The Social Work identification of Emotional Harm to Children – SOPs, Flow Charts, Risk Assessments, Law Enacted

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

Waiting for an internal review by West Lothian Council of their handling of this request.

Dear West Lothian Council,

Background to this FOISA 2002 request

Parents who have identified through a Data Protection Act 2018 Subject Access Request that an organisation or organisations hold false, erroneous and libellous information on them [potentially with this information being passed to the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS)] may contact the Children's Services – Children & Families Social Work Department and raise a Child Welfare Concern detailing that the lies being disseminated about that parent could emotionally harm their child/children.

In short a child could be emotionally harmed by the belief that “mum is a criminal" when that is not the case.

Such emotional harm could occur when persons closely associated with the child [e.g. resident parent, neighbours, school teachers, Independent Domestic Abuse Advocates (IDAAs)] file false police reports and Police Scotland Domestic Abuse Liaison Officers (DALOs) pass on false information to the local authority Children's Services – Children & Families Social Work Department, and this Department fails in their “fact checking obligations”.

In one case in Stirling such a Child Welfare Concern resulted in a school Head Teacher being contacted. This Head Teacher may have been a participant at a MARAC and had been involved in communications leading up to the arrest of that parent at the school (which including child welfare concerns raised by the parent who was arrested outside of the school).

Clearly “multi-agency working” can be consanguineous which could lead public sector workers to be having serious conflicts of interest, especially if their actions are a consequence of earlier failures to perform their job in a competent manner (e.g. ignoring earlier child welfare communications).

To ensure the quality of performance of any professionals dealing with the paramount wellbeing of the child, within the response please advise what stringent checks and balances are in place to ensure that there is no inappropriate ethos of custom and practice approach being taken, for example the checks on the emotional well being of the child is not performed by a person who has failed in any earlier duty of care to that child or has a conflict of interest (such as any involvement in a MARAC or IRD where false information has been passed to Police Scotland).

FOISA 2002 request

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

The Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Flow Charts, Risk Assessments and Law Enacted that is used by Social Services when a parent raises an emotional harm Child Welfare Concern.

Yours faithfully,

SJA Grove

Customer Service, West Lothian Council

Thank you for emailing the Customer Service Centre.  Due to the high
volume of email traffic recently we may take longer than our 24 hour
response. Should you require a quicker response please call us on 01506
280000 or use our on-line form facility at
[1]www.westlothian.gov.uk/report

 

Regards

Customer Service

[2]Please remember to wash your hands. 20200807

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a contract and may not be founded upon in any proceedings
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Customer Service, West Lothian Council



 

Thank you for emailing the Customer Service Centre.  Due to the high
volume of email traffic recently we may take longer than our 24 hour
response. Should you require a quicker response please call us on 01506
280000 or use our on-line form facility at
[1]www.westlothian.gov.uk/report

[2]Please remember to wash your hands. 20200807

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West Lothian Council

DATA LABEL: Official (Sensitive)

Dear Sir/Madam

Information Request

Our Reference: 101006873838

Thank you for your recent request for information which has been logged
and transferred to the appropriate Service Information Liaison Officer
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put your request in writing and provide proof of identification to the
Data Protection Officer, West Lothian Council, West Lothian Civic Centre,
Howden South Road, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 6FF Email:
[4][email address]

[5]Please remember to wash your hands. 20200807

This message, together with any attachments, is sent subject to the
following statements:

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contain legally privileged information. The contents are
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a contract and may not be founded upon in any proceedings
following hereon unless specifically indicated otherwise.

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SocialPolicyIR, West Lothian Council

1 Attachment

DATA LABEL: OFFICIAL-Sensitive

 

Dear Enquirer

 

Please see attached response to your enquiry received on 17^th November
2020.

 

Nora Hunter

 

Business Support Assistant

Quality and Performance Team

West Lothian Council

Civic Centre

Howden South Road

Livingston

West Lothian

EH54 6FF

 

 

 

 

 

 

West Lothian Council - Data Labels:

 

OFFICIAL - Sensitive: Contains Personal or Business Sensitive Information
for authorised personnel only

OFFICIAL: Contains information for council staff only

PUBLIC: All information has been approved for public disclosure

NON-COUNCIL BUSINESS: Contains no business related or sensitive
information

 

Link to Information Handling Procedure:
http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/media/1597...

 

P SAVE PAPER - Please do not print this e-mail unless absolutely
necessary.

 

 

[1]Please remember to wash your hands. 20200807

This message, together with any attachments, is sent subject to the
following statements:

1. It is sent in confidence for the addressee only. It may
contain legally privileged information. The contents are
not to be disclosed to anyone other than the addressee.
Unauthorised recipients are requested to preserve this
confidentiality and to advise the sender immediately.
2. It does not constitute a representation which is legally
binding on the Council or which is capable of constituting
a contract and may not be founded upon in any proceedings
following hereon unless specifically indicated otherwise.

http://www.westlothian.gov.uk

References

Visible links
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Dear SocialPolicyIR,

WLC are thanked for providing the list of documents/legislation that are applied when Emotional Harm is suspected.

Would WLC please provide links to the documents so that this information is in the public domain? Obviously the legislation links are not required.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Yours sincerely,

SJA Grove

Dear West Lothian Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of West Lothian Council's handling of my FOI request 'The Social Work identification of Emotional Harm to Children – SOPs, Flow Charts, Risk Assessments, Law Enacted'.

West Lothian Council are thanked for the response and an Internal Review is required. The document entitled ‘Inter-agency Child Protection Procedures Edinburgh and the Lothian’ that dates from 2015 (based on the filename of the document that was provided by a FOISA 2002 request from East Lothian Council). Given that protection procedures have moved on in the five years since this document has been produced then it is unsurprising that the document is not comprehensive.

One of the key sentences in the document relates to emotional abuse which is what this FOISA 2002 request is targeted at and details "It may involve conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person."

West Lothian Council has not described the process for identifying and addressing emotional abuse perpetrated by one parent when false information is provided by an Independent Domestic Abuse Advocate (IDAA) at a Local Authority-held Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC). This false information directed by one parent against the other (via the intermediacy of the IDAA at the MARAC) will be passed onto the Children’s Services Social Work systems and recorded. The Police Scotland interim Vulnerable Persons Database (iVPD) is the conduit between the MARAC (where the false information is produced likely by the third sector IDAA Data Controller) and the local authority Children’s Services Social Work system. The false information shared may be sensitive in nature (e.g. medical information) as defined by Schedule 8 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Will West Lothian Council provide the process for identifying and helping those children who feel "unloved" as a consequence of one parent being alienated from them when that alienated parent has identified (by one or more Data Protection Act 2018 Subject Access Request) false information held on them provided by the other parent using an IDAA and Police Scotland as the conduits and cannot go through a Family Court contact process by virtue of public authorities holding false and malicious information on them that suggests the alienated parent is a danger to their own children?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/t...

Yours faithfully,

SJA Grove

Customer Service, West Lothian Council

Thank you for emailing the Customer Service Centre.  Due to the high
volume of email traffic recently we may take longer than our 24 hour
response. Should you require a quicker response please call us on 01506
280000 or use our on-line form facility at
[1]www.westlothian.gov.uk/report

 

Regards

Customer Service

[2]Please remember to wash your hands. 20200807

This message, together with any attachments, is sent subject to the
following statements:

1. It is sent in confidence for the addressee only. It may
contain legally privileged information. The contents are
not to be disclosed to anyone other than the addressee.
Unauthorised recipients are requested to preserve this
confidentiality and to advise the sender immediately.
2. It does not constitute a representation which is legally
binding on the Council or which is capable of constituting
a contract and may not be founded upon in any proceedings
following hereon unless specifically indicated otherwise.

http://www.westlothian.gov.uk

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/www.westlothian.gov.uk/report
2. https://www.nhsinform.scot/coronavirus

Customer Service, West Lothian Council



 

Thank you for emailing the Customer Service Centre.  Due to the high
volume of email traffic recently we may take longer than our 24 hour
response. Should you require a quicker response please call us on 01506
280000 or use our on-line form facility at
[1]www.westlothian.gov.uk/report

[2]Please remember to wash your hands. 20200807

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/www.westlothian.gov.uk/report
2. https://www.nhsinform.scot/coronavirus

West Lothian Council

DATA LABEL: Official (Sensitive)

Information Request
Our Reference: 101006900604

Thank you for your recent request for information which has been logged
and transferred to the appropriate Service Information Liaison Officer
(ILO) who will provide a response within the appropriate timeline shown
below:

Freedom of Information - 20 working days
Environmental Information Requests - 20 working days
Subject Access Requests (Data Protection Act) - 28 calendar days

Should the ILO require further information to process your request then
they will contact you directly. If you require any further assistance then
please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind Regards

Dawn

Customer Service

Tel: 01506 280000
Email: [email address]
Web: www.westlothian.gov.uk

Find us on:

[1]HTML tutorial [2]HTML tutorial

Privacy information

Information held about you

West Lothian Council will hold all personal information contained in your
request and all personal information needed to answer your request in
accordance with data protection law. It is important that we hold accurate
and up to date information about you in order to respond to your request.
If any of your details have changed, or change in the future, please
ensure that you tell us as soon as possible so that we can update your
records.

How will we use information we hold about you?

We will use your personal information to respond to your request and to
any appeal submitted in relation to your request.

Who we will share your information with?

The council will not share your information with any third party unless
you ask us to do so or we are required to do so by law.

How long do we keep your records?

We will keep personal information relating to your request for a maximum
of six years after your request and any appeal associated with your
request has been answered.

Your rights

If you have any questions or concerns about how your information is used,
please contact the Data Protection Officer. More information about data
protection and how it applies to you, including how to make a complaint,
is available from the [3]Information Commissioner's Office

You have a number of rights under data protection law, including the right
to request your information and to request that the information be amended
if incorrect or, in some circumstances, erased.

To make a request for information, amendment or erasure, you will need to
put your request in writing and provide proof of identification to the
Data Protection Officer, West Lothian Council, West Lothian Civic Centre,
Howden South Road, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 6FF Email:
[4][email address]

show quoted sections

SocialPolicyIR, West Lothian Council

DATA LABEL: OFFICIAL-Sensitive

Good morning, apologies for the delay in responding. The team responsible have now supplied the links below as requested.

https://www.sssc.uk.com/the-scottish-soc...

https://westlothianhscp.org.uk/article/3...

https://www.gov.scot/publications/girfec...

https://www.gov.scot/policies/girfec/

https://publicprotectionwestlothian.org....

I hope this helps,

Laura

show quoted sections

Dear SocialPolicyIR,

West Lothian Council are thanked for providing the links however there is no further information provided other than that which was provided by the neighbouring local authority East Lothian Council.

If physical abuse requires the consent of the caregiving parent before there is a medical examination then the investigation of emotional abuse is likely to be equally flawed.

West Lothian Council may have noted an annotation from a “serial annotator" stating that the information being requested relates to a specific case. As WLC should appreciate this is not the case.

This request relates to the processes used to identify emotional abuse and the wellbeing of children though it is clear from the request that this abuse relates more generally to where one parent (the parent raising the concern) is being targeted for alienation from their children either by the parent who the child/children are resident with, other family members (e.g. the grandparents, aunts and uncles of the child), an Independent Domestic Abuse Advocate (IDAA) operating at a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC), Social Workers themselves operating at a MARAC or Inter-Agency Referral Discussion (IRD) or ideologically motivated Police Scotland officers [e.g. Domestic Abuse Liaison Officers (DALOs)] who pass (false) information onto Social Workers which is recorded onto the Children's Services systems using a “secret" identifier such as the form letter-letter-digit-digit-digit-digit-digit (e.g. sh48620) that appears to be used by Stirling Council Social Workers when they record information from Domestic Abuse Liaison Officers (DALOs) on their Children's Services system.

West Lothian Council may appreciate that the sharing of false information by third sector organisations with both Police Scotland and Local Authority Councils may breach both the Transparency Principle of the Data Protection Act 2018 (together with Schedule 8 of the Act), Section 44 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 and in the most serious cases Section 164 of the Criminal Justice & Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 (i.e. a breach of the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Agencies) and therefore the primary human rights of children [e.g. Article 7 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC)] may be being overlooked, ignored, covered up and otherwise hidden as a means of obfuscating the crimes committed by adults.

The Internal Review response is anticipated within the statutory timescale.

Yours sincerely,

SJA Grove

SocialPolicyIR, West Lothian Council

DATA LABEL: OFFICIAL-Sensitive

Good afternoon,

Following my earlier email I have been informed you have requested an internal review of this FOI response which is currently being progressed.

Many thanks, Laura

show quoted sections

Richardson, Wendy, West Lothian Council

1 Attachment

DATA LABEL: OFFICIAL

Dear Requester,

 

I attach the council’s response to your request for review.

 

Wendy Richardson

Senior Solicitor

West Lothian Council

Civic Centre

Howden South Road

LIVINGSTON  

EH54 6FF

 

DX 552060, Livingston 7

LP 1 Livingston 2

 

West Lothian Council - Data Labels:

 

OFFICIAL - Sensitive: Contains Personal or Business Sensitive Information
for authorised personnel only

OFFICIAL: Contains information for council staff only

PUBLIC: All information has been approved for public disclosure

NON-COUNCIL BUSINESS: Contains no business related or sensitive
information

 

Link to Information Handling Procedure:
http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/media/1597...

 

P SAVE PAPER - Please do not print this e-mail unless absolutely
necessary.

 

 

[1]Please remember to wash your hands. 20200807

This message, together with any attachments, is sent subject to the
following statements:

1. It is sent in confidence for the addressee only. It may
contain legally privileged information. The contents are
not to be disclosed to anyone other than the addressee.
Unauthorised recipients are requested to preserve this
confidentiality and to advise the sender immediately.
2. It does not constitute a representation which is legally
binding on the Council or which is capable of constituting
a contract and may not be founded upon in any proceedings
following hereon unless specifically indicated otherwise.

http://www.westlothian.gov.uk

References

Visible links
1. https://www.nhsinform.scot/coronavirus