Decision to publish EIS moderation reports for all schools

Summary

The requester sought documentation regarding the Department of Education's decision to publish Education Improvement Service moderation reports for all schools. The authority disclosed internal emails confirming the decision to publish redacted reports from the last three years but withheld specific names and details under redaction.

Key Facts

• The Department of Education, Sport and Culture decided to publish all moderation reports for the last three years in redacted form.
• The decision was made following a meeting between the Director of Education and School Improvement Advisers in January 2020.
• Corporate Services agreed to handle the redaction of reports before publication.
• Reports are not to be retained for longer than three years, excluding the current academic year.
• The collation of reports was scheduled to be completed by the end of half-term on 21st February 2020.

Data Disclosed

• 2020-03-09
• 2020-03-26
• 10th February 2020
• 5th March 2020
• 17.58hrs
• 27 January 2020
• 21 January 2020
• 16:32:13
• 13:41
• 14:36
• 16:25:16
• 16:10
• Fri 21st Feb
• three years
• 4 weeks
• section 41
• 2019/0003
• 26th November 2019
• 1172249
• 1217086
• 8
• 4

Exemptions Cited

• Section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (qualified exemption)

Original Request

Following a request for the most recent Education Improvement Service moderation reports for reading, writing and mathematics for 11 specified primary schools, reference 1172249, submitted on 10th February 2020, on 5th March 2020 at 17.58hrs, the Department of Education, Sport and Culture responded by claiming a qualified exemption under section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015, substantially on the basis that the decision to publish Education Improvement Service moderation reports for all schools in the Publications section of the Department's website had been made prior to receipt of the request on 10th February 2020 and there is a commitment to publish. I now seek all documentation relating to the decision to publish the moderation reports, including but not limited to minutes of meetings, emails, file notes, whether held centrally by the Department or at any school etc, together with any decision notice or policy document or other formal confirmation whatsoever as to by whom and when this decision was taken and details as to precisely what the decision is. As this information was available as at 10th February 2020 when the Department received request reference 1172249 and will therefore be readily available, taking heed of in particular paragraph 47 of the Information Commissioner's Decision Notice 2019/0003 dated 26th November 2019, I anticipate a swift response. I also request a timescale as to when the moderation reports will all be published, given that the decision to do so was made prior to 10th February 2020, ie at least 4 weeks ago.

Data Tables (3)

Full Response Text

From: Geoff Moorcroft To: Cc: Subject: Re: Draft January Department minutes Date: 27 January 2020 16:32:13 Hi           Happy to answer this.           Following the suggestion at the Department meeting, I met with the School Improvement Advisers. We agreed;-           All moderation reports, for the last three years, would be made available to the public in redacted form.            Moderation reports should not be retained for any longer than three years (not including the current academic year)           Advisers will ensure they have these been collated by the end of half-term (Fri 21st Feb).           A sample of each report type will be redacted as an example for Corporate Services, indicating EIS’s view of what should be removed.           Corporate Services (kindly!) have agreed to redact the report before publishing.             So, in short, all reports will be published but it may take some time to gather and redact them.             Hope this helps. Regards   Geoff Moorcroft Director of Education Education Improvement Service Department of Education, Sport and Culture (Rheynn Ynsee, Spoyrt as Cultoor) Hamilton House Peel Road Douglas Isle of Man IM1 5EZ telephone;- (01624) mobile;- (07624) email;-    WARNING: This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. You must not copy or deliver it to any other person or use the contents in any unauthorised manner without the express permission of the sender. If you are not the intended addressee of this email you must not copy or deliver it to anyone else or use it in any unauthorised manner.      From: Date: Monday, 27 January 2020 at 13:41 To: "Moorcroft, Geoff" Subject: FW: Draft January Department minutes   Hi Geoff   Further to the email below, can you please confirm that future moderation reports will be published, as per enquiry? Redacted Redacted Redacted Redacte d Redacte d Redacted Redacted Redacted Redact d This will help with future FOI requests. Thanks for your help, From: Sent: 21 January 2020 14:36 To: Subject: RE: Draft January Department minutes Thanks I just have a question about the EIS moderation reports being published. Are there are more details on this? Are these the reports that were published as part of the Information Commissioners report? If future moderation reports are going to be published it would be handy to know just in case we get another FoI requesting the reports. Thanks   Redac t d Red t Redacted Redacted Reda t d Reda t d

From: To: Cc: Shipley, Andrew Subject: Re: Moderation Reports Date: 21 January 2020 16:25:16 Thanks Geoff Good summing up of what was said – thanks   School Improvement Adviser Department of Education, Sport and Culture Rheynn Ynsee, Spoyrt as Cultoor Education Improvement Service Hamilton House Peel Road  Douglas Isle of Man IM1 5EZ   Tel: (01624) Mobile: (07624)   Email:   Web: www.gov.im/education   Isle of Man. Giving you freedom to flourish   WARNING: This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. You must not copy or deliver it to any other person or use the contents in any unauthorised manner without the express permission of the sender. If you are not the intended addressee of this e-mail, please delete it and notify the sender as soon as possible.     From: "Moorcroft, Geoff" Geoff.Moorcroft@sch.im Date: Tuesday, 21 January 2020 at 16:10 To: Cc: Andrew Shipley Subject: Moderation Reports   Dear All           Thanks for the discussions this morning with regard to moderation reports. I thought that if I put my understanding of what we’d agreed in writing then I’d have some hope of remembering it past tomorrow!             All moderation reports, for the last three years, would be made available to the public in redacted form.           Moderation reports should not be retained for any longer than three years (not including the current academic year)           Advisers will ensure they have these been collated by the end of half-term (Fri 21st Feb).           A sample of each report type will be redacted as an example for Corporate Services, indicating EIS’s view of what should be removed.           Corporate Services (kindly!) have agreed to redact the report before publishing.             Thanks very much for your co-operation around this. I know we all have Redacted Redacted Redacted Redac Redac Redacted Redacted Redacted reservations about the publication of these reports but, as discussed, we are bound by the Information Commissioner’s ruling   Regards   Geoff Moorcroft Director of Education Education Improvement Service Department of Education, Sport and Culture (Rheynn Ynsee, Spoyrt as Cultoor) Hamilton House Peel Road Douglas Isle of Man IM1 5EZ telephone;- (01624) mobile;- (07624) email;-    WARNING: This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. You must not copy or deliver it to any other person or use the contents in any unauthorised manner without the express permission of the sender. If you are not the intended addressee of this email you must not copy or deliver it to anyone else or use it in any unauthorised manner.    Redacte Redacte Redacted

Extract from the Department Meeting – 15th January 2020 6 Education Improvement Services Report

DEPARTMENT MEETING REPORT DIVISION: EDUCATON IMPROVEMENT SERVICES HEAD OF DIVISION: GEOFF MOORCROFT

Moderation Reports – Moderation Reports to be published.

Corporate Services Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture Hamilton House Peel Road, Douglas IM1 5EZ Telephone: (01624) 685808 Website: www.gov.im/dec Email: dec@foi.gov.im Our ref: 1217086 26 March 2020

Dear ###,

We write further to your request which was received on 9 March 2020 and which states:

"Following a request for the most recent Education Improvement Service moderation reports for reading, writing and mathematics for 11 specified primary schools, reference 1172249, submitted on 10th February 2020, on 5th March 2020 at 17.58hrs, the Department of Education, Sport and Culture responded by claiming a qualified exemption under section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015, substantially on the basis that the decision to publish Education Improvement Service moderation reports for all schools in the Publications section of the Department's website had been made prior to receipt of the request on 10th February 2020 and there is a commitment to publish. I now seek all documentation relating to the decision to publish the moderation reports, including but not limited to minutes of meetings, emails, file notes, whether held centrally by the Department or at any school etc. together with any decision notice or policy document or other formal confirmation whatsoever as to by whom and when this decision was taken and details as to precisely what the decision is. As this information was available as at 10th February 2020 when the Department received request reference 1172249 and will therefore be readily available, taking heed of in particular paragraph 47 of the Information Commissioner's Decision Notice 2019/0003 dated 26th November 2019, I anticipate a swift response. I also request a timescale as to when the moderation reports will all be published, given that the decision to do so was made prior to 10th February 2020, i.e. at least 4 weeks ago."

Our response to your request is as follows: Information relating to the decision to publish moderation reports I have enclosed the following copies of the information: 1. Extract from the 15th January 2020 Department meeting 2. Education Improvement Service emails

1. Corporate Services and Education Improvement Service emails

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because it is absolutely exempt under section 25 of the Act (absolutely exempt personal information). The reasons why that exemption applies are that: • The Department of Education Sport and Culture is satisfied that the information amounts to personal data of which you are not the data subject; and • The Department of Education Sport and Culture is satisfied that disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation as it applies in the Isle of Man pursuant to the Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018, namely that the Department of Education Sport and Culture can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions for lawful processing in Article 6 and in this case, none of those conditions have been met. When the moderation reports will be published The Information Commissioner’s guidance on information for future publication states the Department should: “state when that information is expected to be published either by reference to a date or completion of a particular event such as management review” Taking this into consideration the Department will publish the moderation reports in the Information and Publications section of the Departments website, once they have all been redacted. Please quote the reference number 1217086 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.

In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Coordinator