Freedom of Information Review

Organogram Data Request

Investigating Manager / Ms G Monteith, Trust Records Manager
Overseeing Executive / Ms R Francké, Director of Finance and SIRO
Review approved by Dr A Cotgrove, Medical Director & Caldicott Guardian on behalf of Ms R Francké
Incident description and consequences / Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request completed, further email sent from requestor direct to safeguarding lead. E-mail not responded to.
Incident date / 18/2/2011
Incident category / D
Terms of reference / To investigate failure to respond to e-mail from FOI requestor
Chronology of events / 13/1/11 FOI request sent to dedicated CWP FOI e-mail address to request an organogram, pay scales and equivalent staff numbers for the following structures:
1) Wirral Local Safeguarding Children’s Board
and where not covered by the above
2) all areas of responsibility for (current or interim) Director (or similar) of children’s services
3) all areas of responsibility for Child Protection Services
Requestor asked for data to be made available in formats similar to datasets provided by Central Government and provided a website for reference.
14/1/11 FOI CWP request acknowledged with deadline of 9/2/11
26/1/11 CWP FOI responded to say that the Trust lead for safeguarding had advised that the request should have been sent to the Wirral Local Safeguarding Children’s Board )LSCB) and that the request was forwarded to Elizabeth Hartley for response.
27/1/11 Requestor responded to CWP FOI to say that a request had already been made with Wirral LSCB and that information was required from the Trust.
16/2/11 Requestor e-mailed CWP FOI to say that information was still awaited.
16/2/11 CWP FOI responded to apologise for the delay and that the request was re-sent to the Trust safeguarding lead.
17/2/11 CWP safeguarding lead responded to requestor to advise that the request had been forwarded to the local authority and that he did not have the original request. He apologised and asked the requestor for it again and said that the request would be turned around very quickly. A telephone number was given to the requestor.
17/2/11 Requestor responded to safeguarding lead and gave the link to the website (whatdotheyknow.com) to view the original request.
17/2/11 Out of office automated response from safeguarding lead sent.
17/2/11 CWP safeguarding lead e-mailed to ask if requestor was contactable by phone.
17/2/11 CWP safeguarding lead e-mailed requestor to advise that the request had been reviewed again and that the information required related to Wirral LSCB and was not held by the Trust. The safeguarding lead advised that he had spoken to Elizabeth Hartley (Wirral LSCB) who advised that the information had been sent to the requestor. Contact details for Elizabeth Hartley were provided. Requestor was asked to confirm that the e-mail had been received and that it was understood that CWP could not provided the information requested.
18/2/11 Requestor responded directly to safeguarding lead that no information had been received from Elizabeth Hartley or anyone else from Wirral LSCB. Requestor advised that other organisations had confusion with the request and the following explanation was provided:
Although the LSCB is managed by Wirral council, I am asking for data relating to staff employed by NHS Wirral as they are listed as providing staff to the local Safeguarding Board as described in the “LSCB Structure Feb 2011.pdf” document available from Wirral.gov.uk. This document includes named individuals, e.g. Jane Harvey, Dr Amanda Bennett, Lisa Cooper etc.
The job titles in the original request are generic and should be an indicator of responsibility. I trust you will comply with both the letter and spirit of this request.
24/3/11 Requestor e-mailed dedicated CWP FOI e-mail address to request an internal review of CWP’s handing of the request. Requestor advised that generally other LSCB members have responded well. Although some of the information has been provided by from other members of the Wirral LSCB a satisfactory response has not been received.
25/3/11 – 7/4/11 Investigating manger liaised with executive team to establish approach to investigation.
7/4/11 CWP FOI e-mailed requestor to confirm that investigation would be undertaken.
15/4/11 Investigation manger e-mailed CWP safeguarding lead to establish whether email from requestor of 18/2/11 had been responded to.
19/4/11 Investigating manger e-mailed CWP safeguarding lead again and then spoke to safeguarding lead to establish events and reasons for not responding to requestor’s e-mail of 18/2/11.
Outcome / It has been established that on the 18/2/11 the requestor e-mailed the CWP safeguarding lead directly without copying in the CWP FOI dedicated e-mail address. The CWP safeguarding lead has confirmed that the e-mail was not responded to because it was thought that the request had already been responded to and that CWP did not hold the information. In the e-mail of 18/2/11 the requestor asked for staff details for NHS Wirral not CWP, it was thought therefore that as CWP did not hold the information no reply was necessary. The CWP safeguarding lead was advised that a response to all FOI requests, whether information is held or not, is always necessary. The safeguarding lead queried whether there was training which covered this requirement. Advice was given that this is covered by mandatory Information Governance training which all staff are required to undertake by the end of June 2011.
Lessons learned / E-mails which are not sent to, or copied into the dedicated CWP FOI e-mail address will go undetected by the FOI lead. Not all staff are aware of the obligation to respond to FOI requests and to keep the FOI lead informed of any further contact with requestors.
Action to be taken / 1. Respond to original request and provide information requested.
2. Review FOI policy and produce flow chart to cascade to all staff. All staff to be communicated with regarding the importance of responding to FOI requests and that the FOI lead must be kept informed of any contact regarding FOI requests.
3. All staff to be reminded of the requirement to undertake mandatory Information Governance training by the end of June 2011.
4. Internal review report to be agreed with executive.
5. Forward copy of final report to requestor.