looked after children

Dear Ms Wileman

Thank you for your email regarding a request made under the Freedom of
Information Act. I have now passed your request to the approrpiate
officer in the department and you will receive a response to your
questions in due course.

Should you not be happy with the information that is supplied you have the
right to complain. You may make a complaint direct to the department's
Complaints Manager, Mrs Maggie McDonald, telephone 01225 713679 or email
[1][email address]; or alternatively you can contact the
Information Commissioner. I have attached a copy of Wiltshire Council's
complaints procedure together with a copy of the Information
Commissioner's leaflet.

Yours sincerely

Matthew Edwards
Complaints Officer &
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
Department for Children and Education
Wiltshire Council
County Hall
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
BA14 8JN

01225 713678
[2][email address]

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1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]

Dear Ms Wileman

I write further to your Freedom of Information request. I regret that we
do not record the information you are requesting in question 1 and, as the
other questions relate to this, we cannot provide a response to the
remaining questions.

I am sorry that I cannot help you further. However, should you wish to
complain about this response, please contact me again.

Yours sincerely

Maggie McDonald

Complaints Manager

Department for Children and Education

Wiltshire Council

Tel: 01225 713679

Email: [email address]

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Dear Ms Wileman,

I write with reference to your request for an internal review of the
Council's handling of your FOI request 'looked after children'. Please
accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your request.

You ask why we do not record the information you requested, as you say
that other councils record it. You state that other councils are
searching their files manually and ask why we cannot do this.

I am informed by our Business and Performance Information Manager that we
are required to use the DCSF codes for recording the primary need for
looked after children. These are as follows: abuse or neglect; child's
disability or illness; parental disability or illness; family in acute
stress; family dysfunction; socially unacceptable behaviour; low income;
absent parenting; cases other than Children in Need.

You stated specifically in your request that you only wanted details of
children in the category of 'emotional harm', and did not want children
included for other categories of harm/abuse. The DCSF category of 'abuse
and neglect' is extensive and relates to a wide range of circumstances,
only one of which will be emotional harm. I would imagine that this is
why other Councils you have approached have found it necessary to search
their files manually.

Whilst it may be possible to infer from a referral why a child has been
taken into care, the administrative staff who deal with these records, are
not trained to interpret practitioners' reports and, unless it was stated
explicitly, would not be able to identify with any certainty the specific
reason for a child receiving services. In addition, there can be a number
of referrals in respect of any individual child and it would not be
possible for them to be clear which referral lead to the child being taken
into care.

In summary, the Council records the information required of it by the
DCSF, we do not record the information you requested. It is not possible
to extract the information you require from the files manually as the
administrative staff cannot, with any certainty, identify the relevant
children.

If you are not happy this response you have the right to make a formal
complaint. Should you wish to do this, your complaint should be sent to:
Head of Governance, Wiltshire Council, Bythesea Road, Trowbridge, BA14 8JN
or emailed to [email address].

Yours sincerely

Maggie McDonald
Complaints Manager
Department for Children and Education

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