The Alliance asked the Government to provide copies of the 328 written responses to the consultation, which included a response from the Alliance. The consultation ended in August 2012 and the FOI request was filed on 14 February 2013.
All FOI requests should receive a final response within 20 working days, with 40 working days as the absolute maximum in exceptional cases. The Alliance received their response after 53 working days.
But the DfE has told the Alliance that it has refused to release the information about the Childcare Commission consultation on the grounds that to do so would be in breach of Government policy.
Neil Leitch, Alliance chief executive, said, ‘The Childcare Commission consultation closed almost ten months ago, at the end of August 2012. But we still do not know any more about the consultation responses than we did at the time.’
‘At the time of the release of the More Great Childcare proposals, back in January, Early Years Minister Elizabeth Truss said, "We will shortly publish the report by our commission on childcare." But how long is "shortly"? Many in the sector believe the delay has little to do with policy formation and is more about handling the PR fallout of critical sector submissions.’
A DfE spokesperson said, ‘It would be absurd to publish responses to the childcare commission before the commission is complete and the final report is published. In line with standard practice, we will publish a summary of responses alongside the commission report. At that point we will comply with Mr. Leitch’s request, but not before.’
In response Mr Leitch said, 'It’s odd that the Department has described the request as "absurd", given that it took them over two months to decide whether or not to release the information. At the time, their explanation was that it was a "complex" issue that needed to be "weighed up carefully" – so what’s changed?'
The Alliance also says that the DfE has also failed to receive a proper response regarding its Rewind on Ratios petition, which passed the 10,000 signature mark on the e-petitions website on 1 May.
When a petition exceeds 10,000 signatures the website says that the relevant Government department publishes a response.
The DfE posted a short response on the website stating, ‘We have recently consulted on reform of childcare ratios and are currently considering all the responses. We expect to publish a response to the consultation shortly.
'An update will be posted to this petition once the consultation response has been published.’
- To view the response to the Alliance's FOI request visit: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/information_on_dfe_consultation