looked after children

Dear Ms Wileman

REF NO: 1494.1

Thank you for your recent enquiry, received on 01/10/09. We 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

Ian Johnson
Records Management Officer

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Dear Ms Wileman

REF NO: 1494.1.
I am writing to confirm that Middlesbrough Council has now completed its
search for the information you requested on 1 October 2009. Please accept
my apologies for the delay in responding to your request.

In your request you asked for the following information:

Under the freedom of information act I would like to know numerical
statistics in order by year during the period of 1998 to 2008 (or as far
back as you can go without charging me) for the following;

1) how many children were taken into local authority care on interim care
orders and emergency protection orders under the catagory of emotional
harm during the above period ? i do not wish you to include any children
for any other catagories of harm/abuse.

2) Out of these children who were taken into care for emotional harm how
many of them were specifically for domestic violence between their
parents? again i do not wish you to include children who had violence
directed at them as that would fall into a different catagory being
physical abuse.

3) Out of these children who were put into care for domestic violence how
many were returned to family or extended family ?

4) Out of these how many children were put on full care orders?

5) of the children put on full care orders how many were adopted during
these periods.
Response:

Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act the Authority has the
right to refuse an a applicant, information held if the cost of complying
with the request exceeds an 'appropriate limit'. The appropriate limit
set for Local Authorities is *450 as indicated by the Lord Chancellor.
This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in
determining whether the Authority holds the information, and locating,
retrieving and extracting the information.

Children, Families and Learning Department have advised that your request
involves a considerable amount of work which will cost more than the
appropriate limit to consider, therefore the authority is not obliged to
comply with your request and we will not be processing your request
further.

The reason for this refusal is that the information requested would
involve a considerable amount of work which will cost more than the
appropriate limit to consider. I can confirm the council holds the
information you requested on the numbers and nature of care orders but
cannot identify emotional abuse or domestic violence as a reason for a
child being taken into care. To provide this information would mean
collating a list of children who became looked after for the period
requested. Each child's Social Worker would then need to go through
archived files as well as open files to locate, retrieve and extract the
information.

If you have any queries about this letter, please do not hesitate to
contact me direct on (01642) 729696 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]

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