Independent Psychological Assessments in Care Proceedings

Dear Miss Griffiths

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom Of Information Act 2000, of which we acknowledge receipt.

Your request has been passed to the appropriate officer to provide a response as soon as possible, and in any event within 20 working days, as required by the Act.

Kind regards

Miriam Townsend, for

Data Management Officer
North Yorkshire County Council
01609 533219 [email address]

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk.

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North Yorkshire County Council.

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
at [1]www.northyorks.gov.uk.

WARNING

Any opinions or statements expressed in this e-mail are those of the
individual and not necessarily those of North Yorkshire County Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely
for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this in error,
please do not disclose any information to anyone, notify the sender at the
above address and then destroy all copies.

North Yorkshire County Council*s computer systems and communications may
be monitored to ensure effective operation of the system and for other
lawful purposes. All GCSX traffic may be subject to recording and/or
monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Although we have endeavoured to ensure that this e-mail and any
attachments are free from any virus we would advise you to take any
necessary steps to ensure that they are actually virus free.

If you receive an automatic response stating that the recipient is away
from the office and you wish to request information under either the
Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Environmental
Information Regulations please forward your request by e-mail to the Data
Management Team ([2][North Yorkshire County Council request email]) who will
process your request.

North Yorkshire County Council.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/
2. mailto:[North Yorkshire County Council request email]

Dear Miss Griffiths

Thank you for your response. In our response to you we explained that
whilst we would be unable to provide the information you requested, from
2000 to present, within the time limit prescribed by the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, we would be able to provide the information from
2005 to present.

Can I clarify whether you would like us to process your request in this
way and provide the information from 2005 to present or whether instead
you are asking for the Council to review its response to your request?

Kind regards,

Isabel Esteves
Education & Employment Lawyer

For Assistant Chief Executive (Legal & Democratic Services)

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30/10/2009 21:50 >>>
Dear Isabel Esteves,

I do not accept your respone to my FOIA Request, and suggest that
NYCC is purposefully being obstructive in providing such
information.

Please reconsider my request for the information re Ms Pecherek
or
I shall refer the matter to the Information Commissioners Office.

Yours sincerely,

Miss A. Griffiths

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Dear Miss Griffiths

I am writing further to my email dated 2 November 2009 requesting that you clarified whether you were content for North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) to provide the information you requested, from 2005 to present or whether you would like NYCC to consider your request under the internal review procedure.

I note that we have not yet received a response.

I would be grateful if you let us know what you would like NYCC to do in relation to your request.

Yours sincerely

Isabel Esteves

Lawyer - Corporate Governance
01609 53 2037

For Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services)

CONFIDENTIALITY WARNING

This email (and any document(s) attached to it) contains information from North Yorkshire Legal Services which is confidential or privileged, and is intended solely for the use of the person named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this email is strictly prohibited.

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk.

WARNING

Any opinions or statements expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily those of North Yorkshire County Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this in error, please do not disclose any information to anyone, notify the sender at the above address and then destroy all copies.

North Yorkshire County Council’s computer systems and communications may be monitored to ensure effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. All GCSX traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Although we have endeavoured to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are free from any virus we would advise you to take any necessary steps to ensure that they are actually virus free.

If you receive an automatic response stating that the recipient is away from the office and you wish to request information under either the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Environmental Information Regulations please forward your request by e-mail to the Data Management Team ([North Yorkshire County Council request email]) who will process your request.

North Yorkshire County Council.

Dear Miss Griffiths

Thank you for your clarification of request number N0403, which was received today, which will enable us to collate a reply for you. Please note that your request for the hourly rate charged by Ms Pecherek has been registered as a new request, and has been given the reference number N0660. Your new request has been passed to the appropriate officer to provide a response as soon as possible, and in any event within 20 working days, as required by the Act.

Kind regards

Miriam Townsend, for

Data Management Officer
North Yorkshire County Council
01609 533219 [email address]

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk.

WARNING

Any opinions or statements expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily those of North Yorkshire County Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this in error, please do not disclose any information to anyone, notify the sender at the above address and then destroy all copies.

North Yorkshire County Council’s computer systems and communications may be monitored to ensure effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. All GCSX traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Although we have endeavoured to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are free from any virus we would advise you to take any necessary steps to ensure that they are actually virus free.

If you receive an automatic response stating that the recipient is away from the office and you wish to request information under either the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Environmental Information Regulations please forward your request by e-mail to the Data Management Team ([North Yorkshire County Council request email]) who will process your request.

North Yorkshire County Council.

Dear Ms Griffiths

Further to your email dated 10 December 2009, confirming that you would
like North Yorkshire County Council to provide the information you
requested on 19 October 2009, from 2005 to the present time, I note that
you had asked the following information:

1. How many care proceedings cases involved a psychological
assessment with Ms Andrea Pecherek, psychologist?

2. Of the above cases how many children were recommended to be
returned to the care of their birth parents by Ms Pecherek?

3. How many care plans were amended to included Ms Pechereks
recommendations for reunification?

4. How many children were actually rehabilitated to the care of
their birth parents following Ms Pecherek’s recommendations?

5. Of the above cases how many children were recommended to be
placed with family & friends foster carers by Ms Pecherek?

6. Of the above cases how many children were recommended for
Special Guardianship Orders by Ms Andrea Pecherek?

7. Of the above cases how many children were recommended to be
placed in long-term foster care by Ms Pecherek?

8. Of the above cases how many children were recommended to be
freed for adoption by Ms Pecherek?

9. Of the above assessments how many mothers were said to have
Borderline Personality Disorder (Emotionally Unstable Personality
Disorder: Borderline Type) in Ms Pecherek's reports?

10. How many mothers with a diagnosis of Borderline Personality
Disorder did Ms Pecherek recommend treatment/therapy but state it would
be outside the timescales of the child (ren) in her reports?

11. In how many of the above cases did NYCC knowingly provide Ms
Pecherek with inaccurate information about the family/child
(ren)/parent?

12. How many of Ms Pecherek's reports were amended to include/omit
specific information at the request of NYCC?

The answers to the above questions are as follows:

1. We estimate there have been about 60 cases since 2000. The large
amount of work involved in searching all of the files would bring the
cost of answering the request over the amount to which we are legally
required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the
information exceeds the 'appropriate level' as stated in the Freedom Of
Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. I enclose a
copy of our charging regime, and our appeals process. In the time
available to us, however, we have been able to review the files from
2005 (22 files), and the following information is based on those 22
files only.

2. 8 cases, including one where this was conditional upon the
parent undertaking certain work first.

3. In 7 cases, final care plans followed Ms Pecherek’s
recommendation for return.

4. This happened in 4 of the cases referred to in question 3.

5. This happened in 4 of the relevant cases.

6. None.

7. This happened in 5 cases.

8. This happened in one case (including Placement Orders, which
replaced freeing in 2005).

9. This happened in one case.

10. None.

11. We cannot answer this question without going through the
entirety of the legal and social work files and interviewing anyone from
the local authority who had dealings with Ms Pecherek to ascertain
whether there were any unrecorded discussions. The large amount of work
involved would bring the cost of answering the request over the amount
to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating
and retrieving the information exceeds the 'appropriate level' as stated
in the Freedom Of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations
2004. Please see the enclosed copy of our charging regime. Further, NYCC
does not have a policy of providing inaccurate information.

12. Again, we cannot answer this question without going through the
entirety of the legal and social work files and interviewing anyone from
the local authority who had dealings with Ms Pecherek to ascertain
whether there were any unrecorded discussions. The la
rge amount of work
involved would bring the cost of answering the request over the amount
to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating
and retrieving the information exceeds the 'appropriate level' as stated
in the Freedom Of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations
2004. Please see the enclosed copy of our charging regime.

Yours sincerely
Isabel Esteves

Lawyer - Corporate Governance
01609 53 20 37

For Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services)

CONFIDENTIALITY WARNING

This email (and any document(s) attached to it) contains information
from North Yorkshire Legal Services which is confidential or privileged,
and is intended solely for the use of the person named above. If you
are not the intended recipient, please be aware that any disclosure,
copying, distribution or use of the contents of this email is strictly
prohibited.

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk.

WARNING

Any opinions or statements expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily those of North Yorkshire County Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this in error, please do not disclose any information to anyone, notify the sender at the above address and then destroy all copies.

North Yorkshire County Council’s computer systems and communications may be monitored to ensure effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. All GCSX traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Although we have endeavoured to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are free from any virus we would advise you to take any necessary steps to ensure that they are actually virus free.

If you receive an automatic response stating that the recipient is away from the office and you wish to request information under either the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Environmental Information Regulations please forward your request by e-mail to the Data Management Team ([North Yorkshire County Council request email]) who will process your request.

North Yorkshire County Council.

Dear Ms Griffiths

I write in connection with your freedom of information request
submitted on 10 December 2009. I note you seek to know Ms Pecherek’s
hourly rates since 2005.

I can confirm that Ms Pecherek’s hourly rate since 2005 has been
£100.

Yours sincerely
Isabel Esteves

Lawyer
For Assistant Chief Executive (Legal & Democratic Services)

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk.

WARNING

Any opinions or statements expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily those of North Yorkshire County Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this in error, please do not disclose any information to anyone, notify the sender at the above address and then destroy all copies.

North Yorkshire County Council’s computer systems and communications may be monitored to ensure effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. All GCSX traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Although we have endeavoured to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are free from any virus we would advise you to take any necessary steps to ensure that they are actually virus free.

If you receive an automatic response stating that the recipient is away from the office and you wish to request information under either the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Environmental Information Regulations please forward your request by e-mail to the Data Management Team ([North Yorkshire County Council request email]) who will process your request.

North Yorkshire County Council.

Dear Miss Griffiths

Thank you for your email of 9 April. We have not treated your email as
a request for an internal review. The purpose of an internal review in
the context of Freedom of Information is to review how a request was
processed and whether the Council complied with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 in its response to a request but I understand
from
your email that you are in fact seeking an explanation of the expert
witness fees. The Council has provided this explanation accordingly
below.

The expert witness fees are set by the expert witness or their
employer
at the commercial rate. Expert witnesses are instructed jointly by the
parties and it is usually the Solicitor representing the child who
takes
the lead in instructing and negotiating the fees with the expert
witness. The overall level of fees are reviewed by the court at the
end
of the case and the Court can decide to reduce them if they believe it
to be appropriate.

I hope this satisfies your enquiry however if you have any further
queries please do not hesitate to contact us

Yours sincerely

Louise Jackson, for

Data Management Officer
North Yorkshire County Council
01609 533219 [email address]

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09/04/2010 16:26 >>>
Dear DataManagement Officer,

I would like an Internal Review of this matter and request to be
provided with information as to why an Independent Expert Witness
is paid £100 per hour when the Expert Witness fees are agreed to
be
split from the parents and children's legal funding in court.
This
is a matter of grave concern.

Please justify the appropriateness of the costs and payments.

Yours sincerely,

Miss A. Griffiths

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