Bath & North East Council Information Governance Team - Request for Information Risk and Assurance Services Bath and North East Somerset Council Lewis House, Manvers Street Bath, BA1 1JG Telephone: 01225 477961 Email: [email protected] www.bathnes.gov.uk

4th December 2017

Ms Kerrigan

Dear Ms Kerrigan

Internal Review Request 1783/17 re Case Ref 1644/17

Thank you for your request for an internal review dated 24th October. We can now respond as follows.

Request History

On 23rd October we responded to your request received on 27th September as follows:

“Requested information I write to ask you to provide me with information regarding the education and school placements given to children under 16 years of age with Special Educational Needs. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like you to supply me with the information requested for the past two school years (2015/16 and 2016/17). I would ask you to provide the information in an excel document, broken down under the following headings: Academic Year (2015/16 and 2016/17) Category of Need (BESD, ASD, etc.) Name of School Type of school - (Maintained/non-maintained/independent) Type of placement - (Day or 38 week placement) Cost of placement per year I would be grateful if you could send your response in csv. or Excel format within the 20 day reply period.

Response We hold a breakdown by category of need of all school placements of children NCY 0 to 11 in the academic years 2015/16 and 2016/17. This includes all placements of children within the specified age range – whether new or existing. This information has been compiled from information on the One database. However it has been identified that disclosure of this detailed Bath & North East Somerset Council Request for Information information is likely to identify individuals. As a result section 40(2) of the Act is engaged. This section of the Act provides an exemption to the general right of access to information, where the disclosure of personal information would breach any of the Data Protection principles. The Council considers that disclosure of this information would constitute a breach of the fairness requirement of the first principle. This is because the individuals in question have not consented to the disclosure of their details. In addition they have a reasonable expectation that the Council will keep their information confidential.

It is also not possible to provide the cost of each placement as this information is kept within a separate system. The 2 systems do not “talk to each other” and it is therefore not possible to provide financial information which is organised in the same way. To do so would require individual analysis of each placement and the time required to do so would greatly exceed 20 hours. As a result, we can confirm that section 12 of the Act is also engaged.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 recognises that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the process of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit – as set by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees Charges) Regulations 2004 this is 18 hours. For requests which will exceed 18 hours to administer, by which is meant: (a) determining whether it holds the information,

(b) locating the information, or a document which may contain the information, (c) retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the information, and (d) extracting the information from a document containing it, the authority may refuse the request or levy a charge at £25 per hour for staff time. Although the council aim to be transparent and accountable to the public, we must balance this against the large amount of officer time that would be used in responding to such large requests. Therefore based on the amount of time it would take to fulfil your request, we are refusing it under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. If however you are able to refine your request, we may be able to assist”.

Internal Review

On 24th October we received your request for an internal in which you stated:

“I am writing to request an internal review of Bath and North East Somerset Council's handling of my FOI request 'Education information'.

I have requested similar information from other local authorities and they have provided me with some, if not all of the requested information. I would be happy to simplify me request to the following:

Bath & North East Somerset Council Request for Information Please can you provide me with the current educational placement information ( schools) of young people 16 years of age and under with educational health care (ehc) plans or statements?” . Determination and Action Required

We have now reviewed your request, together with our response and the internal review request. We have reviewed the original request and can confirm that the detail requested is likely to identify individuals. As a result, we can confirm that section 40(2) of the act applies.

We have now considered your refined request and can confirm that pupils with a varying category of need are placed in the following schools. This relates to children NCY 0 to 11 in the academic years 2015/16 and 2016/17. This includes all placements of children within the specified age range – whether new or existing.

Appleford Aspire Aurora Hedgeway School Aurora St Christophers Bathampton Primary Batheaston CofE Primary Bathford CofE Primary Bathwick St Mary Primary Baytree School Beechen Cliff Bishop Sutton Broadlands Calder House School Cameley CofE Primary Castle Primary Chandag Infant Chandag Junior Chew Stoke Church School Chew Valley Chewton Mendip CofE Primary Claremont School Clutton Primary Combe Down CofE Primary Cotswold Chine Downlands School East Harptree CofE Primary Elmfield School for Deaf Estuary High Bath & North East Somerset Council Request for Information

Exeter School for the Deaf Farmborough CofE Primary Farrington Gurney CofE Primary Fosse Way Hayesfield Girls School High Littleton CofE Primary Hill House School Inaura School Include Bristol IKB Studio School Kilmersdon CofE Primary Knowle DGE Longvernal Primary Marchant Holliday Mark College Mary Hare School Midsomer Norton Primary Moorlands Infant Moorlands Junior Mounton House Special school New College Worcester New Horizons Learning Centre Newbridge Primary School North Hill House Norton Hill Oldfield Oldfield Park Infants Oldfield Park Junior Paulton Infants Paulton Junior Primary Pensford Primary Ralph Allen Red Balloon Learning Centre Roundhill Primary Saltford CofE Primary Sheiling School Shoscombe CofE Primary Somervale St Andrews CofE Primary St Gregorys Catholic College St Johns Catholic Primary St Johns CofE Keyn Primary St Johns CofE MSN Primary Bath & North East Somerset Council Request for Information

St Julians CofE Primary St Keyna Primary St Laurence School St Marks CofE St Martins Garden Primary St Mary's Catholic Primary St Mary's Cof E Primary W St Michaels CofE Junior St Nicholas CofE Primary St Philips CofE Primary St Saviours CofE Infant St Stephens CofE Primary Stanton Drew Primary Steiner Academy Bristol Swainswick Cof E Primary Talocher School The Bath Studio School The Blue School The Corsham School The Margaret Coates Centre The Mendip School The Mendip Studio School The Paragon School The Springfields Academy Trinity Church School Tumblewood Community Schl Twerton Infants Ubley CofE Primary Venturers Academy Welton Primary WESC Foundation School Westfield Primary Weston All Saints Primary Whitstone Widcombe CofE Junior Widcombe Infants Writhlington

No further action required.

Bath & North East Somerset Council Request for Information If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to appeal directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or by visiting their website: www.ico.org.uk

Kind regards,

Jeff Wring Divisional Director - Risk & Assurance