BCFT information Governance Complaints and Appeals Notice

This document outlines the appeals process that services users can exercise if unhappy with the way in which a request for information has been handled. This document covers requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004, and Data Protection legislation.

Data Protection Complaints Process

Under data protection legislation, as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, individuals have the right to complain directly to the Trust if they believe their personal data has been handled in a way that infringes data protection law.

If you are unhappy with the way Bradford Children and Families Trust has handled your personal data, responded to your Subject Access Request, or dealt with another data protection rights request or concern, you can make a data protection complaint to us.

A data protection complaint may include concerns about how we have collected, used, shared, stored, retained, disclosed or protected your personal data. It may also include concerns about the way we have responded to a Subject Access Request or another data protection rights request.

You can make a complaint by contacting:

Corporate Information Governance Team
Bradford Children and Families Trust
Sir Henry Mitchell House
4 Manchester Road
Bradford
West Yorkshire
BD5 0QL

Email: dpo@bradfordcft.org.uk

When making a complaint, please provide:

• your name;
• your contact details;
• any request reference number, if you have one;
• details of what you are unhappy about;
• the outcome you are seeking.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days.

We will investigate your complaint and respond without undue delay. We will normally aim to provide a full response within 30 working days of receiving your complaint.

If your complaint is complex, involves several service areas, or we need more time to investigate, we will tell you why, keep you updated and provide a revised response date.

We will normally expect complaints to be raised within two months of your last meaningful contact with us about the issue. We may consider complaints outside this period where there is a good reason for the delay.

If your complaint also includes issues about service delivery, those parts may be considered separately under the Trust’s corporate complaints procedure or, where appropriate, a statutory complaints procedure. If you remain dissatisfied after our final response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

Appeals regarding Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) Requests

If you are dissatisfied in the way in which the Bradford Children and Families Trust (BCFT) has responded to your request for information under the FOI Act or EIR then you may request that the BCFT conducts a statutory Internal Review. You may wish to request such a review if you:

• are dissatisfied with the way in which your request has been handled,
• do not agree with an exemption that has been applied to the information you have requested,
• believe that not all of the information has been provided to you.

Upon receipt, the Information Governance Team will appoint an officer to handle your complaint. Where possible the appointed officer will not have had any involvement in your original request. The reviewing officer will then examine your original request and the response that was sent to you and decide whether the Bradford Children and Families Trust responded to your request appropriately according to legislative requirements. The reviewing officer will also decide whether to uphold or overturn decisions to withhold information.

The Bradford Children and Families Trust will conduct FOI and EIR Internal Reviews within 20 Working Days.

If you are dissatisfied with the response to an Internal Review, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office (see appeal-to-the-Information-Commissioner-Office).

o an Internal Review, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office (see appeal-to-the-Information-Commissioner-Office)

How to Request an Internal Review

To request an Internal Review, you should contact the Head of Governance and Risk on the below contact details:

Corporate Information Governance Team,

Sir Henry Mitchell House, 

4 Manchester Road, Bradford,

West Yorkshire,

BD5 0QL 

Email: dpo@bradfordcft.org.uk

When requesting an Internal Review, you should supply the following information:

• Your name (so that we can identify you and your request)
• Your contact details (so that we can contact you with our response)
• Request reference number (this should have been provided to you when the Bradford Children and Families Trust responded to your original request)
• Reasons why you are dissatisfied with the response to your request

The Information Governance Office will acknowledge your request for an internal review within 5 working days and advise you of timescales for responding.

After the Bradford Children and Families Trust has considered your appeal

If, following the completion of an internal review, you remain dissatisfied with the way in which the Bradford Children and Families Trust have handled your request then you may appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK’s Freedom of Information and Data Protection Regulator.

You can do this via the ICO’s website:

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

ICO helpline: 0303 123 1113.

Normal opening hours are Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm (excluding bank holidays).

If you are dissatisfied with the ICO’s response to your complaint, then you may be able to take your complaint to the information tribunal. The ICO will give you details about this when they issue their decision notice.