Dear Sir or Madam,

I request complete copies of the responses made by the Council to
the questionnaires linked to the current DCSF review of Home
Education. There were two such questionnaires: one of six questions
open to all respondants; the second was sixty questions, and sent
only to local education authorities.

I would like to see the full answers given to both questionnaires,
and also to know the name(s) and position(s) of the person or
people who responded to the questionnaires on the council's behalf.

Yours faithfully,

Ms Cowne

Thank you for your information request, which is now being processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

You can expect to receive our full response in due course.

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Dear Ms Cowne,

Thank you for your request.

I can confirm that the Council did not complete returns for either survey.

I trust that we have answered your queries, however if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you are unhappy with the response to your request, you may ask for an internal review. Please contact the Council’s Head of Audit, Risk and Information, Mr Jeff Wring at the Guildhall, High St, Bath BA1 5AW mailto:[email address].

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to appeal directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

Amanda Osborne, Information Compliance Manager
Risk and Assurance Services
Bath & North East Somerset Council
Telephone: 01225 396872
Facsimile: 01225 477387
www.bathnes.gov.uk
 
Making Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and visit.
 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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Dear Ms Osborne,

Thank you for your prompt reply to my request for information on
the 2009 Home Education review.

I would like to receive details of: (1) the number of persons in
the LA of compulsory school age who are electively home educated
and (2) the number of persons in the LA who claim to be electively
home educated; who have been either suspected or found to be
involved in child abuse, neglect, forced marriage, sexual
exploitation or domestic servitude in the last five years?
Also, please could you reveal how many (if any) Serious Case
Reviews have been started with respect to home educated children in
the LA in the last five years?

Looking forward to your reply,

Yours sincerely,

Ms Cowne

Thank you for your information request, which is now being processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

You can expect to receive our full response in due course.

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Dear Ms Cowne,

I response to your information request -

Q1: 52 children home educated

Q2:

Of the 52 children home educated, we have had some involvement with 16
children and young people.

2 reported for sexual abuse

2 for allegations of harmful sexual behaviour

6 for neglect

2 for domestic violence

2 for physical abuse

Q3: Nil

I trust that we have answered your queries, however if you have any
further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you are unhappy with the response to your request, you may ask for an
internal review. Please contact the Council's Head of Audit, Risk and
Information, Mr Jeff Wring at the Guildhall, High St, Bath BA1 5AW
[1]mailto:[email address].

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to appeal directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
[2]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

Amanda Osborne, Information Compliance Manager

Risk and Assurance Services

Bath & North East Somerset Council

Telephone: 01225 396872

Facsimile: 01225 477387

[3]www.bathnes.gov.uk

Making Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and
visit.

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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Dear Information Governance,

Thank you providing the above information.

Can you please clarify

a) whether these are 16 individual persons and if not how many
individual persons there were (and in how many families),

b) How many of the individual persons were found to be involved in
each of those issues mentioned, rather than just suspected of being
involved.

Thank you for your help.

Yours faithfully,

Ms Cowne

Dear Ms Cowne,

In response to your questions:

There are 16 children in 17 families
These were allegations that are recorded as safeguarding incidents of abuse

Regards,

Amanda Osborne, Information Compliance Manager
Risk and Assurance Services
Bath & North East Somerset Council
Telephone: 01225 396872
Facsimile: 01225 477387
www.bathnes.gov.uk
 
Making Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and visit.
 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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Dear Ms Osborne,

Please could you confirm to me whether or not any of the
allegations were genuinely substantiated rather than remaining as
allegations of safeguarding issues?

Please could you also confirm the statement that there were 16
children in 17 families to be correct? It doesn't appear obvious to
me.

I wonder if there is a possibility that the families in question
were specifically traveller children/families. Do you hold this
information please and if so are you able to confirm that this is
the case?

Yours sincerely,

Ms Cowne

Thank you for your information request, which is now being processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
 
You can expect to receive our full response in due course.

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Cowne,

I write in response to your request of 15 July 2009.

1. Please could you confirm to me whether or not any of the allegations
were genuinely substantiated rather than remaining allegations of
safeguarding issues?

The level of involvement varies. There are initial contacts / observations
on Care First for all the children. We are not sure how you would
classify "genuinely substantiated" as some of the children made
disclosures of sexual abuse but we have no information as to whether any
further action was taken in relation to the abusers.

2. Please could you also confirm the statement that there were 16 children
in 17 families to be correct? It doesn't appear obvious to me.

This is because of there being a re-constituted family where one child
lived across two families.

3. I wonder if there is a possibility that the families in question were
specifically traveller children/families. Do you hold this information
please and if so are you able to confirm that this is the case?

We do not hold information about whether the families are specifically
travelling families.

If you are unhappy with the response to your request, you may ask for an
internal review. Please contact the Council's Head of Audit, Risk and
Information, Mr Jeff Wring at the Guildhall, High St, Bath BA1 5AW
[1]mailto:[email address].

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to appeal directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
[2]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

Amanda Osborne, Information Compliance Manager

Risk and Assurance Services

Bath & North East Somerset Council

Telephone: 01225 396872

Facsimile: 01225 477387

[3]www.bathnes.gov.uk

Making Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and
visit.

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Cowne

I write to make a slight amendment to the information previously issued to
you by the Council.

There were 17 children from 15 families. This reflects the fact that there
were siblings involved in two cases.

Please accept my apologies for the error.

Regards,

Amanda Osborne, Information Compliance Manager

Risk and Assurance Services

Bath & North East Somerset Council

Telephone: 01225 396872

Facsimile: 01225 477387

[1]www.bathnes.gov.uk

Making Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and
visit.

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

From: Information Governance
Sent: 29 July 2009 16:29
To: '[FOI #9408 email]'
Subject: Information request (RFI 1695)

Dear Ms Cowne,

I write in response to your request of 15 July 2009.

1. Please could you confirm to me whether or not any of the allegations
were genuinely substantiated rather than remaining allegations of
safeguarding issues?

The level of involvement varies. There are initial contacts / observations
on Care First for all the children. We are not sure how you would
classify "genuinely substantiated" as some of the children made
disclosures of sexual abuse but we have no information as to whether any
further action was taken in relation to the abusers.

2. Please could you also confirm the statement that there were 16 children
in 17 families to be correct? It doesn't appear obvious to me.

This is because of there being a re-constituted family where one child
lived across two families.

3. I wonder if there is a possibility that the families in question were
specifically traveller children/families. Do you hold this information
please and if so are you able to confirm that this is the case?

We do not hold information about whether the families are specifically
travelling families.

If you are unhappy with the response to your request, you may ask for an
internal review. Please contact the Council's Head of Audit, Risk and
Information, Mr Jeff Wring at the Guildhall, High St, Bath BA1 5AW
[2]mailto:[email address].

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to appeal directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
[3]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

Amanda Osborne, Information Compliance Manager

Risk and Assurance Services

Bath & North East Somerset Council

Telephone: 01225 396872

Facsimile: 01225 477387

[4]www.bathnes.gov.uk

Making Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and
visit.

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

show quoted sections