Outcomes for Looked after children

The request was partially successful.

Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,

Can you please provide the following information. In all instances where numbers are asked for please provide them both as a whole number and as a percentage of the overall total.

1. How many children of compulsory school age do you currently have under local authority care?

Of these;
i) How many had their education delegated to a school by their parents before going into care?
ii) How many were electively home educated by their parents before going into care?

2. Can you please provide a statistical breakdown of the reasons why children in your local authority have been put under local authority care?

3. Please provide the number of children under local authority care classed as children missing education for the years (Jan 01 - Dec 31 in all instances) 2015, 2016, 2017. Both for the years provided and those still CME (with the years they have been CME).

4. Please provide a breakdown of how the children who are CSA under local authority care are currently receiving their educational provision. Please include CME statistics.

5. Please provide the number of children aged 10 - 18 (same years as above) under local authority care who have (same years as Q3);

i) Gone missing
ii) Had police involvement
iii) Been groomed by adults after going into LAC.
iv) Had a relationship that resulted in pregnancy.
v) Had a relationship that resulted in parenthood.

6. Of the children currently under LAC please provide the number of children who have been identified by professionals as needing supportive therapy; This could be SEN, mentally, emotionally, physically etc.

Of these children;

i) How many have successfully received the therapy recommended?
ii) How many are in receipt of the therapy recommended?
iii) How many are waiting to receive the therapy recommended?

Finally, can you please provide statistics/documentation and evidence for the educational outcomes for all children under local authority care?

Yours faithfully,

G Swanson

Cheshire West and Chester Council

Outcomes for Looked after children
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RE: Your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Case Reference: 101004801000

Dear G Swanson

Thank you for your email about Outcomes for Looked after children.

It will be treated as a request within the meaning of the Act: this means that we will send you a full response within 20 working days, either supplying you with the information which you want, or explaining to you why we cannot supply it.

If we need any further clarification or there is any problem we will be in touch.

In the meantime if you wish to discuss this further please contact FOIWEST. It would be helpful if you could quote the log number.

Information Governance
Cheshire West and Chester Council

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FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear G Swanson

Further to your request for information reference 4801000.

I am sorry to advise that we are unable to meet the statutory deadline. Please be assured that officers are working on gathering the data and we will respond as soon as we have the information.

Kind regards,

Information Governance
Cheshire West and Chester Council

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FINNAN, Louise, Cheshire West and Chester Council

 

Dear G Swanson

 

Thank you for your request for information of 5 April 2018 which has
been logged as 4801000 and has been dealt with under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We confirm that Cheshire West and Chester Council
holds information relating to your request. We apologise for the delay in
sending your response.   

 

For the purpose of clarity your request has been reproduced below:

 

Can you please provide the following information. In all instances where
numbers are asked for please provide them both as a whole number and as a
percentage.

 

1. How many children of compulsory school age do you currently have under
local authority care (LAC)?

341 / 66.7%

 

Of these;
i) How many were school educated by their parents before going into care?

We do not hold this information

 

ii) How many were electively home educated by their parents before going
into care?

2

 

2. Can you please provide a statistical breakdown of the reasons why
children in your local authority have been put under LAC?

Data at 31^st Dec 2017 for all LAC

 

REASON        NUMBER
N1 - Abuse or neglect 351
N2 - Child’s Disability 7
N3 - Parental illness or disability 18
N4 - Family in acute stress 33
N5 - Family dysfunction 94
N6 - Socially Unacceptable Behaviour 3
N8 - Absent Parenting 5
Grand Total 511

 

3. Please provide the number of children under LAC classed as children
missing education for the years (Jan 01 - Dec 31 in all instances) 2015,
2016, 2017.

0 for all

 

4. Please provide a breakdown of how the children under LAC are currently
receiving their educational provision. Please include CME statistics.

Mainstream school – 270

LA specialist provision – 31

Independent specialist provision – 12

Full time alternative provision – 4

CME – 0.

 

5. Please provide the number of children aged 10 - 18 under LAC who have;

i) Gone missing

At the end of Q3 there were 137 missing episodes recorded relation to
looked after children.  That does not equate to 137 children as most are
repeat episodes.  Data also includes children placed within the area by
other authorities

 

ii) Had police involvement

117 looked after children

 

iii) Been groomed by adults after going into LAC.
iv) Had a relationship that resulted in pregnancy.
v) Had a relationship that resulted in parenthood.

 

From our preliminary assessment, we estimate that compliance with your
request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the
Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently £450 or approximately
2.5 days of one person’s time.

 

In order to provide you with the information on the scale that you have
requested would require accessing information relating to approximately
511 records to identify, locate and extract the information requested. 

 

Officers would be required to do a manual trawl of all open cases in the
cohort as they are not recorded and reported fields.

 

We estimate your current request would cost:

 1. Identify, locate and extract information from 511 records @ 10 minutes
per record = 5,100 minutes
 2. 5,100 minutes = 85 hours
 3. 85 hours x £25 (rate per hour local authorities can charge under the
Act) = £2,125

 

6. Of the children currently under LAC please provide the number of
children who have been identified as needing supportive therapy; This
could be SEN, mentally, emotionally, physically etc.

 

The Council records in free text in each case note where we are aware that
the above is in place. This data cannot be extracted via a report and a
detailed search of all cases of looked after children would need to be
undertaken.  As above this would incur a fees notice under Section 12
relating to 511 records.   

 

To search each case would take approximately 30 minutes each because this
involves reading case notes searching for a reference to therapy.  If the
search took 10 minutes per record it would still exceed the fees limit as
above.

 

The Council is obliged to provide Advice and Assistance under the FOIA,
where possible.  Please therefore note that therapy is provided by health
and the question may more easily be obtained from the West Cheshire
Clinical Commissioning Group, web link attached for your assistance:  

 

[1]https://www.westcheshireccg.nhs.uk/conta...

 

 

Of these children;

i) How many have successfully received the therapy recommended?
ii) How many are in receipt of the therapy recommended?
iii) How many are waiting to receive the therapy recommended?

 

As above we cannot fully answer question 6 based on how information is
recorded and further information will be held with the West Cheshire
Clinical Commissioning Group.

 

Under Advice and Assistance what we can confirm is that the LAC Nurses
undertake regular health assessments of children in care, in which they
complete whether there are recommendations for therapy and confirm ongoing
attendance – as listed below. The data below is based on the information
recorded within children’s services case management system.  We trust this
is helpful.

 

 

Children in Care at Recommend Referral On Going Attendance
28/02/2018
(all previous Part D Health (all previous Part D
Assessments) Health Assessments)
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST 3 7
PHYSIOTHERAPIST 7 10
CAMHS 31 41
SPEECH THERAPIST    20 45

 

Finally, can you please provide statistics/documentation and evidence for
the educational outcomes for all children under LAC?

Outcomes for CIC for 2017 are due to be published by the DfE in March 2018
and will be available for the public to access via the DfE website.

 

 

We trust this answers your query.

 

The Council considers that your request has been answered in full by
either confirming that information is not held, providing you with the
information requested, or explaining why any information has been withheld
and the reasons for any redaction. Where applicable, the Council has also
told you the reasons for the delay in responding to your request.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled you can request a review by writing to the Disclosures Team within
40 working days from the date of the Council’s response.

 

You are entitled to a review by the Council if:

·         You are dissatisfied with the Council’s explanation of why the
application was not dealt with within the 20 working day time limit.

·         All the information requested is not being disclosed and you
have not received an explanation why some information is not being
disclosed.

·         A reason for the disclosures under the request being refused is
not received.

·         You consider that exemptions have been wrongly applied, and/or

·         You consider that a fee has been wrongly applied.

 

Please set out your grounds for seeking a review together with what
specific part of your request those grounds apply to and the outcome you
are seeking. The Council reserves the right to ask you for clarification
of the grounds for your review request if the grounds are not clear, and
to delay commencing the review if such grounds are not provided.

 

The Disclosures Team can be contacted by email via:
[2][Cheshire West and Chester Council request email] or at the following address:

 

Disclosures Team

Cheshire West and Chester Council

(Flr 2 HQ)

4 Civic Way

Ellesmere Port

CH64 0BE

 

The Disclosures Team will acknowledge a request for an internal review
within 5 working days and complete the review as soon as possible and no
later than 40 working days from receipt of the request.

 

More information about the Council’s internal review process can be found
via:

[3]http://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk...

 

If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your review, you have
a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

 

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

Website: [4]www.ico.org.uk

 

There is no charge for making an appeal.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Disclosures Team – Customer Relations and Information

Cheshire West and Chester Council

Tel: 0300 123 8 123

Email: [5][email address]

Location: Cheshire West and Chester Council, 4 Civic Way, Ellesmere Port
CH65 0BE

Visit: cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

 

 

 

PD (Fees)

 

 

 

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