Freedom of Information request

[Jobos]

The school has received this request and I'm told it has been sent to a number of other schools too. This is the first request we have had and each line in the list is an URL containing tracking code which makes me suspicious. The domain they are using is maloney.me.uk

 

 

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Dear,

 

This is a Freedom of Information request. The information requested is set out below. When you are ready to submit your response, please don't reply to this email, instead click the button below and fill in the form in your web browser. You can also use the button to ask for clarification or refuse the request. When you submit your response you will receive an email confirmation with a copy of your response for reference.

 

Click Here To Submit Your Response

Ask for Clarification

or Refuse

 

 

 

In light of the Governments guidance on Parental Responsibility and the duty that “School and local authority staff must treat all parents equally, unless there is a Court order limiting an individual's exercise of parental responsibility.” and the requirements placed on schools by The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 to keep an admission register (including the name and address of every person known to the proprietor of the school to be a parent of the pupil) please provide the following information:

 

1. Does your school have a policy or policies which ensures separated parents are treated equally? If so, what issues are covered?

o Letters Home (Pupil Post) and emails are sent to both parents

o Provision for both parents to attend parents evening separately if requested

o Consent for school trips

o Consent for Medical Treatment

o Requests to change a child's surname

o Involvement in meetings about a child's exclusion etc.

o Information Sharing

o Parent Governor Elections

o Requirement for a court order to accompany any request to restrict another parent's PR

o Seeking permission for applications to change a child's school

o Other areas

 

2. The number of pupils currently registered at the school.

 

3. The number of pupils where both natural parents details are on record

 

4. The number of pupils registered at your school where you only have details for the mother.

 

5. The number of pupils registered at your school where you only have details for the father.

 

6. What do you do to obtain details of all parents?

o There is no policy in place to obtain a missing parents details

o Request details of all parents in registration form

o Ask the registered parent(s), verbally or in writing.

o Ask parents to fill in a data collection sheet each year.

o Request a copy of the child's birth certificate

o Wait for the “absent” parent to contact the school

o Keep an "Absent Parent Register" (missing parents can receive information if they provide SAEs)

 

7. What is the gender of your Headteacher?

 

8. The number of male teachers at your school.

 

9. The number of female teachers at your school.

 

10. The number of male teaching assistants at your school.

 

11. The number of female teaching assistants at your school.

 

12. The number of male ancillary staff at your school.

 

13. The number of female ancillary staff at your school.

 

The deadline for FOI requests is 20 school days from today (23/10/2017). For further information on the Freedom Of Information Act and your responsibilities please see the ICO's guide for organisations.

 

Please Note: Some schools have contacted the website whatdotheyknow about this request. I am not a member of that organisation and they are not responsible for my request.

 

If you have any further questions you can check out the Frequently Asked Questions or use the response button above to ask for clarification.

 

Yours faithfully

 

Brian Maloney

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[3s-gtech]

He seems to be a father's rights activist, possibly a magistrate too.

[foofighterjim]

I don't know much about the legitimacy of what can be asked in FOI requests but questions 3-5 & 7-13 feel like it is beyond the scope of FOI requests (particularly by breaking down by gender).

[Achandler]

Reply to the email, with a proof of delivery receipt. I wouldn't be filling out any web forms that a random email from essientially a stranger is requesting.

 

Then wait 6 months to see a report published of how schools are not completing their duties and treating both parents fairly, this will be backed up with figures showing more staff are female and this is why they have a preference to have the mother's details...

[pcstru]

IMO you don't have to use the web page to respond but the school must respond. I'd just hand it on to whoever your policy says will handle FOI requests.

[TechMonkey]

I'm interested if a requester can dictate how you respond. in the ICO FAQ it does say

However, requesters have the right to specify their preferred means of communication, in their initial request.

But surely that can't be as precise as saying you must go to this website and fill in this form. For all we know it could be a virus laden host. I suppose an alternative view would be can they request it be written on vellum and hand delivered upon a white steed?

[DJ-1701]

I'm interested if a requester can dictate how you respond. in the ICO FAQ it does say

 

However, requesters have the right to specify their preferred means of communication, in their initial request.

 

But surely that can't be as precise as saying you must go to this website and fill in this form. For all we know it could be a virus laden host. I suppose an alternative view would be can they request it be written on vellum and hand delivered upon a white steed?

 

This sounds more sketchy then most FOIs... IANAL, but with my understanding of the English language... they may have 'a right to specify their preferred means of communication', but that is a preferred means of communication, not the only way, and not forced upon.

 

When you are ready to submit your response, please don't reply to this email, instead...

 

It doesn't demand that you have to use the form to reply. It asks you not to, but it may not be possible to reply on the site anyway.

[3s-gtech]

I'd imagine that the form is just there to make it easier for him/them to collate and analyse the data. Bit cheeky getting you to do their admin for them, but I'm not sure it's unreasonable really. Pays to run the URL through a checker first.

[pcstru]

I'm interested if a requester can dictate how you respond. in the ICO FAQ it does say

 

"However, requesters have the right to specify their preferred means of communication, in their initial request. "

Right, and there are judgements which make it clear that if (say) a response was requested 'electronically', that specifying the format as (say) excel is reasonable. However, that only holds true of a public authority if it is reasonably practicable to do so. A web page may not be reasonably practicable for a number of reasons (stateless - so difficult for many people to contribute at different times, how might you correct data, script security, does the web page itself accurately reflect the request (no reason it cannot change between the request and when you go to enter the response and you have no control over that)). So IMO it would be quite a weak argument by the requester that a web page is a valid means, other than to post (say) a word document.

 

There is a whole document which deals with the means of communicating.

 

In our case, we would contact them and explain that we publish FOI requests and the response to them on our website, and that this is not possible if we enter the information into a web page.

Edited October 24, 2017 by pcstru

[Sylv3r]

A lot of that information will be in the public domain - number of students in school, gender of your headteacher etc. I'd tell them to go look themselves !

[elsiegee40]

It is perfectly legitimate to point to your school website if the information is there. Just because someone would like you to enter it into their spreadsheet doesn’t mean you have to.

 

Is it politically correct to ask gender these days? Just because a head looks male or female doesn’t mean that’s what they identify as ... and how a person identifies is their business!

Edited October 24, 2017 by elsiegee40

[Jobos]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

I've been talking with the office manager today and there is talk from other city schools that they are leaning towards refusing the request on the grounds it would cost too much to collate the information.

 

Personally I can't say if that is the right thing to do or not as I'm sure SIMS holds much of that info if the correct report is used but one wouldn't want to open each pupil's record and search manually.

[TechMonkey]

As much as I hate these types of FoI requests I don't think they would have a leg to stand on to claim it would cost too much. Better to answer as best you can. For example question 3 for us would be impossible to answer as we don't mark natural parents, just registered parents, they could be adoptive, we don't need to know.

[enjay]

As much as I hate these types of FoI requests I don't think they would have a leg to stand on to claim it would cost too much. Better to answer as best you can. For example question 3 for us would be impossible to answer as we don't mark natural parents, just registered parents, they could be adoptive, we don't need to know.

 

That was my thinking too. We don't necessarily record natural versus adoptive parents. Without that information, we could presumably leave question 3 blank. Questions 4 and 5 wouldn't take long to compile just going through SIMS, although it will turn up anomalies the requester might not have considered - the fact we only have mum on file doesn't mean we are excluding the natural father who lives somewhere else (which I think is their focus, given q1 and q6) - the father might be dead for example. That's a different matter though, they've asked therefore you should answer.

 

Also, Q1 asks about a policy to ensure parents are treated equally. We have data handling and pastoral practices for this, but we don't have a formal governor-approved policy. Would we just say "no" to that then?!

 

I wonder if we'll receive this request here too...

 

The timing is odd though, first day of half term, although I note they do give 20 school days rather than working days even though many school staff work through half term.

[elsiegee40]

That was my thinking too. We don't necessarily record natural versus adoptive parents. Without that information, we could presumably leave question 3 blank. Questions 4 and 5 wouldn't take long to compile just going through SIMS, although it will turn up anomalies the requester might not have considered - the fact we only have mum on file doesn't mean we are excluding the natural father who lives somewhere else (which I think is their focus, given q1 and q6) - the father might be dead for example. That's a different matter though, they've asked therefore you should answer.

 

Also, Q1 asks about a policy to ensure parents are treated equally. We have data handling and pastoral practices for this, but we don't have a formal governor-approved policy. Would we just say "no" to that then?!

 

I wonder if we'll receive this request here too...

 

The timing is odd though, first day of half term, although I note they do give 20 school days rather than working days even though many school staff work through half term.

 

You can’t answer questions for which you don’t have the data. A simple “Data not collected” statement suffices for those questions.

 

FoI law states working days and in schools that is teaching days, regardless of whether you have staff on site during holidays or not.

 

This is where the new GDPR is going to come as a shock to the system. That’s actual days, not working days to notify breaches.

[enjay]

This is where the new GDPR is going to come as a shock to the system. That’s actual days, not working days to notify breaches.

 

Indeed. Subject Access Requests too, which could be "interesting" if someone were to email a term-time-only admin person during the summer break. We might already have failed before we even know about the request! It has been suggested we could put a "subject access request policy" on our website saying all requests must be sent to a particular email address - unsure whether that would actually cover us, though. Does anyone here know that?

[crispybits]

Or make damn sure out-of-office replies are set up for any term-time only staff with an alternate email address for urgent queries. Don't know if there's a technical way of enforcing that though or if it's just trying to bash it into the users' heads.

[TechMonkey]

Questions 4 and 5 wouldn't take long to compile just going through SIMS, although it will turn up anomalies the requester might not have considered - the fact we only have mum on file doesn't mean we are excluding the natural father who lives somewhere else (which I think is their focus, given q1 and q6) - the father might be dead for example. That's a different matter though, they've asked therefore you should answer.

 

& here lies the issue. As someone else mentioned 3 months down the line a press release will come out saying how awful schools are as 88% have records only for mothers, excluding those poor, poor fathers. There will be hand wringing and pundits on tv, editorials in the papers saying the pendulum has swung too far. And not one of those will look at the data and see it is a poor survey dressed up as official data collection.

 

Also, Q1 asks about a policy to ensure parents are treated equally. We have data handling and pastoral practices for this, but we don't have a formal governor-approved policy. Would we just say "no" to that then?!

 

I'd say yes. It does say policy/policies, so if some is in your Pastoral policy and some in your data handling policy then you have a policies covering it just not a specific PARENT EQUALITY policy.

 

I'm guessing for question 1, Does your school have a policy or policies which ensures separated parents are treated equally?, the answer "We look down on all parents so all are treated equally" isn't the correct answer?

[enjay]

It does say policy/policies, so if some is in your Pastoral policy and some in your data handling policy then you have a policies covering it just not a specific PARENT EQUALITY policy.

 

It might not be written in any policy, but in the training schedule for new administrators. Teachers typically contact the parent who is listed on the "Student Teacher View" in SIMS, and herein lies another problem - that screen can only display one parent. So, if a student has mum as p1 and dad as p2 (no sexism intended, just an example) then it shows mum and everyone's happy. If however mum and dad are both p1, then it shows whichever parent is alphabetically the first one!

[mavhc]

I'd create an email address that was redirected to both parents. Creating a phone number that did the same would be interesting, always calls a conference, either party can join, or playback the recording.

[Jobos]

The timing is odd though, first day of half term, although I note they do give 20 school days rather than working days even though many school staff work through half term.

 

Our half term was last week so timed just right.

[pcstru]

It has been suggested we could put a "subject access request policy" on our website saying all requests must be sent to a particular email address - unsure whether that would actually cover us, though. Does anyone here know that?

 

Basically, no. You cannot impose terms that fundamentally affect peoples rights which arise out of legislation. Otherwise you end up with ...

 

“But the policy was on display…”

“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find it.”

“That’s the policy department.”

“With a flashlight.”

“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”

“So had the stairs.”

“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

 

(with apologies to Douglas Adams)

[enjay]

Thanks to you and Douglas Adams for the laugh, but that's not really applicable here - if you look at the volume of information we're legally required to post on our website, that is clearly expected to be a reasonable method of communicating information.

[pcstru]

Thanks to you and Douglas Adams for the laugh, but that's not really applicable here - if you look at the volume of information we're legally required to post on our website, that is clearly expected to be a reasonable method of communicating information.

Not sure how that relates to the question which seemed to be "can you require someone to use a specific means of communication to make a request". That seemed to be looking to mitigate a risk associated with not responding to a SAR or FOI request in the prescribed time. You cannot require someone to make a request using a specific email address and then say "we didn't respond because you did not follow OUR policy and procedure". It doesn't matter where you publish your policy and procedure; it does not, cannot, and will never override rights people have, that have been given to them by law.

[Roberto]

It's perfectly reasonable to respond with "that information is on our website, see..." and I'd probably suggest that publishing data for FOI requests online and pointing people to it is quite a smart move - you're making the information freely accessible after all - and you can point the next person to ask how many left-handed teachers you have who are also glassblowers in their spare time at the website where you've already published the answer.

 

It's not reasonable to choose which addresses you will accept FOI requests to. Staff need to set OOO and be aware of who to forward requests to as a matter of urgency internally.

Edited October 26, 2017 by Roberto