Referral and Assessment process

Cassidy, J made this Freedom of Information request to Birmingham City Council

The request was partially successful.

From: Cassidy, J

14 May 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

Can you please email me an electronic copy of the following
information:

Confirmation that when 16 or 17 year old unaccompanied children
make a claim for asylum, that:

1) they are referred to your social services department for
immediate support?

and

2) for a period, they are initially cared for under Section 17 of
the Children Act?

and

3) then they are cared for and accommodated under Section 20 of the
Children Act after a needs led or age assessment confirms such a
duty is owed?

and

4) once this Section 20 duty begins it ceases after a period and
then they are supported under the Children (Leaving Care) Act?

4.1) For this group of 16 and 17 year olds please indicate, on
average, how many weeks they are accommodated under Section 20
before this duty is discharged and they are transferred to after
care services under the Children (Leaving Care) Act, for the year
ending 31 March 2008?

6) Please also provide copies of any information you hold hold that
explains the Referral and Assessment process, procedures, service
provision and legal duties that are applicable to this group of 16
and 17 year olds, from the point of referral, assessment and
through to when you fully discharge your Section 17 or Section 20
duties and the discharge of your Children (Leaving Care) Act
duties.

: Your correspondence:

Please ensure that any of your general correspondence,
acknowledgments or holding letters etc are included or
cut-and-pasted into the body of the email messages, using plain
text, rather than as attachments. As this will mean your
correspondence is much easier to access, read and respond to.

: Accessibility:

When providing any information disclosures please provide it in the
original unrestricted format such as:

a. MS Word .doc or Rich Text Text .rtf format or equivalent
(suitable for disclosure of email messages)

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c.Presentations in MS Powerpoint .ppt format or equivalent

or converted to Portable Document Format (PDF), ONLY if none of the
above formats are available

if you only have a paper version (hard copy) available, please
provide a Digital Photo Copier Scanned version in PDF format. If
you do provide disclosures in PDF from a Digital Photo Copier Scan,
please state that you have done so because no other format, such as
a, b or c above, are available.

If you need to redact text elements of any disclosure can you
please ensure that the rest of text based information remains
accessible to a Screen Reader.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader>

Please ensure any electronic disclosures are absolutely free of any
Document limitations or controls, such as making them Read-only,
Encrypted or Password restricted, as this is likely to render them
less usable on a general basis and more specifically, inaccessible
to Assistive Technology.

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such as .zip.

Providing correspondence and disclosed information via these means
will help ensure that text based information is accessible for use
with a Screen Reader or a Magnifier for none text based information
and will prevent any further and separate representations under the
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reasonably practicable accessibility requests please state why and
provide a copy of any internal information, such as a policy relied
upon that would explain such a decision.

Yours faithfully,

Cassidy, J

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Birmingham City Council

18 May 2009

Dear Sir

Thank you for your request for information held by the Council under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which was received on 14
May 2009.

We will contact you again once it has been ascertained what data is held by
Birmingham City Council. In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if
that is the case, we will let you know. A fees notice will be issued to
you, and you will be required to pay before we will proceed to deal with
your request.

If you require any further information or are not happy with our response
please do not hesitate to contact me quoting the reference number above in
any future communications.

Yours faithfully
Steve Cullen
Data Protection and Freedom of Information Manager
Children, Young People and Families Directorate
Birmingham City Council

Tel: 0121 464 4591
Email: [email address]

Data Protection Act 1998
The information you have provided within your Freedom of Information
request will be held on our database and may also be held within manual
records for a period of 2 years from the date Birmingham City Council
received your request. Any personal data that you provide to Birmingham
City Council will be held in line with the requirements set out within the
Data Protection Act 1998.

Re Use of Public Sector Information
Where Birmingham City Council is the copyright holder of any information
that may be released, re-use for personal, educational or non-commercial
purposes is permitted without further reference to the City Council. Where
the re-use is for other purposes, such as commercial re-use, the applicant
should notify the City Council in writing to seek approval or agree terms
for re-use.

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Birmingham City Council

9 June 2009

Dear Sir

I am writing in respect of your recent enquiry for information held by the
Authority under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please find herewith the following:

Confirmation that when 16 or 17 year old unaccompanied children make a
claim for asylum, that:

1) they are referred to your social services department for immediate
support?

Any unaccompanied asylum seeking child for whom a service need is first
identified in Birmingham is referred to the Children, Young People &
Families Directorate and an assessment of need in undertaken.

2) for a period, they are initially cared for under Section 17 of the
Children Act?

All unaccompanied asylum seeking children in Birmingham are provided with
accommodaiton and services under s20 Children Act 1989

3) then they are cared for and accommodated under Section 20 of the
Children Act after a needs led or age assessment confirms such a duty is
owed?

The needs led assessment is completed while a child is accommodated under
s20 Children Act 1989

4) once this Section 20 duty begins it ceases after a period and then they
are supported under the Children (Leaving Care) Act?

All care leavers are provided with services under the Children (Leaving
Care) Act

4.1) For this group of 16 and 17 year olds please indicate, on average, how
many weeks they are accommodated under Section 20
before this duty is discharged and they are transferred to after care
services under the Children (Leaving Care) Act, for the year
ending 31 March 2008?

We are unable to provide this information. Unaccompanied asylum seeking
children continue to receive services under s20 of the Children Act 1989 as
long as this is needed up to their 18th birthday.

5) Please also provide copies of any information you hold hold that
explains the Referral and Assessment process, procedures, service provision
and legal duties that are applicable to this group of 16 and 17 year olds,
from the point of referral, assessment and through to when you fully
discharge your Section 17 or Section 20 duties and the discharge of your
Children (Leaving Care) Act duties.

There are not specific written proecedures for this group of young people:
the child care procedures in the Directorate apply.

Whilst we have undertaken a thorough search of the information held by
Birmingham City Council, it may be that, due to the size and amount of
information held by Birmingham City Council, some information may have been
inadvertently missed.

If you have any information which may assist us in determining or locating
any missed information, we would be grateful if you would contact us with
details of this information, so that we can conduct a further search.

If you are not satisfied with the response you may ask for an internal
review. If subsequently you are not satisfied with the Council’s decision
you may apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the Council. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at the following address:

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545745 Web Address: www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,
Steve Cullen
Data Protection and Freedom of Information Manager
Children, Young People and Families Directorate
Birmingham City Council

Tel: 0121 464 4591
Email: [email address]

Re-use of Public Sector Information
The information provided is subject to Birmingham City Council copyright,
however, it may be re-used for personal, educational or non-commercial
purposes without further reference to the City Council. If the re-use is
for other purposes, such as commercial re-use, you should notify the City
Council in writing to seek approval or agree terms for re-use. Where
Birmingham City Council does not hold the copyright, it has indicated the
copyright holder. Permission for re-use should be sought from them
directly.

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