Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your information request.

Please note that the Council is currently responding to the Coronavirus
(COVID-19) outbreak which may impact on the resources we have available to
respond to information requests.

If you are making a request for information under FOI(S)A we will aim to
respond within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days.

If you are making a request for environmental information under EIRs we
will aim to respond within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days.
However, for requests of a complex nature it could take us up to 40
working days. If so we will write and tell you this.

If you are making a request for information under DPA/GDPR we will aim to
respond within the statutory timeframe of one month except in the case of
complex or numerous requests in which case this period may be extended by
up to a further two months. If so we will write and tell you this.

Information Requests Privacy Notice: [1]https://tinyurl.com/yac8kodc

Regards,
Aberdeenshire Information Enquiries

References

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1. https://tinyurl.com/yac8kodc

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your information request.

Please note that the Council is currently responding to the Coronavirus
(COVID-19) outbreak which may impact on the resources we have available to
respond to information requests.

If you are making a request for information under FOI(S)A we will aim to
respond within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days.

If you are making a request for environmental information under EIRs we
will aim to respond within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days.
However, for requests of a complex nature it could take us up to 40
working days. If so we will write and tell you this.

If you are making a request for information under DPA/GDPR we will aim to
respond within the statutory timeframe of one month except in the case of
complex or numerous requests in which case this period may be extended by
up to a further two months. If so we will write and tell you this.

Information Requests Privacy Notice: [1]https://tinyurl.com/yac8kodc

Regards,
Aberdeenshire Information Enquiries

References

Visible links
1. https://tinyurl.com/yac8kodc

Dear Suzanne Kelly

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Notice of Refusal

We refer to your request dated 28/03/2022 15:20, for the following
information regarding Child welfare - contacts, referrals, reports,
complaints. 

We confirm that the Council holds the information that you have requested.

We have considered your request, but are of the opinion that the exemption
under the following section of the Act applies to the information
requested: -

Section 14(2) – Repeated Request

The request is identical, or substantially similar, to AbdnShireIR:24127
dated 22^nd March 2022 which is currently being delt with.

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which we have dealt with your
request, you may require Aberdeenshire Council to review this decision. 
Details of the procedure are below.

Yours faithfully

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator

Education & Children's Services

Further Information:

Aberdeenshire Council’s Review Procedure under the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland)
Regulations 2004 can be accessed at the following link:

[1]http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/council-...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This e-mail may contain privileged information intended solely for the use
of the individual to whom it is addressed. If you have received this
e-mail in error, please accept our apologies and notify the sender,
deleting the e-mail afterwards. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the e-mail's author and do not necessarily represent those of
Aberdeenshire Council.

Dh’fhaodadh fiosrachadh sochaire, a tha a-mhàin airson an neach gu bheil
am post-dealain air a chur, a bhith an seo. Ma tha thu air am post-dealain
fhaighinn mar mhearachd, gabh ar leisgeul agus cuir fios chun an neach a
chuir am post-dealain agus dubh às am post-dealain an dèidh sin. ’S e
beachdan an neach a chuir am post-dealain a tha ann an gin sam bith a
thèid a chur an cèill agus chan eil e a’ ciallachadh gu bheil iad a’
riochdachadh beachdan Chomhairle Shiorrachd Obar Dheathain.

www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

References

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1. http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/council-...

Dear Ms Kelly

With reference to your email below, we can confirm that both the above FOI
Requests would be dealt with by Aberdeenshire Council.  We have therefore
closed 24127 and we will respond to 24177, which has an additional
question.

Regards

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator

Aberdeenshire Council – Health & Social Care Partnership

[1]HSCP-Logo-CMYK

[2]www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Suzanne Kelly

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (“The Act”)

We refer to your request dated 28/03/2022 15:20, for the following
information FOI: Child welfare - contacts, referrals, reports,
complaints. 

We confirm that the Council holds the following information, which we
believe satisfies your request.

For the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 and 2022 to date, please supply figures
for each of those years:

1. The number of contacts, referrals, reports, etc your organisation
received concerning the welfare of a child or children

┌─────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│Year │Number of Referrals │
├─────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│2019 │3373 │
│ │ │
│ │  │
├─────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│2020 │3118 │
│ │ │
│ │  │
├─────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│2021 │3628 │
│ │ │
│ │  │
├─────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│01/01/2022-05/04/2022 │933 │
└─────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘

2. The source(s) of contacts, referrals, reports, etc your organisation
received concerning the welfare of a child or children -please state
whether each source is eg a teacher, Aberdeenshire council official,
school, police, social worker etc and the number of complaints from each
source

┌───────────────────────────────────┬────┬────┬────┬─────────────────────┐
│Source │2019│2020│2021│01/01/2022-05/04/2022│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Aberdeenshire Council │ 462│ 415│ 494│ 116│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Anonymous │ 113│ 138│ 179│ 38│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Court │ 4│ 9│ 13│ 4│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Family Member │ 380│ 327│ 387│ 89│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Health Provider │ 343│ 375│ 418│ 112│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Member of Public │ 43│ 36│ 43│ 7│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Outside Agencies │ 152│ 142│ 146│ 22│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Police │1135│1110│1294│ 302│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│School/College │ 706│ 537│ 599│ 231│
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Scottish Children's Reporter │ 23│ 17│ 42│ 7│
│Administration │ │ │ │ │
├───────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼─────────────────────┤
│Self │ 12│ 12│ 13│ 5│
└───────────────────────────────────┴────┴────┴────┴─────────────────────┘

3. The number of such of contacts, referrals, reports, etc your
organisation received concerning the welfare of a child or children which
made reference to the use of restraint devices or restraint techniques

Under Section 16(4) of the Act, Aberdeenshire Council is not required to
comply with a request for information if the cost of complying with the
request would exceed an amount (meantime £600) prescribed in Regulations
made by the Scottish Ministers.

This information would be held within individual client files and each of
these would therefore need to be manually checked. The cost of complying
with your request for information has been estimated at £18547.50.

This is estimated on the basis of manually reviewing 7419 files, taking an
average of 10 minutes per file at £15 per hour. Consequently, the cost of
complying with your request exceeds the prescribed amount.

4. The number of contacts, referrals, reports, etc your organisation
received concerning the welfare of a child or children for which remedial,
investigtive or other action was taken

Please see table below

5. The number of contacts, referrals, reports, etc your organisation
received concerning the welfare of a child or children for which no
remedial, investigtive or other action was taken
Please see table below

6. The number of contacts, referrals, reports, etc your organisation
received concerning the welfare of a child or children which were diverted
to other organisations to investigate, including Aberdeenshire council.
Please see table below

┌────────────────────────────────┬─────┬─────┬─────┬─────────────────────┐
│ │2019 │2020 │2021 │01/01/2022-05/04/2022│
├────────────────────────────────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────────────────────┤
│Duty Service provided │14 │46 │40 │2 │
├────────────────────────────────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────────────────────┤
│Further work required │3096 │2806 │3320 │876 │
├────────────────────────────────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────────────────────┤
│No further action │247 │257 │262 │55 │
├────────────────────────────────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────────────────────┤
│Pending │5 │6 │2 │ │
├────────────────────────────────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────────────────────┤
│Referred elsewhere - see notes │6 │2 │4 │ │
├────────────────────────────────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────────────────────┤
│Not Known │5 │1 │ │ │
└────────────────────────────────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────────────────────┘

7. The number of times any Aberdeenshire official asked your organisation
not to pursue further investigation or action.

This information is not held. We have a formal process for handling all
complaints, which includes a clear policy and guidance for all staff
across Aberdeenshire Council. 

8. The number of complaints received about Aberdeenshire's response to
child welfare requests and source - parent, teacher, police, member of
public, etc.

We do not hold any information regarding the source of child welfare
requests. The number of complaints received regarding child welfare issues
for each year are detailed below:

2019 - 7

2020 - 8

2021 - 13

2022 (Jan – Mar) - 0

Please contact me as the officer responsible for responding to your
request if you have any further queries.

If, for any reason, you are not satisfied with this response, please refer
to the further information attached.

Yours faithfully

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
Health & Social Care Partnership

Further Information:
Aberdeenshire Council’s Review Procedure under the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland)
Regulations 2004 can be accessed at the following link:

[1]http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/council-...

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

This e-mail may contain privileged information intended solely for the use
of the individual to whom it is addressed. If you have received this
e-mail in error, please accept our apologies and notify the sender,
deleting the e-mail afterwards. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the e-mail's author and do not necessarily represent those of
Aberdeenshire Council.

Dh’fhaodadh fiosrachadh sochaire, a tha a-mhàin airson an neach gu bheil
am post-dealain air a chur, a bhith an seo. Ma tha thu air am post-dealain
fhaighinn mar mhearachd, gabh ar leisgeul agus cuir fios chun an neach a
chuir am post-dealain agus dubh às am post-dealain an dèidh sin. ’S e
beachdan an neach a chuir am post-dealain a tha ann an gin sam bith a
thèid a chur an cèill agus chan eil e a’ ciallachadh gu bheil iad a’
riochdachadh beachdan Chomhairle Shiorrachd Obar Dheathain.

www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

References

Visible links
1. http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/council-...