Subject Access Search

[madsadie]

I applied to the LA for a search, including all records held under Education, Childrens services, health including connexions and parent partnership.

 

I have just received the most pathetic 7 pages which only relates to connexions and parent link.

 

I phone the FoI officer who told me they don't hold any other records and that I would need to approach the schools etc individually. I said to him that the council surely hold the records of these as they all come under the council. He said not.

 

I asked him why they did not tell me this when I applied for the search on 11th January and he did not answer.

 

I asked him to put all this in an email for me.

 

I just phoned the information office commissioner who told me that re school records I have to apply direct to the head of each school, so now i know that. But there must be records which come under childrens services - SEN , Psychology etc that they have to give me?

 

I am fuming as I will now not have the info before my deadline . i know I can make a complaint but that is yet more work and time wasting.

[Sa Skimrande]

You can make a freedom of Information request where it is against the law for the authorities to deny. A useful website why could help is;

 

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

 

But it is likely what you see is all held in one location but what you have come against is the fact that those who hold information do not like to divulge it to anyone other than what they recognise as deserving entities, which does not include members of the public to include families, but as said it is against the law to deny the existence of what you seek and when one reminds such people of the law they usually become more compliant.

[Sally44]

When I did a FOI search I wrote to the LA and detailed each professional/department that had had any contact with my son. I sent the same letter to his school. And a letter to each PCT that NHS professionals came under. Remember that the SALT, OT, Clinical Psychologist and CAHMS may all come under different PCTs, and you need to write to each one.

 

They can charge £50 for each search. You can ask them to put it on a DVD for you rather than paper.

 

In my experience the LA does not often keep many records because they are often too damaging to them. But even a lack of paperwork can prove a point. Ie. if a child is out of school and having serious difficulties and there is not any record of anyone from the school having phoned the EP for advice. Or there is evidence of a phone call, but nothing is recorded, nothing is on the EP file and nothing happened to meet that need, then that is also good evidence. That is why I ALWAYS say that you MUST put your concerns in writing. Always minute meetings. Always write up a letter after receiving a telephone call, or a conversation in school and send it in as a 'clarification letter of what was discussed.' Always ask for written replies from school/LA professionals and NHS professionals. In that way it is easier to follow the paper trail and get some information. Otherwise there is often very little and if you need to prove something you are left with just your recollection of what happened and what was said, which everyone will just deny. But if you have files of correspondence that you have sent, and obviously some replies to that correspondence, then if nothing is found with a FOI search the LA look very bad.

 

In my son's case the LA resorted to having meetings [which were not written down anywhere], where there was no agenda and no note taking. Everything was verbal. So eventhough I found out there had been a meeting about my son on xx/xx/xx the FOI officer at the council could not find out that such a meeting had even happened! I was fortunate that someone from the parent partnership had attended that meeting and she told me what had been discussed. But I could not prove or confirm any of it.

 

But I did also find some very useful file notes, such as the Autism Outreach Teacher putting in her notes that both her and the EP had discussed my son and had told the LA Inclusion Officer that my son was not mainstream material and needed to be in a "dedicated environment". [i had been told that by the Autism Outreach Teacher, but when I spoke to the EP she denied having even had that conversation and would not put it in writing.] The LA Inclusion Officer had sent them an email telling them that they should not have told me that and saying that they were going to place him mainstream regardlless. The EP had nothing in her notes at all. Which was very interesting.

 

So at the Tribunal I could say that not only had the LA not listened to me or my son, or my independent professionals, but they had also not even listened to their own professionals! Powerful stuff.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Sally44

[bed32]

Firstly this is not a Freedom Of Information request - it is a Data Subject Access Request made under the provisions of the Data Protection Act. Get the name wrong and it may well end up in the wrong department.

 

Each organisation will have a Data Controller who is responsible for responding to SAR - so it would be normal to have to apply separately to the School, the LA and the NHS (not sure if you can cover all the NHS in a single request).

 

From our experience the LA is pretty poor at responding TBH I am not sure that they have much information that would be useful - and to get the information from the school (who should have the most useful info) it is usually better just to go to the office / SENCO and ask for a copy without all the pain of the SAR.

[cathcart3303]

Is there a time scale in which LA should respond to request?

 

I had an interesting response from my request to LA complaints officer for info. I had a secure email sent to me. I thought they must be finally sending the info and duly created account and password to open up email. It said having spoken to tribunal solicitors they do not need to send info requested as are now assessing my son!

 

I have quoted FOI and Data Protection and complaints officer has said he will pass it to the appropriate officer. Just wandering how long I should wait.

[bed32]

There is a time limit of 40 days in which they should respond (for a Subject Access Request) - unfortunately there is very little that you can do if they exceed it. I think FOI is 20 working days - but I am not sure about that one. Also unless you explicitly mention that it is a Subject Access Request under the DPA they could say that they didn't interpret it as such (and in fact that may well be true).

 

Once the 40 days have passed I would suggest that you send a follow up letter - addressed to the "Data Controller" pointing out that they have exceeded the statutory timescale and requesting them to reply with 7 days.

 

You can go to court to enforce the SAR, or complain to the ICO but both are slow processes and if you can't prove when you sent the request then you won't get too far - it is best to send such requests by special delivery.

[Sally44]

I agree that it is very important that you quote under which act you are requesting the data [and be sure that that is the right act relevent to your situation and the information you want], because otherwise you will not get what you should.