Freedom of Information
Members of the public are entitled to request non-personal recorded information from public bodies, such as Unity Schools Partnership or the schools within our Trust for the purpose of transparency. If the information is not already accessible online, this can be done by submitting an information request.
You can access lots of information on our school’s websites here: Our Schools or on the Unity Schools Partnership website here: Unity Schools Partnership
A list of information that we must publish can be found here: What academies must or should publish online and we regularly check that our schools are fulfilling these requirements on their websites.
Under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI Act) any individual has the right to request information from an organisation, which is referred to as a ‘Freedom of Information Request’ or ‘FOI request’. An FOI Request allows an individual to ask an organisation about general, non-personal information held.
Where the request specifically relates to Environmental information, this would be considered under the Environmental Information Regulations.
FOI and EIR does not cover personal data about individuals – to find out more about how to request personal data, please see our SAR page.
Through an FOI request, an individual can ask us for any non-personal information which exists in recorded format. This can include things like policies, procedures, minutes of governing board meetings etc.
Before making a request, please check whether the information is already available on the Trust or School’s websites or on public websites such as the Department for Education or Ofsted websites.
Think carefully about what you want to know and try to make your request as clear and focused as possible. Vague or very broad requests are likely to be rejected or to cause delays – please be aware that the legislation sets a limit on time which can be used to respond to a request, including consecutive requests for similar data from the same person or organisation.
In some cases, we are allowed to refuse a request where it is deemed to be vexatious. If we believe this is the case, we will advise you as soon as possible.
The statutory timeframe for both FOI and EIR requests is 20 working days. For an education setting, this only includes school days i.e. where pupils are in attendance.
This means that this timescale does not include weekends, bank holidays, school holidays or staff professional development days.
We are only able to provide data that is already held in a recorded format – organisations are not required to create additional data sets to respond to information requests.
While you are entitled to receive non-personal data, some information may be withheld or redacted if it includes direct or indirect references to an individual, or is subject to a legal exemption. Exemptions are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Legal exemptions may include but are not limited to:
- Information accessible by other means (Part 2 (21))
- Prejudice to effective conduct or public affairs (Part 2 (36))
- Health and safety information ( Part 2 (38))
- Commercial Interests (Part 2 (43))
- Information related to audit functions (Part 2 (33))
For more information about exemptions, please see here.
In some cases, your request may be refused as if exceeds the ‘time-cost limit’ set out in the legislation.
You can make an FOI in writing, via email or in writing, but the best way to make an FOI request is to fill in our FOI form linked here as this will allow us to make sure we have all the information we need to fulfil the request as soon as we can.
Where possible, be as specific as possible about what data you need. It is also helpful for us to understand the reason you are asking for the information, although this is not required it can help us to identify data or to advise you where data may be accessible via a different route.
Verbal requests are not valid under the FOI Act or EI Regulations.
Once your request is received, we will acknowledge your request. Where possible, your request will be handled by our central information governance team, but it may be necessary for us to involve the school or other central team members in the gathering of data to fulfil your request.
When the requested data has been gathered, any exempt data has been removed or redacted, the data is ready to be shared. Typically, we will do so by sharing a secure link for you to access the data, unless you have specified that you are unable to receive digital copies.