Report That Triggered Leader Member Removal Released – Redacted

An independent report that allegedly precipitated the removal of Councillor Malcolm King as a Lead Member has been released in a redacted form.

The report examines allegations made by Cllr King over the running of the local Child and Family Assessment Team (CAFAT).

A Wrexham.com article was referenced in the FOI, viewable here on WhatDoTheyKnow.com , with the redacted report viewable in full via this PDF file.

Wrexham.com has seen a full, non-redacted, version of the confidential report and we have compared both versions.

The redaction of the report is explained by the Council as: “The Council considers that some of the information which is contained in the report would constitute personal information pertaining to some of the Council’s more junior employees, who are named in the report, and that these employees are not at such a level in the organisation where disclosure of their identities may be appropriate.”

“It is the Council’s view that in relation to these names of junior officers, disclosure would not be in compliance with the first data protection principle (processing to be fair and lawful) on the basis that the individuals involved would not have foreseen that their names would be disclosed to the public in relation to this report which was ultimately a confidential internal report commissioned by the Council on a Council service. Furthermore, they perform a role in a sensitive and demanding environment which would not be assisted by public disclosure.”

The first block of redaction is as above, referring to names of social workers and junior officers. Other edits are in a similar line, with time references removed to avoid identification of individuals.

In section 6.1.8 a larger section is redacted, with elements censored that could be argued to be relevant to the basis of the point discussed. However, as above, revealing that information would likely identify the individual to those familiar with the situation.

The copy of the report that we have seen also has digital edit notes, attributed to an Officer in Wrexham Council, however it does not appear that these edits have followed through to the final document released via FOI.

There is a nine page thread on the Wrexham.com Forums debating the recent political turmoil, which also references this report and its release – you can view and take part by clicking here….

Related articles:

• Councillor King removed as Leader Member
•  Councillor King’s response to removal due to this report.
• Council Leader Neil Rogers responds to Councillor King’s statement.
• Councillor King has the final word while looking to ‘move on’.