Dear Sir or Madam,

I request that you supply the local authority evidence to support
the statement "the number of children known to children's social
care in some local authorities is disproportionately high relative
to the size of their home educating population" in paragraph 8.12
of The Report To The Secretary of State on The Review Of Elective
Home Education in England, by Graham Badman.

I request you include a breakdown of the reasons why these children
are known.

Yours faithfully,

S Tyler

Dear Mr/Ms Tyler,

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible (where a response is required). For information, the
departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses
should be sent within 15 working days or 20 working days if you are
requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0058529

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please respond to my request placed on 26 June 2009, referenced
2009/0058529, a reminder of which is below:

"I request that you supply the local authority evidence to support
the statement "the number of children known to children's social
care in some local authorities is disproportionately high relative
to the size of their home educating population" in paragraph 8.12
of The Report To The Secretary of State on The Review Of Elective
Home Education in England, by Graham Badman.

I request you include a breakdown of the reasons why these children
are known."

By failing to provide this information with in the required time
under the Freedom of Information Act, you are now breaking the law.

Yours faithfully,

S Tyler

Dear Mr/Ms Tyler,
Thank you for your email dated about the reply to your FoI request dated
26 June.
I should like to apologise for the delay in replying to your FoI
request. The Department is aware that it has missed the statutory deadline
for reply and is in breach of its obligations under the Act. I very much
regret this - the Department should meet its obligations under the Act.

While I appreciate that it is in no way a justification, I should like to
explain that the Department makes every effort to meet deadlines, but the
delay in responding in this case has been due to the unusual volume of
requests the Department has received in recent months. The Information
Commissioner has been informed of the situation.
A reply will be sent as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Sue Thomson
Independent Schools
[email address]
[1]www.dcsf.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0067713.

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Mr/Ms Tyler

Thank you for your email request dated 26 June (ref 2009/0058529) asking
for information under The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).

I should like to apologise for the delay in replying. The Department is
aware that it has missed the statutory deadline for reply and is in breach
of its obligations under the Act. I very much regret this - the
Department should meet its obligations under the Act.

While I appreciate that it is in no way a justification I should like to
explain that the Department makes every effort to meet deadlines, but the
delay in responding in this case has been due to the unusual volume of
requests the Department has received in recent months. The Information
Commissioner has been informed of the situation.

A reply will be sent as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

Suzanne Elliott

Independent Schools Partnerships and Strategy Team

ELLIOTT,[email address]
[1]www.dcsf.gov.uk

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Dear Sir or Madam,

One month on and there is STILL no information?

Yours faithfully,

S Tyler

I have now left the Department for another role. This mailbox will remain open until a replacement is in post, and emails will be monitored from time to time. If, however, your query is urgent please contact Lani Tempest on Ext 62164 (01325 392164) or Sue Thomson on Ext 62168 (01325 381218). Thank you.

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Dear Sir or Madam,

I am still awaiting a response to this request and under the
Freedom of Information Guidelines I re-request an internal review

Yours faithfully,

S Tyler

Dear S Tyler,

FOI request 2009/0058529

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 26 June
2009. I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (the Act).

Before answering your request I should like to apologise for the delay in
replying. The Department is aware that it has missed the statutory
deadline for reply and is in breach of its obligations under the Act. I
very much regret this - the Department should meet its obligations under
the Act. While I appreciate that it is in no way a justification I should
like to explain that the Department makes every effort to meet deadlines,
but the delay in responding in this case has been due to the unusual
volume of requests the Department has received in recent months.
The Information Commissioner has been informed of the situation.

You requested:

the local authority evidence to support
the statement "the number of children known to children's social
care in some local authorities is disproportionately high relative
to the size of their home educating population" in paragraph 8.12
of The Report To The Secretary of State on The Review Of Elective
Home Education in England, by Graham Badman.

and

a breakdown of the reasons why these children
are known.

With regard to your first request, a copy of information that has already
been released to other FOI requesters is enclosed. Please note that this
information includes open and closed cases and has undergone limited
quality assurance and does not meet DCSF standards for publication of
statistical data. There is a calculation error in the fourth point of
this release. This has however been released because it is information
which the Department holds within scope of your request, and which does
not engage exemptions under the Act. I understand that the error does not
affect the overall findings at paragraph 8.12.

With regard to your first request, the Department holds other information
within scope of your request, but it is being withheld because the
following absolute exemptions under the Act apply to it:

Section 40. Having carefully reviewed the information in scope of your
request, the Department considers that the absolute exemption at section
40 of the Act is engaged because the some of information requested
constitutes personal data, disclosure of which would contravene the data
protection principles. Data are `personal data' if, taken with `other
information' they enable a living individual to whom the data relate to be
identified.

Section 41 (information provided in confidence) is engaged because this
information was imparted in circumstances whereby those providing it did
so in the expectation that it would remain confidential because of its
very nature. The Department therefore considers that disclosure of it to
the public would constitute an actionable breach of confidence.

In addition the following qualified exemption, requiring a public interest
test, is engaged:

Section 38(1)(a) and (b) this section 38 provides that information is
exempt if its disclosure under the Act would, or would be likely, to

(a) endanger the physical or mental health of any individual; or

(b) endanger the safety of any individual.

This exemption is subject to the public interest test which means that
even where prejudice or likely prejudice can be demonstrated, it is still
necessary to consider whether in all the circumstances of the case the
public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public
interest in disclosure. This exemption covers events that could reasonably
be expected but do not have to be definitely foreseeable.

The case for disclosure of information protected by this exemption rests
mainly on the desirability of greater openness for the purposes of
increasing public understanding and trust, and on encouraging greater
accountability.

Conversely, it is reasonable to expect that the release of any information
which might lead to the identification of individuals or families might
result in a deterrent effect to participation in, and co-operation with,
the appropriate safeguarding processes in the future, leading to increased
risk to vulnerable children. Under certain circumstances unlawful action
might be taken against those thought to be in some way culpable. Such
action could never be justified, nor would release of information leading
to identification or possibly to misidentification of individuals. The
most effective precaution which could be taken to prevent anticipated
danger to individuals lies in not disclosing information which could put
them at risk.

Having carried out the balancing test, the Department takes the view that
it is not in the public interest for the any of the further information to
be released.

With regard to your second request, a breakdown is attached. This
information has been subject to further quality assurance and includes
data from 27 authorities. Some authorities have not categorised their
cases. Only cases that were open at the time that the information was
requested are included.

The information supplied to you is protected by the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988. Any documents produced by government officials will be
covered by Crown Copyright. You are free to use the information for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder and is
regulated by the Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005. You
can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown Copyright at:

Office of Public Sector Information
Information Policy Team
Kew
Richmond
Surrey
TW9 4DU

Email: [1][email address]

Any information which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be
protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the
information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission
before reproducing such information.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner's Office.

Yours sincerely,

Jill Clark
Independent Schools
[email address]
[2]www.dcsf.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0058529.

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Dear Jill Clark

Thank you for finally replying to this Freedom of Information
request after 3 months.

Please could you advise from which documents your attachments have
been taken and supply copies of those documents.

In addition, please state how many, and which, local authorities
have a ‘disproportionately high (number of children known to
children’s social care) relative to the size of their home
educating population’.

Yours faithfully,

S Tyler

Dear Mr/Ms Tyler,

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible (where a response is required). For information, the
departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses
should be sent within 15 working days or 20 working days if you are
requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0082489

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Mr/Ms Tyler,
Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 29 September, following our reply
dated 28 September to case reference 2009/0058529. Before answering your request I should like to
apologise for the delay in replying. The Department is aware there has been a very considerable delay
and that it has missed the statutory deadline for reply and is in breach of its obligations under the
Act. As you may be aware, the Department experienced an unusual volume of requests last year about
home education. While I appreciate that it is in no way a justification I should like to explain
that the Department makes every effort to meet deadlines, but the delay in responding in this case has
been due to the volume of requests received. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay.

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, dealing with each of your
points in turn. You requested -

1. Please could you advise from which documents your attachments have
been taken and supply copies of those documents.

You may be aware that a number of documents have already been released on the disclosure log on the
Freedom of Information link on the front page of the Department's internet site
([1]http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/foischeme/ ). Under section 21 of the Act, the Department is not required to
provide information if it is already reasonably accessible to you. The documents already released on
the disclosure log include both documents from which the attachments included in our response, dated 28
September, have been derived. They are:

A working paper about safeguarding evidence (not quality assured for publication) from which paragraph
5 `known to social care' has been taken. As advised in our reply of 28 September, the working paper
includes a calculation error within paragraph 5. The working paper is available at

[2]http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/foischeme/subPage...

As advised to you in an earlier reply (2009/0070423), a second questionnarie was forwarded to 90 local
authorities. Question 1 of that document asks "What proportion of your current EHE caseload is known
to Social Care in the following capacities?' It is from this question that the breakdown of figures,
forwarded to you on 28 September has been collated. A copy of the second questionnaire has also been
placed on the disclosure log and is availabe at

[3]http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/foischeme/subPage...

The data from the questionnaires was aggregated for the working paper on safeguarding evidence
mentioned above. The actual document containing the raw data is being withheld under section 38 and 41
of the Act (full details given below) because of the relatively small number of children concerned and
the risk of identification.

2. In addition, please state how many, and which, local authorities
have a `disproportionately high (number of children known to
children's social care) relative to the size of their home
educating population'.

The Department holds information within scope of your request but it is being withheld because the
following exemptions apply to this information:

- Section 38

- Section 40

- Section 41

Section 38(1)(a) and (b), provides that information is exempt if its disclosure under the Act would, or
would be likely, to

(a) endanger the physical or mental health of any individual; or

(b) endanger the safety of any individual.

This exemption is subject to the public interest test which means that even where prejudice or likely
prejudice can be demonstrated, it is still necessary to consider whether in all the circumstances of
the case the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in
disclosure. This exemption covers events that could reasonably be expected but do not have to be
definitely foreseeable. In particular the Department considered:

. The circumstances of these cases suggest a strong likelihood of risk to the health and safety
of individuals from release of the information.

. The release of anonymised information could mislead individuals or the public at large.

. Through misunderstanding, there is a likely risk to the health and safety of individuals in no
way connected with the cases or the events considered.

. Perceived risk to the health and safety of those concerned, is likely to have a deterrent
effect on families registered at risk and may deter participation in and cooperation with the
appropriate safeguarding process, leading in the longer term to increased risk to vulnerable children.

The case for disclosure of information protected by this exemption rests mainly on the desirability of
greater openness for the purposes of increasing public understanding and trust, and on encouraging
greater accountability.

Conversely, it is reasonable to expect that the release of any information which might lead to the
identification of the families of those registered as at risk might result in a deterrent effect to
participation in, and co-operation with, the appropriate safeguarding processes in the future, leading
to increased risk to vulnerable children. It is also reasonable not to release information that may
lead to the identification or possibly to misidentification of individuals. The most effective
precaution which could be taken to prevent anticipated danger to individuals lies in not disclosing
information which could put them at risk.

Having carried out the public interest balancing test in respect of both of your questions, the
Department takes the view that it is not in the public interest for the information you have requested
to be released.

Section 40. Having carefully reviewed the information in scope of your request, the Department
considers that the absolute exemption at section 40 of the Act is engaged because some of information
requested constitutes personal data, disclosure of which would contravene the data protection
principles. Data are `personal data' if, taken with `other information', they enable a living
individual to whom the data relates to be identified

Section 41. The Department considers that section 41 of the Act applies to this information. Section
41 (information provided in confidence) is engaged because this information was imparted in
circumstances whereby those providing it did so in the expectation that it would remain confidential.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference
number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should make a complaint to the
Department by writing to me within two calendar months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will
be considered by an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original consideration of
your request.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the Department, you may then contact the
Information Commissioner's Office.
Yours sincerely,

Josephine Bell
Independent Education and School Governance
[email address]
[4]www.dcsf.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0082489.

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References

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2. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/foischeme/subPage...
3. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/foischeme/subPage...
4. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/