The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) provides the public with a general right of access to information held by public bodies, such as local government, the police, the NHS and state schools.
The Stockport Safeguarding Partnership is a statutory partnership in its own right, set up under the Children Act 2004 and the Care Act 2014. It is not a public authority for the purposes of the FOI. It is therefore exempt from the duty to provide information under the FOI.
Section 3 of the FOI provides that:
(2) For the purposes of this Act, information is held by a public authority if—
(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person, or
(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.
A FOI request may be made directly to partner agencies of the Stockport Safeguarding Partnership. Where a Stockport Safeguarding Partnership partner is deemed to be a public authority under the FOI holds information for its own purposes, then it does so otherwise than on behalf of another person and the information held will be subject to the FOI. However, partners in possession of Stockport Safeguarding Partnership minutes, documents, reports etc. are holding this information on behalf of ‘another person’ (Stockport Safeguarding Partnership) and it is therefore not liable to disclosure under a FOI request.
You can find details of how to access information from certain public bodies on the Information Commissioner’s website.