Home Education and abuse - statistics

Dear M Stafford,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

We are writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 29^th March
2009, in which you request the disclosure of information under the
provisions of the above Act.

We have begun a search for the information you require. Should we envisage
any delays, or require more details from you, we will contact you
immediately.

In the meantime, if you have any queries about the above, please do not
hesitate to contact us, quoting ref. RFI 235/2009.

Yours sincerely,

On behalf of the Freedom of Information Team

Freedom of Information | Access to Information Team

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall,

Preston, PR1 8XJ

Tel: 01772 531116 | Fax: 01772 530949

show quoted sections

Lancashire, a place where everyone matters

********************

Dear Sir or Madam,

We are writing further to our email of 30th March, regarding your request for information, as it has become apparent that we require clarification.

Please could you confirm that the information in which you are interested applies to those children who are currently home educated only?

Yours faithfully,

On behalf of the Freedom of Information Team

Freedom of Information | Access to Information Team

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall,

Preston, PR1 8XJ

Tel: 01772 531116 | Fax: 01772 530949

show quoted sections

Lancashire, a place where everyone matters
********************

Dear Sir or Madam,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Further to your email, dated 29^th March, in which you request the
disclosure of information under the provisions of the above Act, we are
now in a position to respond.

1.  The number of persons in the local authority of compulsory school age
who are, or claimed to be, electively home educated and who have been
either suspected or found to be involved in child abuse, neglect, forced
marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.

There are no known cases of child protection concern in respect of
electively home educated (EHE) children.

If the Elective Home Education Service had any suspicions of child
protection concern regarding a particular child, the case would be
referred to the Integrated Assessment & Support Team, whereupon an
investigation would be conducted.  However, the County Council's Social
Services casework database does not have a resource code for EHE children,
and the Elective Home Education Service does not keep a record of any such
referrals.  As such, the only way to ascertain how many referrals to
Social Services of EHE children had been made due to suspicions of child
protection concern would be a manual social services record check against
all EHE children from the last 3 years.  This would require a manual
search and cross-referencing of many hundreds of individuals' details and
records, across several social services offices throughout the County,
plus interrogation of the casework database; this would be an extremely
time-consuming exercise that would incur a commitment of resources in
excess of the limit of £450 set by the Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI No. 3244 of
2004), which equates to 18 hours of work. Section 12(1) of the Freedom of
Information Act provides that a public authority is not obliged to comply
with a request where to do so would exceed such a limit.  Even such a
search of EHE children from the last academic year alone would exceed this
limit;  as such, it is difficult to suggest a way in which the scope of
your request can be reduced without rendering any results effectively
meaningless.  We could perform checks against a random selection of a
percentage of EHE children, but this is unlikely to yield any meaningful
information.

2.  How many (if any) Serious Case Reviews or Joint Area Reviews have
reported with respect to home educated children in the LA?

There are no such cases

We are sorry that we have been unable to assist further, but trust you
understand the reasons outlined above.  In the event that you wish to
complain about the manner in which your enquiry has been handled, you
should write in the first instance to The Freedom of Information Officer,
Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall, Preston PR1 8XJ, or
email [1][Lancashire County Council request email]

If, after this stage, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer
the matter to the Information Commissioner, whose contact details are as
follows:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700

Email: [2][email address]

Website: [3]http://www.ico.gov.uk

If you have any queries regarding our response, or you require any
additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

Preston

PR1 8XJ

Tel: (01772) 531116

Fax: (01772) 530949

Email: [4][Lancashire County Council request email]

show quoted sections

Lancashire, a place where everyone matters

********************

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
4. mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]