Dear Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council,

Last year I published Safeguarding Children Detained by Police
Officers which was informed by information and data provided by
over 100 local authorities. A further report will be produced this
year with an estimated publication date of September this year.
In addition to responding to the questions below please feel free
to make additional comments concerning local arrangements for
safeguarding children arrested by the police.
Responses to questions asked with require liaison and
information-sharing at least between your youth offending and
out-of-hours services.

1.00 Policy documents

1.1. Youth Justice Board Guidance envisages local protocols between

Youth Offending Teams and local police.
a. Do you currently have a protocol concerning:
(i) the provision of appropriate adults (ii)post-charge bail
support and(iii) the

transfer to LA accommodation of children refused bail and
detained after charge (section 38 PACE, sections 21(2)(b) and
section 17 Children Act)? If so, I would be very

grateful if you could provide copies.

Please provide any other

service agreement,

policy or practice guidance concerning the delivery of these

specific services for

children in conflict with the law noting that such
arrangements

would usually cover the LA and the police, and, possibly

voluntary/private sector organisations delivering services on

behalf of the LA.
1.2. Please include and highlight any amendments, variations, new
documents that address:
i. 17 year olds and
ii. arrangements for the provision of appropriate adults for
children who are cautioned or charged after initially being granted
bail.

2.0 17 year olds
2.1. How many 17 year olds have required appropriate adult services
after being detained at the police station and what proportion of
the total number of requests over a 12 month period do they form?
2.2. What is the actual or estimated annual cost of providing an
appropriate adult service for all children and how much of this is
accounted for by 17 year olds?
2.3. Knowing that the Home Office have yet to agree how they will
meet this additional expense; from where has the money been found
or is the service simply not provided pending a funding decision by
the Home Office?
3.00 Cautions
3.1. How many requests have been received and appropriate adults
provided (these figures may be different) to be present when:
i. a conditional caution has been administered or
ii. a person is subsequently charged having been initially released
on bail ?
4.00 Service arrangements

Is you appropriate adult service provided by the voluntary sector;
the youth offending service exclusively; the youth offending
service in conjunction with the out-of-hours service; the private
sector; some other arrangement (please describe)? Who provides your
service if it has been contrqacted out?
5.00 Qualifications and profile
5.1. How many appropriate adults deliver services in your local
authority area? What proportion have:
i. formal qualifications in social work;
ii. other accepted professional criminal justice qualifications for
YOT purposes;
iii. non-criminal justice qualifications suitable for YOT purposes;
iv. other Degree;
v. GCSE only, without qualifications?
5.2. What proportion of these appropriate adults:
i.have served as police officers (including special forces such as
the Military police)
ii. have worked previously in the legal profession (barrister,
solicitor, accredited police station representative but not other
para-legals
iii. iii. have worked or currently work in a professional capacity
as a social worker, teacher, nurse, psychologist.
iv. were recruited with no qualifications higher the GCSE?
5.3. What proportion broken down by gender are:
aged no older than 25;
25 – 40;
40 – 55;
over 55?
5.4. What proportion of your appropriate adults have:
English;
Indian languages;
Pakistani/Bangladeshi languages;
Arabic or its dialects ;
other African languages;
Polish;
other European languages;
as their mother tongue (first language spoken at home)?
5.2. On how many occasions during the last 12 month period for
which information is avaialble was the first language of the child
not English and different to that of the appropriate adult?
5.3.On how many occasions in such circumstances was a professional
interpreter (as envisaged in the National Agreement on Arrangements
for the use of Interpreters, Translators and Language Service
Professionals in Investigations and Proceedings within the Criminal
Justice System ) present? (this question is asked because of the
fact that in a number of areas English is the minority first
language of some local authorities and may become so nationally by
2050).
5.4 On how many occasions in such circumstances was some other
person present to translate between parties to a PACE interview?
5.5 5.5. On how many occasions was the first language of the
appropriate adult different to that of the detained child?
6.00 Cost
6.1. What is the average hourly cost of of appropriate adult
provision during i. the daytime and ii. out-of-hours? What was or
do you estimate to have been the total cost of the service over the
12 month period for which figures have been provided?
7.00 Recruitment
7.1 Please give details of recruitment strategy and outcomes over
the last 12 months such as advertisements in national or local
publications; websites; word of mouth; numbers recruited through
job centre advertisements etc etc. Please provide the number of
applicants and the numbers appointed (after training if completion
is a condition of appointment).
7.2. If recruiting to positions including sessionally paid
positions (regardless of contractual status) were persons paid for
the number of hours when they undertook training?
The Working Time Regulations 1998 section 42 (non-employed
trainees) state:
For the purposes of these Regulations, a person receiving relevant
training, otherwise than under a contract of employment, shall be
regarded as a worker, and the person whose undertaking is providing
the training shall be regarded as his employer.”
7.3 Where payments were made in accordance with the Regulations
what was the total cost over the last 12 month period?
7.4. If your service is undertaken by a voluntary or private
organisation is the local authority satisfied that the provider is
complying with the Regulations?
7.5. How many hours training do your appropriate adults receive?
Please include hours for 'shadowing.'

8.0 Requests
8.1 For the last 12 months for which information is available how
many requests have been received by the local authority for
appropriate adults in respect of children?
8.2. Where requests have been made on how many occasions have
appropriate adults been provided? Please break this down between
those children aged under 14; 14 – 16 year olds and 17 year olds.
Please also distinguish between requests for the purposes of
interview, charge or caution subsequent to initial arrest.
8.3. On how many occasions upon receipt of a request was action
taken to visit parents to encourage their attendance as appropriate
adult rather than go directly to the police station once a request
had been received? On how many occasions did such action lead to
the attendance of a parent?
8.4. Please provide as a percentage the proportion of appropriate
adult requests that arose because:
i the child was accommodated/looked after by the LA;
ii. whilst not being looked after the parent was otherwise legally
excluded from having contact with a child (an explanation mooted by
one LA in 2013);
iii. the child was estranged from his or her parents;
iv. the parent was a victim, alleged accomplice or witness;
v. the parent was at work/ had other children to care for/was out
of the area;
vi. the parent could not access transport (e.g. no buses late at
night in rural areas);
vii. the parent was deemed incapable of acting in the role;
viii. some other reason
8.5 In relation to children who were placed in:
a. residential care and
b. foster care,
in how many cases was an appropriate adult requested? In how many
cases was this provided by the residential establishment; foster
family; the child's social worker; your usual service arrangements?
8.6. What proportion of all requests for appropriate adults have
arisen because of alleged offences committed in or against persons
concerned with residential or foster placements?
8.7 Please provide any policy or protocol you have developed in
response to YJB concerns about the criminalisation of looked after
children together with any data that has been collated to monitor
its effectiveness.
9.00 External placements
9.1 Please provide any policy document, protocol and data that you
have collated concerning alleged offences committed by children
looked after within your local authority AND applying within local
authorities and accommodation providers where your local authority
places children externally.
9.2. What is your practice in relation to children placed in
residential or foster care within your local authority area but who
are the statutory responsibility of an external local authority? If
such children are charged and detained is the responsibility to
accommodate under section21(2)(b) Children Act seen as being
yourselves or the local authority with legal responsibility?
10.0 Outcomes
10.1 In what proportion of cases concerning requests acted upon in
the last 12 months for which you have data did the appropriate
adult leave the police station:
i. when the child was released;
ii. when a disposal decision had been made;
iii. after interview but before a disposal decision being made?
10.2 On how many occasions within the 12 month period for which you
have provided information have juveniles (under 17s) been charged
and detained under section 38? On how many of those occasions did
an appropriate adult from or contracted by your service:
i. attend for interview and leave before the juvenile was charged;
ii. Attend for interview and was present when the juvenile was
charged;
iii. Make arrangements and representations in relation to the
accommodation of the juvenile pursuant to section 38(6) PACE?

11.0 Response times
11.1 For the last three months where an appropriate adult was
provided what was the average length of time between:
i. detention of a child being authorised by a custody officer and a
request for an appropriate adult being received;
ii. receipt of a request and arrival at the police station;
iii. arrival at the police station and rights being given;
iv. arrival at the police station and commencement of first
interview;
v. authorisation of detention (or receipt of request if you do not
record initial detention time) and the release of the child.
11.2. In how many cases where you received a request for an
appropriate adult(even if the request was delayed until daytime
hours) was a child a. held overnight (overnight meaning between
midnight and 6.00 a.m.) in police cells or b. bailed to the morning
or a later date because:
i. the appropriate adult service was not available overnight;
ii. the Out of Hours social work service should provide the
appropriate adult service but was unable to do so because of having
to prioritise other emergencies;
iii. The custody officer authorised a lay down for other reasons
...police overtime not authorised, other accomplices to be
arrested, officers not ready to interview etc
iv. Some other reason.
11.3. How many members does your Out of Hours Service have? How
many are qualified social workers? How many have received formal
training on PACE?

I would like to thank you for your cooperation and assistance in
advance.

Yours faithfully,

Charles Bell

Dear Accesstoinformation,

This is a preliminary communication in advance of considering whether to seek an internal review.

First, my questions are less demanding than those asked in my national study last year.(if any questions pose particular difficulty I would be happy to consider amending or even withdrawing them). I recall that LAs serviced by ACNW were asked to respond to supplementary questions rather than the primary set of questions. I also refrained from detailed analysis of those LAs covered by the Greater Manchester Police scheme.

Last year's study demonstrated that the statutory sector was by far more effective than the private sector and exposed a range of voluntary sector practice that was dubious (not ACNW).

This year I seek to establish what I suspect is the enhanced quality of service provided by ACNW when compared with GMP and the private sector (every LA they service has been asked this set of questions). That is my hypothesis but I need evidence to demonstrate it.

I am seeking cooperation in this matter. You may wish to advise whether your service agreement with ACNW provides for the offsetting of FOI costs onto the service provider. This is a standard clause in many agreements I have seen where LAs have contracted out the service. If this is the case the cost does nor fall to B and D at least only a small part of it and, in any case, would have been taken into account as one factor determining price when tendering to provide the service.

Yours sincerely,

Charles Bell