Home education and abuse - statistics

Dear Sir/Madam

REF NO: 1288.1.1

Thank you for your recent enquiry, received on 29th March 2009. I can
confirm that your enquiry is receiving attention and a response will be
provided within 20 working days following receipt of your enquiry as
allowed under the Freedom of Information Act legislation.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, I will
let you know the likely charges before proceeding.

Please do not hesitate to contact me direct on (01642) 729696/729698 or
email foi@middlesbrough. gov.uk should you require any further advice or
assistance with this or any other matter.

Yours sincerely

Janette Anderson
Freedom Of Information Officer

show quoted sections

Dear Sir/Madam

REF NO: 1288.1.1

I am writing regarding your request for information, which I received on
29th March 2009. In that request, you asked us for:

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.

Middlesbrough Council is unable to proceed with your request without
clarification of the information you wish to receive in relation to
question B. To help us do so, we would like to know whether you are
referring to ALL home educated children or to elected home education only?

Please note that if we do not receive appropriate clarification of your
information requirements within three months from the date of this letter,
then Middlesbrough Council will consider your request closed.

Please do not hesitate to contact me direct on (01642) 729696/729698 or
email foi@middlesbrough. gov.uk should you require any further advice or
assistance with this or any other matter.

Yours sincerely

Janette Anderson
Freedom of Information Officer

show quoted sections

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your response. I will pass on this information to the
service area dealing with your request.

Regards
Janette Anderson

C Murton To [Middlesbrough Council request email]
<[FOI #9933 email]> cc
Subject Re: Freedom of
07/04/2009 14:44 Information request -
Home education and abuse
- statistics

Dear Sir or Madam,

My interest in in electively home educated children only. Thank
you.

Yours sincerely,

C Murton

show quoted sections

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your email requesting an update on progress. I can confirm
that your initial clarification email was received on 7th April and
therefore we are allowed 20 working days from receipt of this email to
respond to your request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The information you have requested is in the process of being looked at
and the target date for response is the 7th May.

Regards
Janette Anderson
Freedom of Information Officer

C Murton To [Middlesbrough Council request email]
<[FOI #9933 email]> cc
Subject Re: Freedom of
04/05/2009 14:14 Information request -
Home education and abuse
- statistics

Dear Sir or Madam,

The time allowed for completing my request is no over. Please would
you investigate the delay.

Yours sincerely,

C Murton

show quoted sections

Dear Sir/Madam

REF NO: 1288.1.
I am writing to confirm that Middlesbrough Council has now completed its
search for the information you requested on 29th March 2009.

In your request you asked for the following information:

QA. 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: Middlesbrough Council does not hold the information you
requested. The information you requested above are criminal acts and as
such the information is held by
Cleveland Police.

If you want to contact them directly you can write to the following
address:

Freedom of Information Office
Professional Standards Department
Cleveland Police HQ
P.O. Box 70
Ladgate Lane
Middlesbrough
TS8 9EH

or alternatively email [1][email address].

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

Response: None

If you have any queries about this letter, please do not hesitate to
contact me direct on (01642) 729696/729698 or email
[Middlesbrough Council request email]. Please remember to quote the reference number
shown above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled you may ask
for an internal review. You should write to:-

Chris Davies,
Corporate Complaints Manager,
PO Box 99A,
Town Hall,
Middlesbrough,
TS1 2QQ.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for an
independent review. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: -
Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely

Steph Robson
Freedom of Information Officer

Members Office
P.O. Box 99A
Town Hall
Middlesbrough
TS1 2QQ

Tel. 01642 729696

FAX. 01642 729882
Email: [Middlesbrough Council request email]

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Mr Murton

Thank you for your further email received on 8th May, following receipt of
the response to your Freedom of Information request.

I will start by addressing the first point in your email. Prior to
starting any search for information requested via a Freedom of Information
request it is necessary to obtain full details/facts of the information
being requested. If this is not clear in the initial request, we will
contact the requester to obtain further clarification prior to the request
being progressed. This is why we wrote to you on 7th April. You
responded on 7th April with further information and we then proceeded to
search for the information you requested.

Following a search for the requested information following receipt of your
clarification, it became apparent that we do not hold the information. I
have provided a link below to the local authority guidelines issued by
DCSF in relation to Elective Home Education.

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/localauthorities/...

The following explanation may help you to understand why we don't hold the
requested information.

Parents may decide to exercise their right to home educate their child
from a very early age and so the child may not have been previously
enrolled at school. They may also elect to home educate at any other stage
up to the end of compulsory school age. Parents are not required to
register or seek approval from the local authority to educate their
children at home.

Whilst local authorities are notified by schools of pupils that have been
withdrawn from school, the reasons for this are not provided. The Local
authority would act upon receiving such information from schools by
contacting the parent(s) to try to arrange a meeting/home visit to discuss
the matter with a view to establishing whether or not a suitable
alternative home education is being provided. Unfortunately under the
current guidelines, parents are under no obligation to agree to a meeting
or to give a reason why they wish their child to receive home education.

Once a local authority Achievement Service receives notification from a
school that a child has been withdrawn, checks would be carried out with
various other agencies such as Police, the local authority Intervention
and Safeguarding Service etc. to find out if the family/child are known
for any reason that should cause a concern. At this point if a child is
known by another agency, a decision would be taken by the local authority
as to whether the case should be referred to the appropriate organisation
e.g. Police, the local authority Intervention and Safeguarding Service
etc for investigation. Any referral would be logged on an individual's
file however, the case would be managed solely by another organisation or
a joint working approach may be adopted between relevant agencies. If a
case is referred to another organisation for investigation, the local
authority Achievement Service would have no further involvement other
than to determine whether the parent is providing an alternative suitable
home education for the child. To make it clear, at no time would any
criminal proceedings or details of the nature you refer to, be recorded in
the local authority Elective Home Education system other than to confirm
that the child/family are known to another organisation e.g.
Police/Intervention and Safeguarding Service and whether the case has been
referred accordingly. These procedures have been put in place since the
Serious Case Reviews that have been publicised during 2008 and to date no
concerns have been raised by other agencies in relation to the
safeguarding of children who parents have elected to home educate. Prior
to this no other relevant records were kept by the local authority.

It is therefore not possible for the local authority to provide
information on the number of suspected cases linked to home education
relating to the issues you requested (child abuse, neglect, forced
marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude), due to the fact that
the reason for elective home schooling is not always determined and due to
the fact that we do not hold such detailed information on record.

Finally I refer to the last paragraph of your email concerning Baroness
Delyth Morgan. The Freedom of Information Act only applies to information
held, I therefore cannot comment on what Baroness Delyth based her
views/findings on.

If you are not content with the response provided, you have the right to
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for an independent review.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: -
Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely

Janette Anderson
Freedom of Information Officer

Members Office
P.O. Box 99A
Town Hall
Middlesbrough
TS1 2QQ

Tel. 01642 729696

FAX. 01642 729882
Email: [Middlesbrough Council request email]

All intellectual property rights are reserved. Trademarks, brand names,
company names, and logos are the property of Middlesbrough Council, or of
their respective owners. Reproduction, alterations, modification,
distribution, or re-publication in any format, without prior written
permission from the property owner is forbidden.

The Council's copyright and other intellectual property rights are
protected by UK laws and by international treaties.

show quoted sections