than those already listed at

http://www.cuh.org.uk/about-us/our-manag...

for the 20th and 25th of September 2017.

I would like to exclude from the scope of my request the agenda and papers for the 22 February 2017 meeting for which the agenda and papers are already published at:

http://www.cuh.org.uk/about-us/our-manag...

This request arises from the listing of a "Council of governors meeting - 26 April 2017", with no agenda, or papers at http://www.cuh.org.uk/about-us/our-manag...

and the statement:

"2. Recent Governor meetings
The Council of Governors met on 1 June, where governors unanimously confirmed the substantive appointment of Roland Sinker as Chief Executive of CUH"

in the Lead Governors report to the 14 June 2017 board meeting.

http://www.cuh.org.uk/sites/default/file...

I note the webpage titled "Council of governors meetings" at

http://www.cuh.org.uk/about-us/our-manag...

gives no indication that it is not a comprehensive listing of council of governors meetings. If notice of, and papers for, certain meetings are being omitted I suggest that practice is changed.

Regards,

--

Richard Taylor
Cambridge
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

I don't know what is going on. I suspect maybe the April meeting was cancelled.

In respect of the 1 June meeting and any other omitted meetings it may be that a resolution to exclude the public was expected to be passed early in the meeting to apply to all the substantive elements of the meetings. There should still be public notice, and record, of such meetings of the council of governors; the attendance records, and minutes, should still be published.

Sheen, Elizabeth,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Taylor

Following your request for information, please see the attached acknowledgment letter.

Regards
Liz

Liz Sheen | Information Governance Coordinator
Tel: 01223 348697 | Ext: 58697 | www.cuh.org.uk
eHospital | Box number 153
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Addenbrookes Hospital Cambridge Biomedical Campus | Hills Road | Cambridge | CB2 0QQ
The Trust is: part of the National Institute for Health Research - Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre | and a member of Cambridge University Health Partners
This email is confidential, see www.cuh.org.uk/email_disclaimer.html

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Smyth, Mandy,

Dear Richard,

Following your request for information please accept my apologies for not being able to respond to your request within the time scale previously advised.

Our response will be sent to you as soon as possible.

Kind Regards
Mandy

Mandy Smyth | Information Governance Coordinator
Tel: 01223 348697 | Ext: 58262 | www.cuh.org.uk
eHospital | Box number 153
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Addenbrookes Hospital Cambridge Biomedical Campus | Hills Road | Cambridge | CB2 0QQ
The Trust is: part of the National Institute for Health Research - Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre | and a member of Cambridge University Health Partners
This email is confidential, see www.cuh.org.uk/email_disclaimer.html

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Freedom of Information Contact,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Taylor

Following your request for information, please see the attached response letter.

Regards
Liz

Liz Sheen | Information Governance Coordinator
Tel: 01223 348697 | Ext: 58697 | www.cuh.org.uk
eHospital | Box number 153
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Addenbrookes Hospital Cambridge Biomedical Campus | Hills Road | Cambridge | CB2 0QQ
The Trust is: part of the National Institute for Health Research - Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre | and a member of Cambridge University Health Partners
This email is confidential, see www.cuh.org.uk/email_disclaimer.html

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Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

One element of the response states:
"The agenda and papers for the meeting of the Council of Governors held on 26 April 2017 are now available on the Trust website at: http://www.cuh.org.uk/node/1603086.
Please accept our apologies that they were not available previously. This was due to an administrative oversight."

This is quite an astonishing administrative oversight, without publication of an agenda, time and location, those wanting to observe the meeting, or lobby members in advance on agenda items, would not have been able to.

The response also stated:

"Since the request was submitted, the agenda and papers for the meeting of the Council of Governors held on 19 July 2017 have been added to the Trust website at:
http://www.cuh.org.uk/about-us/our-manag... "

Looking at that URL (which includes "20-september", and my recollection of the publicly available information, it appears the next publicly acknowledged meeting after February 2017 was, for a period, one scheduled for September - but meetings were in-fact held in April, June and July.

Dear Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,

I am writing to request an internal review of handling of my Freedom of Information request on the subject of "Unpublished Papers for Council of Governors' Meetings" sent on 11 June 2017.

I would like the application of the exemption in Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the entirety of the agendas, attendance record, papers and minutes for the meeting of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Council of Governors held on 1 June 2017 to be reconsidered.

The refusal to release the attendance record for that meeting appears out of line with the Trust's usual practice of pro-actively releasing such information on its website.

The blanket application of the exemption to all the material requested relating to the meeting appears excessive; I expected the provision of a redacted version of the material requested to be provided if exemptions were to be applied to justify the withholding of elements of the requested material.

I note the existence of the 1 June 2017 meeting is still not acknowledged at :

https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/about-us/our-mana...

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

--

Richard Taylor
Cambridge
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

I see the July 2017 agenda doesn't contain an item for considering the minutes of the 1 June 2017 meeting for approval. The July agenda contains an item stating: "Minutes of the previous meeting - held on Wednesday 26 April 2017"; the response to this request shows this wasn't in fact date of the previous meeting.

https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/sites/default/fil...

According to the material referenced in the request, and the response, the Council of Governor's executed one of their key powers, the appointment of a new Chief Executive at the June meeting.

Bruty, Belinda,

Dear Mr Taylor

Thank you for your email. Our response to your request for an internal review will be sent to you by 29.08.17

Regards
Belinda

Belinda Bruty| Information Governance Support Manager
Tel: 01223 217768| Ext: 3768| www.cuh.org.uk
Information Governance| eHospital | Box number 153
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Addenbrooke's Hospital
Cambridge Biomedical Campus | Hills Road | Cambridge | CB2 0QQ
The Trust is: part of the National Institute for Health Research - Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre | and a member of Cambridge University Health Partners
This email is confidential, see www.cuh.org.uk/email_disclaimer.html

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Bruty, Belinda,

4 Attachments

Dear Mr Taylor

With regards to your request for a review please see the attached response letter, internal review report and documents

Regards
Belinda

Belinda Bruty| Information Governance Support Manager
Tel: 01223 217768| Ext: 3768| www.cuh.org.uk
Information Governance| eHospital | Box number 153
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Addenbrooke's Hospital
Cambridge Biomedical Campus | Hills Road | Cambridge | CB2 0QQ
The Trust is: part of the National Institute for Health Research - Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre | and a member of Cambridge University Health Partners
This email is confidential, see www.cuh.org.uk/email_disclaimer.html