Searching - report

How to use this report

You can download this report as a Word document using the button on the top right corner of the page. The report contains a template for an action plan, which we suggest you complete. If you have an problem downloading the report into a word document please let us know.

You may find it easier to complete the report if you change the page orientation to landscape and turn on table gridlines (for more information, please see the help section of your word processing program).

Alternatively, we have created an Excel action plan template for you to complete. This consists of a list of the performance areas and a drop down menu where you can reflect the below ratings. We have added additional columns for you to populate that we think will help you make an actionable plan for improvement.

The action plan is intended to be a working document. It can be customised as appropriate for your public authority. If you:

• receive an unsatisfactory rating, you must put an action in place and prioritise it;
• receive an adequate rating, you should put an action in place to improve but this action should not be prioritised over actions relating to unsatisfactory ratings; and 
• receive a good rating, you should review the area to understand if further improvements can be made or what is required to maintain this performance.

Try not to focus effort on resolving symptoms; tackling symptoms may only move the problem from one place to another. Instead, identify, and put actions in place to mitigate or remove the root causes of the issues.

When devising improvement actions, we recommend you involve decision makers and people who will implement the actions. Your action plan should be agreed at a sufficient level of seniority with assigned responsibility for its delivery.

Question 1: The way in which you define and communicate the search's scope to relevant staff and business areas is ...

Question 2: The way in which you conduct searches is ...

Question 3: The way in which staff follow procedures and use available resources or support with searching, locating and retrieving information is ...

Question 4: The way in which records management supports searches is ...

Question 5: The way in which the liaison between the records management function and FOI staff supports searching, locating and retrieving information is ...

Question 6: The communication of internal knowledge about what information is and isn't held is ...

Suggested actions

• Routinely review and update your procedures for searching for information.
• Routinely review and update your organisation's publication scheme and ensure it includes information regularly requested.
• Routinely review and update your disclosure log and ensure it is well signposted to the public.
• Consider proactive disclosure, outside of the publication scheme, to achieve greater transparency.
• Provide guidance to staff on appropriate search terms to ensure consistency when searching across the public authority.
• Ensure you manage your records in accordance with the section 46 Code of Practice on records management.

What next

You should monitor delivery of the action plan.

Once actions have been completed you could take the relevant module again to establish whether the actions have improved performance and review whether further action is needed to ensure continuous improvement.

We recommend that you share your report with relevant colleagues and other similar public authorities who may learn from it.

In the interests of openness and transparency, we recommend that you publish your action plan.

Thank you for using our FOI self-assessment toolkit. Please consider leaving feedback to help us improve the toolkit.