The 2016 Barnet Council governance project - No 19 - Project Chicago - follow up request

Here is the second in a series of requests concerning Project Chicago. 

From: Roger Tichborne
Sent: 10 February 2016 13:29
To: 'Sarah Laws' <barnet@mail.icasework.com>
Subject: RE: Information request (ref: 2491597)

Dear Ms Laws,

Thank you for your response.

As a follow up, please provide the following

1)      Details of dates of all briefings for councillors on Project Chicago

2)      Details of invitees for all briefings for councillors on Project Chicago

3)      Copies of all briefing packs for councillors on Project Chicago

4)      Details of any impacts on Barnet Council identified as part of project Chicago

Many thanks

Roger Tichborne

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Here is the response from the council to the original request. In short, Capita are reorganising the way they are running Barnet Council but have provided no written briefings to Barnet Council staff as to how this will actually work.

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5 February 2016
Our ref: 2491597

Thank you for your request received on 1 February 2016, for the following
information:

Please provide details on Project Chicago and copies of minutes of the meetings at
which Barnet Council staff were first briefed on Project Chicago.
We have processed this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response
I am writing to inform you that we have searched our records and some of the
information you requested is not held by London Borough of Barnet.
Project Chicago is an initiative led by Capita Group Plc to update its operating model
to focus on service led work streams that are organised nationally. These relate to
services being managed under a common management structure that looks to
provide strategic leadership and consistency of operational delivery to provide a
better service to clients.
The council does not hold minutes of meetings at which staff were first briefed on
project Chicago as no minutes were taken by the council. The briefings were
informal oral briefings provided by Re to a small number of senior council staff . The
council commissioners of the services were verbally briefed out of courtesy on these
proposals.

Further information
If you are interested in the data that the council holds, we recommend that you take
a look at Open Barnet, the council’s data portal. This is an important tool in pushing
forward Barnet’s Transparency Agenda, bringing together all our published datasets
and other information of interest on one searchable database for anyone, anywhere
to access: http://open.barnet.gov.uk/

Your rights
If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been handled, you
can request a review within the next 40 working days by writing to the FOI Officer at:
The London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South,
London, N11 1NP (email foi@barnet.gov.uk).

If, having exhausted our review procedure, you remain dissatisfied with the handling
of your request or complaint, you will have a right to appeal to the Information
Commissioner at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (telephone: 0303 123 1113; website
www.ico.org.uk). There is no charge for making an appeal.