Dear Sir or Madam,

I wish to see the evidence Mr. Graham Badman used for his assertion
in the Review of Elective Home Education, Recommendation 21,
paragraph 8:12, that;

"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."

I would like you to supply me with the full national statistical
evidence used by Mr. Graham Badman, which gives numerical details
of those children known to social services and details their
educational setting. I wish also to have sight of the figures
detailing how many of those children who are home educated and
known to social services, are children with special educational
needs. I also wish to have details of which social services teams
constitute 'children's social care' as used by Mr Graham Badman in
the above quote and to which of these teams the children indicated
in this quote, who are home educated and known to social services,
are in fact known.

Furthermore I wish to have the details of those actual Local
Authorities who supplied the "disproportionately high" evidence
which Mr Graham Badman refers to.

Yours faithfully,

K Maxwell

Dear Mr/Ms Maxwell,

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 2009/0058447

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk

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Dear Mr/Ms Maxwell,
Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 26 June
2009. Your request was as follows:

I wish to see the evidence Mr. Graham Badman used for his assertion
in the Review of Elective Home Education, Recommendation 21,
paragraph 8:12, that;

"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."

I would like you to supply me with the full national statistical
evidence used by Mr. Graham Badman, which gives numerical details
of those children known to social services and details their
educational setting. I wish also to have sight of the figures
detailing how many of those children who are home educated and
known to social services, are children with special educational
needs. I also wish to have details of which social services teams
constitute 'children's social care' as used by Mr Graham Badman in
the above quote and to which of these teams the children indicated
in this quote, who are home educated and known to social services,
are in fact known.

Furthermore I wish to have the details of those actual Local
Authorities who supplied the "disproportionately high" evidence
which Mr Graham Badman refers to.

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
("the Act").

A copy of the information which can be disclosed in response to your
request is enclosed in the Annex.

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]

The Department holds some further 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 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. 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 information to be
released.

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,

Sue Thomson
Independent Schools
[2]www.dcsf.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0058447.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/

Dear Sue Thomson,

Re:reference number 2009/0058447.

Thank you for your response to my request.

Initially I wish to seek clarification. The letter states that
information for disclosure is enclosed within the Annex. I cannot
see where I am able to access the annex, please advise.

If it is the case that all the information is not able to be
disclosed due to the three sections of the FOI Act that you quote,
I will seek further clarification regarding this once I hear back
from you about access to the Annex.

Yours sincerely,

K Maxwell

Dear Mr Maxwell

Thank you for your email of 22 July. I am sorry to hear you have not
been able to see the information for disclosure.

I have checked my reply and the annex is attached and opens. I am not
sure how you see the reply, so have attached the annex as a word
document.

Yours sincerely

Sue Thomson
Independent Schools Partnerships Strategy Team

I

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