home education and abuse - statistics

C Murton made this Freedom of Information request to Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

The request was successful.

From: C Murton

27 March 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to know:

A. 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.

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

C Murton

Link to this

From: C Murton

29 April 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

your legal time-frame is now expired - please provide the
information I requested stat

Yours sincerely,

C Murton

Link to this

From: DemocraticServices
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

30 April 2009

Thank you for your email of the 29th April 2009 regarding the above.

Unfortunately I have been unable to trace your original request and should be grateful, therefore, if you could forward me another copy. I will ensure that a response is provided as soon as possible.

Alternatively, if you are able to let me have details of our FOI Database reference number that would have been supplied with our acknowledgement, this will assist me in tracing you original letter/email.

I apologise that you have not had a response to date and for the fact that your request appears to be "out of time" but I will endeavour to ensure that a speedy response is provided if you are able to let me have the information requested.

Regards

William Ward
Democratic Services Manager
Tel: 01226 773451

[email address]

Please consider the environment

Do you really need to print this email?

show quoted sections

Link to this

From: C Murton

1 May 2009

Dear DemocraticServices,

I would like to know:

A. 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 suspected to be involved in child
abuse, neglect, forced marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic
servitude.

B) 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 found to be involved in child
abuse, neglect, forced marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic
servitude.

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

Please respond promptly as my request was over 20 working days ago.

Yours sincerely,

C Murton

Link to this

From: C Murton

23 June 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please respond to this request immediately as it is very much
overdue.

Yours sincerely,

C Murton

Link to this

From: Wilson , Jane (Borough Sec)
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

24 June 2009

Dear C Murton

Further to your e-mail request of 23/6/09 and your previous correspondence
with William Ward, I am afraid that I am unable to provide a response to
your request as we have never received the original request. If you would
forward a copy of your original request, arrangements will be made to
respond to your request.

I apologise for the delay, but there does not appear to be any trace of
your request ever having been received by Barnsley MBC.

Yours sincerely

Jane Wilson

Business Support Manager

Borough Secretary's Department

Legal Services

PO Box 600

Westgate Plaza One

S70 9EZ

Tel 01226 773051

E-mail [email address]. uk

*** Barnsley MBC Disclaimer:
This e-mail and any files attached are confidential for the use of the
intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error please
notify the sender as soon as possible and delete the communication from
your system without copying, disseminating or distributing the same in any
way by any means.

Any views or opinions expressed belong solely to the author and do not
necessarily represent those of the Council. In particular, the Council
will not accept liability for any defamatory statements made by email
communications.
Recipients are responsible for ensuring that all e-mails and files sent
are checked for viruses. The Council will not accept liability for damage
caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail. No guarantees are offered
on the security, content and accuracy of any e-mails and files received.
Be aware that this e-mail communication may be intercepted for regulatory,
quality control, or crime detection purposes unless otherwise prohibited.
The content of this email and any attachment may be stored for future
reference.

Link to this

From: C Murton

24 June 2009

Dear Wilson , Jane (Borough Sec),

William Ward replied to my request on 30 April
" DemocraticServices
Barnsley Borough Council

30 April 2009

Thank you for your email of the 29th April 2009 regarding the
above.

Unfortunately I have been unable to trace your original request and
should be grateful, therefore, if you could forward me another
copy. I will ensure that a response is provided as soon as
possible.

Alternatively, if you are able to let me have details of our FOI
Database reference number that would have been supplied with our
acknowledgement, this will assist me in tracing you original
letter/email.

I apologise that you have not had a response to date and for the
fact that your request appears to be "out of time" but I will
endeavour to ensure that a speedy response is provided if you are
able to let me have the information requested.

Regards

William Ward
Democratic Services Manager
Tel: 01226 773451"

I replied
"Dear DemocraticServices,

I would like to know:

A. 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 suspected to be involved in child abuse, neglect,
forced marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.

B) 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 found to be involved in child abuse, neglect, forced
marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.

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

Please respond promptly as my request was over 20 working days ago.

Yours sincerely,

C Murton"

I do not accept you excuse.
Please visit the What do they know web site and search your council
for requests from C Murton or about home education and abuse.

I am now very impatient and expect a response supplying the
information in my original request by return.

I will also take this opportunity to circumvent your next delaying
tactic by clarifying that I want to know separate stats for each
abuse and each "suspected" or "found" case.

You must be aware that Baroness Delyth Morgan abused all home
educators by suggesting that they are a risk to their children and
that Mr Balls and Mr badman have reiterated this (to date) myth. I
am simply trying to properly research the FACTS to know if this is
myth or fact. Your duty is to provide the information I request in
order to assist me in that endeavour and I hope you will respond
accordingly without further delay.

Yours sincerely,

C Murton

Link to this

Tania Berlow left an annotation ( 5 August 2009)

? put it in again? or raise to internal review??

Link to this

From: C Murton

6 August 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Barnsley Borough
Council's handling of my FOI request 'home education and abuse -
statistics'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ho...

Yours faithfully,

C Murton

Link to this

From: Wilson , Jane (Borough Sec)
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

11 August 2009

Attachment FW Internal review of Freedom of Information request home education and abuse statistics.txt
1K Download View as HTML

Dear C Murton

I am in receipt of your request for an internal review of your freedon of
information request. I do apologise for the lack of response to your
original request, but as you will see from my e-mail to you of 24 June
below, your original request has not been received by the Council. Could
you please let me know to which e-mail address and on what date your
original request was sent so that I may investigate the matter thoroughly.

Could you please forward a copy of your original request to my e-mail
address [1][email address] so that I can set the wheels in
motion for your request to be answered.

Once again I apologise for any inconvenience caused and look forward to
receiving your e-mail in the near future.

Jane Wilson

Business Support Manager

From: Wilson , Jane (Borough Sec)
Sent: 24 June 2009 13:21
To: '[FOI #9829 email]'
Cc: Ward , William
Subject: FOI Home education and abuse

Dear C Murton

Further to your e-mail request of 23/6/09 and your previous correspondence
with William Ward, I am afraid that I am unable to provide a response to
your request as we have never received the original request. If you would
forward a copy of your original request, arrangements will be made to
respond to your request.

I apologise for the delay, but there does not appear to be any trace of
your request ever having been received by Barnsley MBC.

Yours sincerely

Jane Wilson

Business Support Manager

Borough Secretary's Department

Legal Services

PO Box 600

Westgate Plaza One

S70 9EZ

Tel 01226 773051

E-mail [email address]. uk

*** Barnsley MBC Disclaimer:
This e-mail and any files attached are confidential for the use of the
intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error please
notify the sender as soon as possible and delete the communication from
your system without copying, disseminating or distributing the same in any
way by any means.

Any views or opinions expressed belong solely to the author and do not
necessarily represent those of the Council. In particular, the Council
will not accept liability for any defamatory statements made by email
communications.
Recipients are responsible for ensuring that all e-mails and files sent
are checked for viruses. The Council will not accept liability for damage
caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail. No guarantees are offered
on the security, content and accuracy of any e-mails and files received.
Be aware that this e-mail communication may be intercepted for regulatory,
quality control, or crime detection purposes unless otherwise prohibited.
The content of this email and any attachment may be stored for future
reference.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Link to this

Francis Irving left an annotation (12 August 2009)

I've emailed the authority with the address we sent the original request to, and the email server logs to show it was delivered to the authority.

They should hopefully now send their response!

Link to this

C Murton left an annotation (12 August 2009)

Thank you Francis,

I have contacted local Councillors on a few of those councils which have not replied to me on similar requests to this one - it's a bit of a hard slog getting info from some of them!

It's ironic that these people who are trying to hide their information behind all sorts of evasion methods such as ignoring requests or invoking exclusions, are the very folk who are calling to intrude in the private family homes of home educators, and to interview children out of sight of their parents - all under the banner of "if you've got nothing to hide why not let us in" - yet home educating families are private places with private provision that should be left alone unless a crime is reasonably suspected and LAs are public servants who should be transparent and open at all times.

This web site is a fantastic service to ordinary people who have a right to know what public servants are doing with our money and in our names :-)

Link to this

From: Wilson , Jane (Borough Sec)
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

13 August 2009

Attachment Scan from a Xerox WorkCentre.txt
0K Download View as HTML

Attachment DOC001.PDF.pdf
13K Download View as HTML

Dear C Murton

Please find attached an acknowledgement for your FOI request

thanks

Jane Wilson

Business Support Manager

Borough Secretary's Department

Legal Services

PO Box 600

Westgate Plaza One

S70 9EZ

Tel 01226 773051

E-mail [email address]. uk

*** Barnsley MBC Disclaimer:
This e-mail and any files attached are confidential for the use of the
intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error please
notify the sender as soon as possible and delete the communication from
your system without copying, disseminating or distributing the same in any
way by any means.

Any views or opinions expressed belong solely to the author and do not
necessarily represent those of the Council. In particular, the Council
will not accept liability for any defamatory statements made by email
communications.
Recipients are responsible for ensuring that all e-mails and files sent
are checked for viruses. The Council will not accept liability for damage
caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail. No guarantees are offered
on the security, content and accuracy of any e-mails and files received.
Be aware that this e-mail communication may be intercepted for regulatory,
quality control, or crime detection purposes unless otherwise prohibited.
The content of this email and any attachment may be stored for future
reference.

Link to this

From: C Murton

26 August 2009

Dear Wilson , Jane (Borough Sec),

Thank you for at last acknowledging receipt of my request. Given
that you actually received it wel before August please would you
ensure a speedier reply than by September 9th.

Yours sincerely,

C Murton

Link to this

M Stafford left an annotation (27 August 2009)

This is absolutely shocking, they should be sacked for incompetence if not for downright obstruction of the law.

Link to this

From: Nock , Louise
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

28 August 2009

Attachment FOI request 1211 home education and abuse.html
4K Download

Attachment Scan from a Xerox WorkCentre.txt
0K Download View as HTML

Attachment DOC001.PDF.pdf
13K Download View as HTML

Dear C Murton

Thank you for your enquiry and apologies for the delay in responding to
your request for information on electively home educated children.

I can confirm the following responses:

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

Response: There are no (zero) children in this category

How many (if any) Serious Case Reviews or Joint Area Reviews have reported
with respect to home educated children in the LA.
Response: There are no (zero) serious case reviews

Regards

Louise Nock
Head of Business Commissioning & Impact Analysis
Directorate for Children, Young People & Families
Barnsley MBC
Berneslai Close
Barnsley, S70 2HS

show quoted sections

Link to this

From: C Murton

1 September 2009

Dear Nock , Louise,

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

C Murton

Link to this

Things to do with this request

Anyone:
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council only: