Percentage of Care Orders/ Independent review

Dear Sir or Madam,

I shall be focusing on 'childrens matters' in the near future ,and
would appreciate these two requests being completed swiftly, as it
appears they were already half answered.Transparency is compulsory
as I am sure you would agree ,where children's welfare are
concerned, to ensure the confidence of the public remains high.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/in...

Kent County Council

20 August 2009
Dear A Wilson

A review of child protection work undertaken by Kent County
Council's
Children's Social Services was commissioned by a County Council
resolution on 12 December 2008. The review was in line with the
actions
called for by the Secretary of State in his response to the public
revulsion at the death of Baby Peter in Haringey in 2007.

The Council resolution called for the review to be carried out
under the
direction of the Chief Executive and independent of the management
of
the Children's Social Services and the Children, Families &
Education
Directorate.

The review was carried out by Martyn Ayre, Senior Policy Manager in
the
Corporate Policy Unit and Peter Thomason, an independent child care
consultant. Martyn Ayre is an ex social worker who has worked in
Social
Services for various local authorities for over 30 years until
2005.
Peter Thomason is a self-employed child care consultant, who is
registered with the General Social Care Council as a Social Worker.
Martyn Ayre is a current employee of Kent County Council. Peter
Thomason
has not been employed by Kent County Council since the mid 1990s.

Their first report was made in public on 12 February 2009 to the
County
Council's Children's Champions Board and can be found in full on
the
council's website at the following link :
http://democracy.kent.gov.uk/ieListDocum...

Although their findings were reassuring, the reviewers asked for
and
were given permission to carry out an extended case-file audit on a
much
larger sample of child protection cases in order to be able to give
greater assurance to their initial findings - or indeed discover a
different picture emerging from the bigger sample of cases.

The second report was made public on 21 July to the Children's
Champions
Board and can also be found in full on the Council's website, at
this
link :
http://democracy.kent.gov.uk/ieListDocum...
. This extended audit concluded that the child protection practice
in
Children Social Services is safe and that risk management is
robust.

Martyn Ayre is now working jointly with colleagues from a number of
other agencies who are represented on the Kent Safeguarding
Children
Board to assess the effectiveness of inter-agency working on child
protection. The outcome of this work will be reported to the County
Council in December 2009.

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not
complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our
complaints
process; details can be found at this link
http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
s/complaints-procedure.htm#foi on our website. Please quote
reference
FOI/09/837.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you
can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance
with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do,
should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Regards

Michelle Hunt

Thank your for your email.

Please supply the Council resolution to which you refer.

Please, also state the exact time Peter Thomason left as an
employee and all positions held, please state if he is a chairman
and/or sits on any boards connected with Kent County Council.

All positions held by Martyn Ayre, both previous and currently
within Kent County Council.

Is it correct that all 3 public servants come from social worker
backgrounds and have also worked with each other either in the past
or present?

Are the Public realistically expected to believe this review in any
shape or form could be considered independent; were the
requirements that it is supposed to be an Independent?

One could successfully argue that it runs along the lines of, the
Police , policing themselves or Kent County Council patting
themselves on the back.

Could you therefore also name the Councillor in charge of this
department/ review and supply their qualifications ; who is
ultimately responsible for children in their capacity as a
corporate parent ( all councillors are)and direct this request to
them personally for their comment and attention.

In particular, if they have had any complaints either verbally or
written in connection with this review, and by any councillor who
has had their grandchildren removed by Kent County Council.

with thanks

Yours faithfully,

Mr Brian Gerrish

Dear Sir or Madam

Please include the additional link below, which unfortunately
should have appeared in the original request, regarding Percentage
of Care Orders.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pe...

Dear Childrens Social Services Legal Department,

In 2007,local authorities in England applied for 8,173 care orders.
7,624 orders were made. 336 applications were withdrawn, 290 "no
orders" decisions and 21 orders were refused.

In other words, the judgement of the social workers working for the
council was so good, they were only refused by the judge 21 times
(0.27%)

Can you please therefore state for the record, how many of the care
orders Kent County Council applied for in the family courts, were
approved or not ; show all records held, in both figures and
percentages on a yearly basis for all years retained.

Yours faithfully

Mr Brian Gerrish