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Complaints regarding unsubstantiated allegations by social worker.

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Dear Bridgend County Borough Council,

(1) How many complaints have been made to Bridgend country Council regarding
Children's Services from September 2015 to 2018.

Regarding unsubstantiated allegations made against parents- grandparents --
paternal- maternal by Children's Services.
In Section 7 reports and used in Family court proceedings with no factual evidence
to substantiate the allegations made.

(2) If these parents grandparents were investigated regarding these allegations in
reports are the reports of the investigations and the factual evidence kept on
record for future reference and made obtainable for court proceedings against Bridgend country council when requested by litigants in person or solicitors.

(3) How many of these complaints were fully investigated by the local authority and HCPC

(4) How many concerns have been received from the HCPC / social care wales regarding Bridgend country council
children's Services regarding unqualified unregistered social workers in your
employment and malfeasance in public office.

(5) Can you please look at each individual file from Sept 2015 /2018 to review the detail to
see if it matches the information l have asked for in this request.

Yours faithfully,
Vivienne Baker

foi, Bridgend County Borough Council

Dear Sir/Madam

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST X01-7412

 

We acknowledge your request for information received on 19 March 2018.

 

We are considering your request and you should receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days, unless the information is
exempt or we require additional time to consider whether disclosure is in
the public interest in accordance with section 2 of the Freedom of
Information Act.

 

We will try to supply information in electronic format by email, but if
this is not possible we will let you know. If you have any special
requirements e.g. language, audio, large print, etc. then please let us
know.

 

The Act defines a number of exemptions which may prevent release of the
information you have requested. Before we provide the information we will
consider whether it is proper to release it and if any of the exemption
categories do apply then the information will not be released. We will
tell you if this is the case, and you will have a right of appeal.

 

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then
they may be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to
release the information to you. We will tell you if this is the case.

 

You may have to pay a fee for this information. We will consider this and
let you know. If so you will have to pay the fee before we process and
release the information.

 

If you have any queries or concerns, then please contact me directly. You
can find out more about the Act from the Information Commissioner at:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office – Wales

2nd Floor

Churchill House

Churchill Way

Cardiff

CF10 2HH

Telephone: 02920 678400 Fax: 02920 678399

Email: [email address]

Website: https://ico.org.uk/

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Y Swyddfa Rhyddid Gwybodaeth | Freedom of Information Office

Gwasanaethau Gweithredol a Phartneriaethol  |  Operational and Partnership
Services

Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Pen-Y-Bont ar Ogwr | Bridgend County Borough
Council

Ffon / Phone: (01656) 643473

Ffacs / Fax: (01656) 657899

 

E-bost / E-Mail [Bridgend County Borough Council request email]

Gwefan / Website: www.bridgend.gov.uk

Rydym yn croesawu gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg. Rhowch wybod i ni os mai Cymraeg
yw eich dewis iaith.

We welcome correspondence in Welsh. Please let us know if your language
choice is Welsh.

 

 

show quoted sections

foi, Bridgend County Borough Council

Dear Ms Baker,

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST X01- 7412

 

We refer to your email dated 19 March 2018 which contained a request for
information as set out in italics below.  Following consideration of your
request, in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I respond
to each point as follows:

 

1a) How many complaints have been made to Bridgend country Council
regarding Children's Services from September 2015 to 2018.

 

2015/16 – 103

2016/17 - 137

2018/18 – 177 (to date – figs to be finalised April 2018)

 

(1 b) Regarding unsubstantiated allegations made against parents-
grandparents --

paternal- maternal by Children's Services.

In Section 7 reports and used in Family court proceedings with no factual
evidence to substantiate the allegations made.

 

(2) If these parents grandparents were investigated regarding these
allegations in reports are the reports of the investigations and the
factual evidence kept on record for future reference and made obtainable
for court proceedings against Bridgend country council when requested by
litigants in person or solicitors.

 

(3) How many of these complaints were fully investigated by the local
authority and HCPC

 

(4) How many concerns have been received from the HCPC / social care wales
regarding Bridgend country council children's Services regarding
unqualified unregistered social workers in your employment and malfeasance
in public office.

 

(5) Can you please look at each individual file from Sept 2015 /2018 to
review the detail to see if it matches the information l have asked for in
this request.

 

Whilst we can confirm that we hold the information requested, we have
estimated that the cost of complying with your request will exceed £450. 
We have made this calculation in accordance with Regulation 4 of the
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees
Regulations) 2004. This calculation was based on an hourly rate of £25.00
for the cost of locating, retrieving and extracting information involved
in the processing of your request.

 

To achieve this would exceed the period of 18 hours.

 

We do not hold the information requested in a readily accessible format.
To be able to respond to questions (1b) to (5) we would have to examine
each of the 417 complaint files individually to identify and extract the
information requested.

 

Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act we are not obliged to
comply with a request for information if we estimate that the cost of
compliance would exceed £450.  This letter is therefore a formal Refusal
Notice under section 17(5) of the Act.

 

It may be that we can supply some information if you can refine or reduce
your request to more manageable proportions and resubmit your request so
that it brings the cost within the appropriate limit.

 

Alternatively, if you wish to pay a full search and retrieval fee, we may
be prepared to consider your request under Section 13 of the Freedom of
Information Act which allows us to charge a fee where the estimated costs
exceed the £450.00 limit. 

 

I hope this response satisfies your request. If you are dissatisfied with
the handling of the request, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 you
have the right to request a review of the Council’s response to your
request for information.  If you wish to request a review, please write
to:

 

Mr P A Jolley

Corporate Director, Operational and

Partnership Services and Monitoring Officer

Bridgend County Borough Council

Civic Offices,

Angel Street

Bridgend, CF31 4WB

 

within 28 days of the date of this letter.  If you remain dissatisfied
with the outcome of that review, you may seek further recourse by lodging
an appeal with the Information Commissioner at:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office – Wales

2^nd Floor

Churchill House

Churchill Way

Cardiff

CF10 2HH

Tel:  02920 678400

Fax:  02920 678399

E:mail : [1][email address]

Website:  [2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely

--

Freedom of Information Office

Bridgend County Borough Council

Level 2, Civic Offices

Angel Street

Bridgend

CF31 4WB

Tel: 01656 643565

Email: [Bridgend County Borough Council request email]

 

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear foi,
Could you then advice me on what information you have on file.
Within the cost of the search on all matters set out.

Yours sincerely,

Vivienne Baker

foi, Bridgend County Borough Council

Dear Ms Baker,

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST X01-7412

 

We refer to your email dated 30 April 2018 which contained a refined
request for information following our refusal notice issued on 18 April
2018 request for information as set out in italics below. 
Following consideration of your request, in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, I respond to each point as follows:

 

Could you then advice me on what information you have on file.

Within the cost of the search on all matters set out.

 

(1a) How many complaints have been made to Bridgend country Council
regarding Children's Services from September 2015 to 2018.

2015/16 – 103

2016/17 - 137

2018/18 – 177 (to date – figs to be finalised April 2018)

 

(1 b) Regarding unsubstantiated allegations made against parents-
grandparents --

paternal- maternal by Children's Services.

In Section 7 reports and used in Family court proceedings with no factual
evidence to substantiate the allegations made.

Social Services complaints would not deal with issues raised within court
proceedings. From a legal point of view the question is extremely broad –
are you asking about allegations of a specific nature or just any type of
allegation? To check if allegations made against any parent/grandparent in
any section 7 or other document within family court proceedings were found
within the report to be unsubstantiated would require locating every file
and reading every report. The time to do this would be prohibitive as the
number of assessments which would have to be checked would be vast.

 

(2) If these parents grandparents were investigated regarding these
allegations in reports are the reports of the investigations and the
factual evidence kept on record for future reference and made obtainable
for court proceedings against Bridgend country council when requested by
litigants in person or solicitors.

As set out in 1b above it would be a mammoth task to identify all of the
potential cases for which you seek information. In generic terms, from a
legal department perspective, court cases once concluded are archived and
stored. In terms of whether reports are made available for proceedings
against Bridgend CBC when requested by litigants in person or solicitors,
BCBC will disclose reports as ordered by the court within proceedings.

 

(3) How many of these complaints were fully investigated by the local
authority and HCPC

Please see response to question 1(b).

 

(4) How many concerns have been received from the HCPC / social care wales
regarding Bridgend country council children's Services regarding
unqualified unregistered social workers in your employment and malfeasance
in public office.

We have not received any direct communication from HCPC/Social Care Wales
regarding any of our employees.

 

(5) Can you please look at each individual file from Sept 2015 /2018 to
review the detail to see if it matches the information l have asked for in
this request.

The Authority does not hold the information as detailed above.

 

Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing you with this
response.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of the request, under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 you have the right to request a review of
the Council’s response to your request for information.  If you wish to
request a review, please write to:

 

Monitoring Officer

Bridgend County Borough Council

Civic Offices,

Angel Street

Bridgend, CF31 4WB

 

within 28 days of the date of this letter.  If you remain dissatisfied
with the outcome of that review, you may seek further recourse by lodging
an appeal with the Information Commissioner at:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office – Wales

2^nd Floor

Churchill House

Churchill Way

Cardiff

CF10 2HH

Tel:  02920 678400

Fax:  02920 678399

E:mail : [1][email address]

Website:  [2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely

--

Freedom of Information Office

Bridgend County Borough Council

Level 2, Civic Offices

Angel Street

Bridgend

CF31 4WB

Tel: 01656 643565

Email: [Bridgend County Borough Council request email]

 

 

 

 

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We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Vivienne Baker please sign in and let everyone know.