Social Work Children's Services instruction to terminate Child Contact Centre arrangements (by year)

SJA Grove made this Freedom of Information request to Clackmannanshire Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by Clackmannanshire Council.

Dear Clackmannanshire Council,

Background to this FOISA 2002 request

A Data Protection Act 2018 Subject Access Request to Police Scotland to identify information recorded on a Data Subject on the interim Vulnerable Persons Database (iVPD) detailed the following information had been recorded by a Police Scotland officer (VPD Ref: 1004286; Police Scotland officer Ref: PC 144295):
“There was previously an arrangement in place that [Data Subject’s first name] sees the children every second Saturday at the contact centre. This arrangement stopped at the end of July 2018 on the instruction of staff at the contact centre/social work due to concerns regarding [Data Subject's first name’s] mental health.”

These bi-weekly contact arrangements had been substantially reduced over a period of two years (including a move to monthly contact) and that the Service Manager of the contact centre (Kathleen Frew; Family Mediation Central Scotland) gave evidence at Stirling Sheriff Court to give the accurate reasons for the termination of child contact arrangements.

Further information recorded on the iVPD (VPD Ref: 1013988; Police Scotland officer Ref: PC 1652122) included:
[Data Subject’s first name] lost his job and he then apparently suffered psychotic depression and took medication for this.

This information demonstrates that false police reports have been filed and that Police Scotland officers have not checked the accuracy of information that they record on the iVPD which then gets transferred across to the Children's Services – Children & Families Social Work systems

Cross referencing with a heavily redacted Data Protection Act 2018 Subject Access Request from Stirling Council (part of which became a Defence Production in a “Section 39” prosecution) shows that the false police reports were made at a MARAC.

Whilst the false police reports and fiction recorded at MARACs may be commonplace there exists the possibility that some truth is recorded and that Children’s Services Social Work employees are recommending the termination of child contact at the unregulated Child Contact Centres (funded by the Scottish Government) at MARACs. Were this Children’s Services Social Work recommendation of child contact termination to be occurring then this would be a demonstration of the break down of civil society with the central tenants of the law of due process and the presumption of innocence being removed (i.e. an assumption that there is a “victim" and a “perpetrator").

FOISA 2002 Request

Under the FOISA 2002 please provide me with the information contained in your records as follows:

The number of Children's Services Social Work instructions of termination of child contact at Child Contact Centres in the year 2018.

The number of Children's Services Social Work instructions of termination of child contact at Child Contact Centres in the year 2019.

The number of Children's Services Social Work instructions of termination of child contact at Child Contact Centres in the year 2020 (up to the date of this request).

Yours faithfully,

SJA Grove

Shirley Jeffrey, Clackmannanshire Council

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To:
Sja Grove Contact: Shirley Jeffrey
Tel. No: 01259 450000
Ref: PEO04DF7EA
Date: 30/11/2020

Dear -None- Grove

Freedom of Information : PEO04DF7EA

I acknowledge receipt of your request for information which was received
on 30/11/2020 about Statistics on Child Contact.   It will be forwarded to
the appropriate Council Service for action and you should receive a
response, or a request for clarification by 30/12/2020. If there is a need
to clarify anything relating to your request, colleagues will contact you.
 

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me.  

Yours sincerely

Shirley Jeffrey

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ChildCare, Clackmannanshire Council

Dear SJA Grove,

To allow us to respond your FOI enquiry PEO04DF7EA can you please clarify
whether you are referring to the formal termination of child contact at
contact centres which have been made at a Children's Hearings or are you
referring to the cancellation of child contact due to internal unforeseen
issues, such as worker being off sick etc

We await your reply by return

Kind Regards
 

PEO04DF7EA
   Under the FOISA 2002 please provide me with the information contained
in your records as follows:
1)   The number of Children's Services Social Work instructions of
termination of child contact at Child Contact Centres in the year 2018.
2)   The number of Children's Services Social Work instructions of
termination of child contact at Child Contact Centres in the year 2019.
3)   The number of Children's Services Social Work instructions of
termination of child contact at Child Contact Centres in the year 2020 (up
to the date of this   request).

John O'Donnell
Quality Assurance Officer
Social Services
Clackmannanshire Council
Kilncraigs
Alloa
FK10 1EB
Business Support Administrator
Child Care Service
Kilncraigs
Alloa
FK10 1EB
Tel: 01259 225000

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Dear ChildCare,

Firstly apologies for not making it explicitly clear as to the nature of the termination in this request.

The numbers that are requested are those recommendations for termination of child contact at a Child Contact Centre that are recommended by a social worker employed by Clackmannanshire Council and not as a result of a formal Children's Hearing. The Child Contact Centre could be independent or one run by Relationships Scotland (and funded by the Scottish Government). The child contacts relate to all those contacts i.e. contacts set up voluntarily, between solicitors or referrals from Social Work. These will be the child contact arrangements that are not covered by a Court Order i.e. child contacts that can be stopped with impunity to the person (Social Worker or otherwise) who stops the contact.

Through Children's Services contacts with Stirling Council social workers at Clackmannanshire Council should be aware that a Stirling Council social worker made a recommendation to terminate child contact arrangements at Family Mediation Central Scotland and this was recorded on the Police Scotland interim Vulnerable Persons Database (iVPD).

Given the timing of this data upload on the iVPD (19 November 2018) and the timing of a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) in Stirling (15 November 2018) it is probable that the social worker attending the MARAC made the decision to terminate the child contact.

This FOISA 2002 is intended to identify how common this action on the part of Social Workers in alienating children from their parents in Scotland.

Yours sincerely,

SJA Grove

Shirley Jeffrey, Clackmannanshire Council

2 Attachments

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To:
SJA Grove Contact: Shirley Jeffrey
N/A Tel. No: 01259 450000
Ref: PEO04DF7EA
Date: 23/12/2020

Dear SJA Grove

Freedom of Information Enquiry: PEO04DF7EA

Clackmannanshire Council does not have a statutory requirement to report
this information and so does not produce these statistics in a readily
accessible format. We are applying the exemption - section 12 (excessive
costs of compliance) of the FOISA 2002.

Yours sincerely,

Shirley Jeffrey

(See attached file: PEO04DF7EA - Stats on Child Contact.docx)

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| If you are not satisfied with this response, you may contact the |
| Council’s Legal & Governance Senior Manager seeking a review of your |
| request. within 40 working days of receiving the response (the |
| address is: Clackmannanshire Council, Kilncraigs, Alloa FK10 1EB. |
| (Email address: [email address]). If you are not satisfied with |
| the outcome of the review you have the right to appeal directly to |
| The Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes |
| Road, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9DS, or online |
| www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal within 6 months. |
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Dear Clackmannanshire Council,

Clackmannanshire Council are thanked for their response detailing the cost of going through the individual files to look for the individual recommendations to cancel child contact arrangements would amount to £2280 and therefore a Section 12 (excessive cost of compliance) exemption is being applied.

Clackmannanshire Council are thanked for explaining that recording these statistics is not a statutory requirement., it would be hoped that if the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) were to be genuinely enshrined in Scots Law then these statistics would be kept.

The absence of a NIL response to this request logically leads to the conclusion that Social Workers employed by the Clackmannanshire Council make recommendations to stop child contact arrangements at Child Contact Centres and that this role of social workers has been within the Policies and Procedures of Social Workers during the time period of this FOISA 2002 request.

This response therefore identifies that different (but neighbouring) councils have very different Policies and Procedures in place. This is important information to be in the public domain.

Given that a Social Worker can recommend the termination of child contact arrangements then this logically leads to the conclusion that a SINGLE social worker could (theoretically):

1. Attend a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference where false reports are made to Police Scotland [likely a crime under the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995].
2. Attend a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference where false reports are made to Police Scotland without an Information Sharing Agreement (ISA) being in place with the Third Sector organisation that employs the Independent Domestic Abuse Advocate (IDAA) that is making the false police report at the MARAC i.e. passing on information/data on a Data Subject without gaining that Data Subject's consent and without having a basis in law for passing on that false information [a crime under the Data Protection Act 2018].
3. Be the Social Worker who records the false information provided at the MARAC by the IDAA on the Children's Services Social Work system that is provided to the Local Authority (potentially without an ISA being in place for the data sharing between Police Scotland and the Local Authority) using the Police Scotland interim Vulnerable Persons Database (iVPD) as the conduit. The information from Police Scotland may not be encoded with the unique identifier of the Police Scotland officer (7 digit Police Scotland Identification number or letter four digit Collar Number). The implication of this would be that if Police Scotland were to “weed" out the data from the iVPD then there may be no record of which Police Scotland officer was responsible for collecting the false information on a Data Subject at the MARAC (from the IDAA) and there would be a truly “invisible data chain".
4. Be the Social Worker who does not check the accuracy of the false information provided by Police Scotland and thence raise a serious corruption concern either with Police Scotland themselves or with the Criminal Allegations against the Police Division CAAP-D of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).
5. Be the Social Worker who uses a “secret" identifier (e.g. sh48620) when they record information from Police Scotland on the Children's Services Social Work system that comes from a Domestic Abuse Liaison Officer (DALO). This DALO may or may not be the same Police Scotland officer who records the false information from the IDAA at the MARAC onto the iVPD. This DALO may or may not provide the iVPD information to the COPFS [via the Reporting Officer (RO)] as exculpatory evidence in a prosecution. Were this false information on the iVPD (that is recorded on the Children's Services Social Work systems) not to be provided to the COPFS as exculpatory evidence in a prosecution then this could be a breach of a Data Subject's rights under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
6. Be the Social Worker who is the Child Welfare Reporter (CWR) at a Family Court that is on a list of CWRs that is maintained by an external organisation that has been contracted to maintain the list of CWRs by Scottish Ministers as defined by the Children (Scotland) Act 2020.

It is hoped that Clackmannanshire Council have robust ISAs in place with Police Scotland (and other relevant organisations) and therefore do not need to raise “serious harm concerns" and require to gather “mental health reports" in an effort to obfuscate nefarious data sharing practices when a Data Subject makes a Data Protection Act 2018 Subject Access Request to see the personal information stored on the Children's Services Social Work and/or Education Department system.

Having robust ISAs in place may prevent breaches of Data Protection Act 2018 (e.g. Subject Access Request delays) that have been identified by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at a neighbouring council.

Yours faithfully,

SJA Grove