LA response to the Government Guidance for Schools

[MsPuppup]

Hi I'm a regular but have name changed.

I know my LA (Birmingham) submitted a response to the government consultation on the schools guidance for gender confused children.

I have asked for a copy of their response.
They have refused to give it to me saying the DfE requested the responses should be kept confidential

I know other organisations have published their responses so this doesn't seem correct?

I wonder if I can challenge this?
Should I do a FOI request?

It doesn't seem right that parents don't know what position a LA is taking?

I also wonder if there are any other parents in Birmingham who would be concerned about this and who would be interested in joining up to put some pressure on the LA?

FOI requests are quite simple.

Google your LA FOI. They'll have a form or an email to use.
You can also send it directly to the director of education and the director of children's services. I suggest do both.
Whoever receives it has to follow the same protocol.

Specify the information you want.
Did the LA submit a response?
Did any teams within children's services submit their own responses?
Did any children's social care teams?
Looked after children team?
Educational psychology?
Autism teams?
Any other send teams?
Any other children's services teams?

Could you please be provided with the response from any team within the LA as well as the LAd own response.
Ask who contributed to the LA response.

Maybe throw in a line about public enquiry of the role of public bodies following Cass.

But no need to put much detail. You don't have to explain why you want the information.
They have to follow the procedure and respond to you within the time frame.
They have a statutory duty.

I'm busy for the next couple of days but when I'm back I'll try to share a template.
Or if anyone meanwhile can help with that that would be great.

This one is very straightforward as all you are asking for is a copy of their response to that DfE consultation.

Just say that you are submitting a request for a copy under Freedom of Information.

As you are only asking for one document and it’s a very recent document, there won’t be any issues about how long it’s going to take them to search for it, so they won’t be able to say that it’s too expensive to respond to you. They’ve got a deadline by which they have to reply.

Post it up here.

I did one about Bounty in Hospitals a few years back...

MN helped me make it hard to dodge questions on.

Not sure I want to start a new thread so putting this here
https://empowered.equaliteach.co.uk/empowered-webinars/
The next webinar will be: Creating Trans Inclusive Schools

I'd seen it advertised before the Easter holidays, interested it's still going ahead after Cass last week,

Anyone fancy signing up? It's £35 for one hour....

Is it just for teachers? Or can parents sign up?

It’s an Eventbrite link so I’m googling to see if the organisers will see the name on my card details or if I can use a significantly less-unique variation of my name for the sign up and Eventbrite will keep my card details private.

I think it’s open to anyone who can pay £35. But yes not sure if all names of participants are then displayed.

Yes, put in an FOI. And when they reject your request, go through their information request complaints process, and when you’ve exhausted that complain to the ICO

OP has already put in an FOI request even if it wasn’t recognised as such. You don’t need to use the words ‘freedom of information request’ in order for it to be one.

The ICO have a life chat option that you could use to ask next steps. https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/official-information/

Done!
Remember to say 'this is a Freedom of Information Request' in your letter, otherwise they won't treat it as one.

They might not treat it as one but it is.

Can you only request a FOI from your own LA? My DGDs attend schools in a neighbouring LA so I'm interested in their response

Nope you can FOI any LA even if you don't live there.

OP, they should have treated your original request as an FOI request. There is no requirement or expectation that FOI is stipulated in a request for information from a public body.

You can go straight to challenging them and then reporting them to the commissioner

Thank you this is so helpful.

They emailed me back and said I could make a FOI if I wished.
So I emailed back and said that was a FOI you fuckers, and you should have treated it as such. (I didn't say fuckers)

And I also want all this information too (I asked for information from any teams in Children's Services. I know many EP teams submitted responses, and they should be public. EPs are full on promote geneder ideology and mebedded in LAs and going unedr the radar)

They also said in their email that they thought the debate should be respectful on both sides...I have it to them both barrels. Nothing is enraging me more right now than the call for 'respectful debate' from those who've been 'no debate'!!

And from a public body still witholding information.
I am so fucking angry.

It's very easy to do an FOI.
1- if you want it to be public immediately, use the 'What do you know ' website link here .https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
2-log in, find the organisation, check if someone else has alreday made it public, if not write ' This is an FOI- please provide your....(whatever document it is) .'
3- If they don't send it to you, chase up at the correct time or if they refuse can refer to the Information Commissioner easily though the website
4- You can do different FOI's to different organisations at the same time, but it will need different requests. Don't do more than about 1 a month max to the same organisation though or you can be automatically refused.
Hope that helps.

They also said in their email that they thought the debate should be respectful on both sides..

and as part of being respectful they should provide the information requested…

I would bloody love to do that webinar as my school uses Equaliteach and they are awful. But I'll be working. I'm going to do an FOI to the LA where I teach and the one where DD attends school.

I've had a response to my FOI.

[London borough]council did not provide any response to the above consultation.
Therefore, all other answers are N/A.

That's it.

I presume I accept that and assume they're not interested / short staffed so had no time to respond to the consultation / don't care?

Cheshire East:

"Cheshire East Council does not hold the requested information because we did not respond to this consultation."

But, I will submit a FOI to the DfE when they publish their response to the consultation and will be checking to see if Cheshire East was indeed a LA that did not respond.

Edited to remove a link.

OK I can do that too for my LA. Thanks. Though presumably they’ll only record who has responded, not who hasn’t?

@SchoolGuidanceQ I don't think that my post was very clear, sorry about that.

When the DfE publish their response to the consultation, it will likely include broad references within it as to who the responses came from, perhaps for example, Local Authorities, Schools, Charities. I (and everybody who reads it) will be able to pore over it for these references.

Then I plan to submit FOI(s) asking for the responses from for example, Local Authories, Schools and any other body referenced that would appear to be funded with public monies. I'll also ask for an anonymised list of responses from the public. So it should be clear just which LAs responded and with what and which LAs didn't respond.