St Mungo's: Declan reverts to data protection law in his dealings with the Mayor of London's St Mungo's TST for the accurate recording of his complaint of unfair treatment against Newham Council (WITH UPDATE - DAY 31 19/12/2018)
This is a splendid posting which in its moderate and modest tone should encourage many others to join you!!
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Declan taught PE in one of Ireland's top schools (Glenstal Abbey) and recently acquired a UK Athletics coaching licence. He is also Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) cleared to work with children and adults.
"UPDATE 2 November (5.12pm): This evening the Mayor of London's St Mungo's TST agreed to ensuring that the following information will be uploaded verbatim to their organisation's information system: '... For over two years, Declan has been fighting without success to secure a long-term volunteer position through Newham Council's Active Newham. Declan has made several complaints of unfair treatment against the Council, culminating in his recent complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (Ombudsman's Case ID: 18011204).'"
1 November 2018: UK Athletics: The club secretary for Newham and Essex Beagles Athletics Club tells Declan that the volunteering opportunity he has seen on Newham Council's Active Newham bulletin is incorrect and out of date (WITH UPDATE 2/11/2018)
Declan and I are tenants of the Clearing House, which is run by St Mungo's on behalf of the Mayor of London. For almost four months earlier this year, we battled St Mungo's to stabilise our tenancy; see my post of 28 August, St Mungo's: Discrimination; Declan's claim against the Mayor of London's service for the Central London County Court. Still no response from St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair to Declan's pre-action letter (WITH UPDATE 30/8/2018). Now Declan has reverted to data protection law in his dealings with this charity for the accurate recording of his complaint of unfair treatment against Newham Council (see further below). Declan has just emailed and mailed this Subject Access Request and so Monday counts as Day 1 (starting the first working day after they received the request):
Robert Buck
TST North Service Manager
St Mungo's
16 Nevill Road
London
N16 8SR
16 November 2018
Dear Mr Buck
Subject access request
[Personal details to help identification withheld]
Please supply the data about me that I am entitled to under data protection law relating to my meetings with your colleagues, including those notes from my meeting with Marc Appleton on 30 October 2018 at my home.
On 2 November 2018, Mr Appleton agreed to ensuring that agreed upon notes from our meeting would be uploaded forthwith to your organisation's information system. For your convenient reference, I enclose a copy of my recent email thread containing those agreed upon notes.
If you need any more data from me, or a fee, please let me know as soon as possible. It may be helpful for you to know that data protection law requires you to respond to a request for data within one calendar month.
If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer, or relevant staff member. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner's Office can assist you. Its website is ico.org.uk or it can be contacted on 0303 123 1113.
Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey
Ombudsman Case ID: 18011204
1. What do you think the body did wrong?
On 11 September 2018, I lodged a Stage 1 complaint of unfair treatment against Newham Council. Head of Customer Services Ron Springer has ignored my complaint against the Council, referring it instead to another party.
On 27 September 2018, I wrote to Mr Springer (cc'd to his CEO) requesting the Council's final response letter within 14 days. I made clear in this correspondence that the fault complained of lies with Newham Council not another party but have received nothing back from the Council.
I believe that Mr Springer's failure to provide me with a final response letter in a timely manner constitutes a clear breach of the Council's complaint handling protocol and procedures.
2. How has this affected you?
Newham Council has referred my complaint to Active Newham. I have tried to get a resolution to my complaint from this party but to no avail. I have suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the Council.
I am currently housed within a Clearing House property, which is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative. The initiative is designed to prevent rough sleeping, sustain tenancies and work with former rough sleepers to greater independence.
Access and support into voluntary roles is a common and successful route for many Clearing House clients to gain access into paid work, gaining valuable experience and improving or maintaining self-esteem; whilst also building valuable links and contribution to their local community.
For over two years, as a direct result of the actions or inactions of senior management at Newham Council, I have been effectively barred from being able to work/volunteer on a long-term basis with any of the organisations associated with Active Newham within the London Borough of Newham. Such a decision will have an impact on me being further independent and will impact on the sustainment of my tenancy in the long term, thereby posing a threat to life. (I am an asthmatic with a history of bronchitis and pneumonia.)
In light of the above, and the serious distress caused as a direct result of the actions or inactions of senior management at Newham Council, I hereby request the assistance of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
3. What do you think the body should do to put things right?
Newham Council should issue a final response letter that explains their final decision to refer the matter to another party and details my rights to refer the matter to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if I wish.
Declan Heavey
18 October 2018
1. What do you think the body did wrong?
On 11 September 2018, I lodged a Stage 1 complaint of unfair treatment against Newham Council. Head of Customer Services Ron Springer has ignored my complaint against the Council, referring it instead to another party.
On 27 September 2018, I wrote to Mr Springer (cc'd to his CEO) requesting the Council's final response letter within 14 days. I made clear in this correspondence that the fault complained of lies with Newham Council not another party but have received nothing back from the Council.
I believe that Mr Springer's failure to provide me with a final response letter in a timely manner constitutes a clear breach of the Council's complaint handling protocol and procedures.
2. How has this affected you?
Newham Council has referred my complaint to Active Newham. I have tried to get a resolution to my complaint from this party but to no avail. I have suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the Council.
I am currently housed within a Clearing House property, which is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative. The initiative is designed to prevent rough sleeping, sustain tenancies and work with former rough sleepers to greater independence.
Access and support into voluntary roles is a common and successful route for many Clearing House clients to gain access into paid work, gaining valuable experience and improving or maintaining self-esteem; whilst also building valuable links and contribution to their local community.
For over two years, as a direct result of the actions or inactions of senior management at Newham Council, I have been effectively barred from being able to work/volunteer on a long-term basis with any of the organisations associated with Active Newham within the London Borough of Newham. Such a decision will have an impact on me being further independent and will impact on the sustainment of my tenancy in the long term, thereby posing a threat to life. (I am an asthmatic with a history of bronchitis and pneumonia.)
In light of the above, and the serious distress caused as a direct result of the actions or inactions of senior management at Newham Council, I hereby request the assistance of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
3. What do you think the body should do to put things right?
Newham Council should issue a final response letter that explains their final decision to refer the matter to another party and details my rights to refer the matter to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if I wish.
Declan Heavey
18 October 2018
UPDATE 19 December (4.35pm): This is day 31. Under data protection law, St Mungo's are obliged to provide Declan with the full version of the data he has requested by close of business today (i.e., within the next 25 minutes). Will I still be updating this post tomorrow? See my newer post yesterday, Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's: Data Tampering - Information Commissioner's Office Case Reference RFA0779534. On 16 November, following receipt of Declan's request for information above, his St Mungo's TST caseworker advised in relation to their meeting on 30 October that "agreed upon notes uploaded and saved". Amazingly, within one hour of receiving this confirmation, Declan heard from the Information Commissioner's Office about a complaint he made back in August about case notes St Mungo's Executive Director Dominic Williamson assured the court last year had been rectified by him but were in fact being held under my name. At the time I wrote in my then post update: "It never occurred to Declan to ask Williamson in court last year whether or not he had also rectified the same data under my name. But the cat is out of the bag now and the issue is currently on a very swift journey back to the Central London County Court." That did the trick less than four months ago, after I published in that post Declan's claim for filing in the court early the following week. This is Declan's email to Williamson a couple of days ago:
Attention: Subject Access Request - Immediate Action Required (Reminder 3)
Dominic Williamson
Executive Director of Strategy and Policy
St Mungo’s
Address removed for email
17 December 2018
Dear Mr Williamson,
Further to my two previous Subject Access Request reminders, I wish to bring to your attention that St Mungo's has a legal requirement to respond to me within one calendar month (i.e., starting the day after you received the attached SAR letter). I should, therefore, receive my data by Wednesday 19 December at the very latest.
Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
Almost seven weeks ago, on 2 November, Declan's St Mungo's TST caseworker confirmed that the following agreed upon notes from their meeting on 30 October would be uploaded verbatim to the charity's information system:
Declan and I met for the first time at his home today at 3pm on 30th October. During our meeting we discussed the following:
- Declan has a part-time job as an employee of Network for Church Monitoring. This is his main job. He is a former PE teacher and now holds a valid UK Athletics coaching licence with associated DBS. He wants a second part-time job with children, having given up on care work.
- For over two years, Declan has been fighting without success to secure a long-term volunteer position through Newham Council's Active Newham. Declan has made several complaints of unfair treatment against the Council, culminating in his recent complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (Ombudsman's Case ID: 18011204).
- For the last two months, Declan has been doing one-off events with Active Newham with a view to securing a long-term volunteer position working with children. He is scheduled to participate in his fifth one-off event with Active Newham on Saturday, 3 November.
- Declan has requested a copy of the action notes from our meetings in the form of a download from the organisation's information system.
- Declan has requested my support to elicit concrete information from the Bromley by Bow Centre with respect to their next Para-Legacy Agents 12-15 week training course.
Actions:
By Friday, 2 November 2018 Marc (TST Caseworker) to contact Declan about emailing the Bromley by Bow Centre.
Declan to continue with his one-off events with Active Newham.
- Declan has a part-time job as an employee of Network for Church Monitoring. This is his main job. He is a former PE teacher and now holds a valid UK Athletics coaching licence with associated DBS. He wants a second part-time job with children, having given up on care work.
- For over two years, Declan has been fighting without success to secure a long-term volunteer position through Newham Council's Active Newham. Declan has made several complaints of unfair treatment against the Council, culminating in his recent complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (Ombudsman's Case ID: 18011204).
- For the last two months, Declan has been doing one-off events with Active Newham with a view to securing a long-term volunteer position working with children. He is scheduled to participate in his fifth one-off event with Active Newham on Saturday, 3 November.
- Declan has requested a copy of the action notes from our meetings in the form of a download from the organisation's information system.
- Declan has requested my support to elicit concrete information from the Bromley by Bow Centre with respect to their next Para-Legacy Agents 12-15 week training course.
Actions:
By Friday, 2 November 2018 Marc (TST Caseworker) to contact Declan about emailing the Bromley by Bow Centre.
Declan to continue with his one-off events with Active Newham.
From My Picks:
8 May 2018: Threat to life: Updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Today we are cut off the internet for a half an hour
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