Deaths of children and young adults while in care of Croydon Council

The request was partially successful.

Dear Croydon Borough Council,

Please provide the statistics for the number of deaths of children and young adults while in the care of Croydon Council for each of the past five years (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020).

I am not expecting you to identify any of those involved in the fatalities, but for each case please detail the cause of death, whether it was treated as a murder, suicide or other cause (please specify where possible), and the date of the incident.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

S Downes

Croydon Council, Croydon Borough Council

FOI/EIR request
Our reference: 2914254

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Croydon Council, Croydon Borough Council

1 Attachment

FOI/EIR request
Our reference: 2914254

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Dear Croydon Council,

You have failed to answer my FoI request.

Specifically, I requested: "I am not expecting you to identify any of those involved in the fatalities, but for each case please detail the cause of death, whether it was treated as a murder, suicide or other cause (please specify where possible), and the date of the incident."

Please provide this information as a matter of some urgency.

Yours sincerely,

S Downes

FOI, Croydon Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Downes,

Thank you for your email.

Please see attached the response issued to you on 15/12/20.

Kind regards

Information Team

Bernard Weatherill House
7th Floor Zone C
8 Mint walk
Croydon CR0 1EA

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Dear Croydon Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Croydon Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Deaths of children and young adults while in care of Croydon Council'.

I have now twice asked for a set of information, and the response received has been incomplete.

The response provided in December provided only the figures for the number of deaths of children in the council's care.

My request specifically requested: "I am not expecting you to identify any of those involved in the fatalities, but for each case please detail the cause of death, whether it was treated as a murder, suicide or other cause (please specify where possible), and the date of the incident."

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

Yours faithfully,

S Downes

Croydon Council, Croydon Borough Council

FOI/EIR request
Our reference: 2914254

show quoted sections

Passman, Howard, Croydon Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Downes

 

Thank you for your email dated 24 February 2021 in which you requested an
Internal Review of the Council’s response to your request for information.

 

I have been asked to conduct an Internal Review of the Council's response
to your request for information, and will endeavour to provide a response
as quickly as possible. The deadline for this Review is 24 March 2021,
unfortunately, it was passed to me on Friday.  Please accept my apologies
for any consequently delay in responding to you.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Howard Passman

020 8726 6000 ext. 62318

 

Information Management and Governance Co-ordinator

 

[1]cid:995D36CC-63D9-452C-921A-47E295D9BC0F

Resources Department

Legal Services

7th Floor Zone C
Bernard Weatherill House

8 Mint Walk

Croydon CR0 1EA

 

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Dear Mr Passman,

Thanks for your note.
I'm afraid that this is to good enough.
"The deadline for this Review is 24 March 2021, unfortunately, it was passed to me on Friday."

When you were passed this request is irrelevant. The council has a responsibility under the law, in this case the Freedom of Information Act, to uphold the law. This request was submitted on Dec 10 last year. The internal review has been requested because the council failed to answer the request properly within the time permitted.

I expect to receive a full response to my FoI request by the relevant deadline: Mar 24, and not a day later.

Yours sincerely,

S Downes

Passman, Howard, Croydon Borough Council

Dear Mr. Downes

 

Further to your email dated 24 February 2021 in which you requested an
Internal Review of the Council’s response to your request for information,
considered as request made under the Freedom of Information Act, I have
now concluded this review and I am able to reply as follows. Please
accept, my apologies for the delay in replying.

 

In your request for Internal Review, you asked the Council to reconsider
your request as had not been provided with the information requested.

 

In your request for information dated 10 December 2020, you requested the
following information:

 

“Please provide the statistics for the number of deaths of children and
young adults while in the care of Croydon Council for each of the past
five years (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020).

 

I am not expecting you to identify any of those involved in the
fatalities, but for each case please detail the cause of death, whether it
was treated as a murder, suicide or other cause (please specify where
possible), and the date of the incident.”

 

The Council responded to you on the 15 December 2020 and provided the
following response:

 

“Please provide the statistics for the number of deaths of children and
young

adults while in the care of Croydon Council for each of the past five
years (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020).

2016 – 0

2017 – 2

2018 – 0

2019 – 0

2020 – 2”

 

In your request for an Internal Review dated 26 February 2021, you stated
the following:

 

“I am writing to request an internal review of Croydon Borough Council's
handling of my FOI request 'Deaths of children and young adults while in
care of Croydon Council'.

 

I have now twice asked for a set of information, and the response received
has been incomplete.  

 

The response provided in December provided only the figures for the number
of deaths of children in the council's care.

 

My request specifically requested: "I am not expecting you to identify any
of those involved in the fatalities, but for each case please detail the
cause of death, whether it was treated as a murder, suicide or other cause
(please specify where possible), and the date of the incident."”

 

On receiving your request for an Internal Review, I contacted the Head of
Quality Assurance & Safeguarding, who has provided additional information
in answer to the issues raised in your Internal Review.

 

In respect of information as whether the deaths were “treated as a murder,
suicide or other cause (please specify where possible), and the date of
the incident” was not provided to you. The Council considers that this
information, cannot be provided as requested, as it owes a duty of
confidence to third parties, in particular family members.  Given the low
numbers involved the Council considers that there is a risk of
identification by aggregation of information requested and that which may
already be in the public domain and as a result it is unable to provide
you with all the information requested.

 

Lastly I have been informed that the figure for 2020 was incorrect and
should have been 3 and not 2.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the Internal Review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Howard Passman

020 8726 6000 ext. 62318

 

Information Management and Governance Co-ordinator

 

 

Resources Department

Legal Services

7th Floor Zone C

Bernard Weatherill House

8 Mint Walk

Croydon CR0 1EA

 

To allow us to deal with the disruption caused by Coronavirus /COVID-19
please communicate with us only by email and not by post. Our lawyers and
support colleagues may be working from different locations. Legal Services
will communicate electronically only. We do not have a fax in our service.
We will accept service of court proceedings for the Council by email on
any business day between the hours of 9am and 4.30pm. Any email received
after 4.30pm will be deemed to be served on us the next business day. The
email address for service is [email address]

Council services, online, 24/7 www.croydon.gov.uk/myaccount.

Please use this web site address to view the council's e-mail disclaimer -
http://www.croydon.gov.uk/email-disclaimer