Preparing for a practice assessment
As soon as an authority has been selected for assessment, a letter is sent to advise them of this, asking for a point of contact for the Assessment Team. The authority is issued with two documents about four months before the planned visit:
- A self-evaluation form seeking a range of information about the FOI practice in the authority.
- Am indicative schedule for an assessment visit, showing what is involved in a typical on-site visit.
The self-evaluation form asks for specific documentation and information, and allows the authority to provide additional comment and context, to help assessors build up a full picture of how that authority deals with information requests.
The assessors use the information provided to inform their pre-visit research, identifying issues, but also areas of good practice. They use a detailed checklist which covers e.g.
- policies and procedures
- organisational structures
- compliance with statutory timescales
- quality of refusal notices issued
- training material
- specific requests/reviews
- records management procedures
- procurement procedures
- logging, tracking and monitoring systems
- performance reporting.
The team also speak to colleagues for feedback e.g. colleagues who approve and audit publication schemes, and investigating officers who deal with appeals.
This culminates in a pre-visit assessment report which includes an assessment schedule for the two day assessment visit.
Self-evaluation form (Word - 701 kB)
Assessor's checklist (Word - 751 kB)
Indicative schedule for assessment visits (PDF - 33kB)
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