2012 December

Get the data: Olympic athletes

The Spreadsheet Journalism blog has published a set of data on all Olympic athletes from London 2012, including medals won, age, height, weight, gender, DOB and birthplace. Let us know if you do anything with it! Thanks to Muckraker‘s Lyra McKee … Continue reading

The best way to set up a spreadsheet for inputting FOI responses

On Help Me Investigate the Olympics we’ve been sending FOI requests to all of the local authorities which hosted the Olympic torch relay. 

That’s the easy part. The difficult bit is compiling the results into something meaningful. T…

Who to send an FOI request to if you want to know about your local clinical commissioning group

Following previous posts about how Freedom of Information requests are being handled during a period where responsibilities are passed from one part of the health service (primary care trusts) to another (clinical commissioning groups – CCGs), we’ve been working with the … Continue reading

NHS Commissioning Board livestreams its board meetings

Transparency is supposed to be a key element of the new clinical commissioning NHS system – something we’ll be looking closely at. So it’s encouraging to see that the new NHS Commissioning Board has been livestreaming its board meetings, then … Continue reading

Do you want to help investigate the education system?

TweetWe’re looking for a new editor to help run Help Me Investigate Education, as I have found a job as a result of my work on the site! If you’re interested in or concerned about education – and curious about using FOI and … Continue reading

Do you want to help investigate the welfare system?

We’re looking for a new editor to help run Help Me Investigate Welfare, following the departure of Chie Elliott, who now has a job in publishing. Help Me Investigate will provide the network of support and contacts to help. If you’re … Continue reading

Cultural Olympiad funding – internal review finds Arts Council “innocent”

Arts Council England has found no evidence of malpractice in the way it funded “artist-led” projects in Yorkshire, following an investigation by Help Me Investigate user Carol Lee. Following an internal review which interviewed only six people, Arts Professional’s Liz Hill … Continue reading

3 useful searches for finding out about school management

TweetHere are three simple uses of advanced search techniques that can help you find out more about how a school is run: “Senior management team” site:sch.uk will look for pages that mention the exact phrase “senior management team” on school … Continue reading