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 on30
march 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 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]

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.

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

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:

A. The number of persons in the local authority of compulsory school age
who are, or claimed to be, electively home educated and who have been
either suspected or found to be involved in child abuse, neglect, forced
marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.

B. How many (if any) Serious Case Reviews or Joint Area Reviews have
reported with respect to home educated children in the LA.

Please find herewith the following:

A. We cannot accurately respond to A as the EHE officers would not know all
cases of concern raised by others, and Social Care do not have the ability
to identify all cases by whether a child is EHE. We can confirm that 5
cases have been referred to Social Care for reason of welfare concerns
within the past 12 months.

B. 1 case

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.

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Sir

I have forwarded your additional request to the officer who provided me
with the data and will respond to you once I know whether this can be
answered.

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]

C Murton
<request-9832-1eb
c5eb0@whatdotheyk To
now.com> [email address]
cc
16/04/2009 21:34
Subject
Re: Freedom of Information request
- home education and abuse -
statistics

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you.

You wrote:

"We cannot accurately respond to A as the EHE officers would not
know all cases of concern raised by others, and Social Care do not
have the ability to identify all cases by whether a child is EHE.
We can confirm that 5 cases have been referred to Social Care for
reason of welfare concerns within the past 12 months."

Can you confirm that if another department had concerns about the
welfare of a EHE child that the EHE officers would NOT be
informed/aware?

Will you tell me how many cases of

a) suspected abuses I mentioned in my request

b) confirmed abuses I mentioned in my request

are known to any dept in the LA

Can you tell me of the 5 cases you mention that were referred to
Social Care for welfare concerns, how many were founded cases and
how many were found not to be of welfare concern.

Thank you for any clarification you can offer.

Yours sincerely,

C Murton

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Mr Murton

Having consulted with the Head of the Education Welfare Service I am able
to provide the following response:

Can you confirm that if another department had concerns about the welfare
of a EHE child that the EHE officers would NOT be informed/aware?

No, we cannot confirm that in every case where there may be welfare
concerns held by a department the EHE officers would be informed. In some
cases, dependent upon the level of concern, a fully detailed assessment
including lateral checks of other departments may not take place.

Will you tell me how many cases of

a) suspected abuses I mentioned in my request

b) confirmed abuses I mentioned in my request

are known to any dept in the LA

All suspected abuse and confirmed abuse cases should have been referred to
Social Care. At the current time Social Care are not able to analyse their
case records by reason of EHE.

Can you tell me of the 5 cases you mention that were referred to Social
Care for welfare concerns, how many were founded cases and how many were
found not to be of welfare concern.

Our information from EHE officers is that they have made 5 referrals to
Social Care for investigation into welfare concerns. One case is ongoing
and four cases required Safe and Well visits to be conducted. In these four
cases no further action has been since required.

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]

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir