Educational Concerns

The request was refused by Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council.

Dear Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council,

A) Can you please categorise how those known to the team dealing with elective home education became known? E.g. School, Doctor, self-referral, concerns about the educational provision reported etc.

i) Does the local authority seek to satisfy itself that the educational provision the parent(s) are providing is suitable to the child's age, aptitude, ability and any SEN as soon as they become aware that parents are electively home educating, regardless of how they become known to the local authority?

ii) How many instances have there been in the years (from January 1st to December 31st) 2015, 2016, 2017 and to the date of this FOI where the person dealing with elective home education has or has had concerns that a 'suitable' education is not being provided?

B) I would also appreciate it if this information could be broken down into categories:

1) whether they feel that no education is taking place?
2) whether they feel that the philosophy of education is inadequate - for example in the case of autonomous or child led learning, that the particular child is not appearing to be learning 'enough'?
3) whether there are concerns because the family have not implemented a structured approach?
4) or whether the fact that the national Curriculum is not being followed is causing concern?
5) a qualified third party is not involved in the child’s education?
6) An educational report has not been provided by a third party such as; a teacher etc.

C) I would like to know of these children, how many of these concerns were proven?

i) Of the children in the above 6 categories, please indicate if further steps have or are being taken - for example, referred to CME or issued with a School Attendance Order. Please break it down into each year asked for.

ii) Please indicate how many of these went to court in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

iii) Please also indicate if any Education Supervision Orders are currently in court for this population?

Finally, please provide all recorded documentation relating to elective home education including policies, procedures (2015 - present) and recorded communications relating to elective home education (2017 - present), including any e-mail attachments. This does not include communications between the Elective Home Education team and electively home educating parents or information that falls under S40 (which I expect to be redacted).

Yours faithfully,

J Carter

Data Protection, Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council

Thank you for your email. 

Your enquiry has been given the reference number 6248.  Please quote this in all future correspondence with regard to this enquiry.

We aim to respond fully to all emails from the public as soon as possible, where they are seeking a response. 

If you are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act or environmental Information Regulations, there is a 20 working day statutory timescale within which to provide the information requested, subject to any exemptions which may apply.  The 20 working day timescale will start on the first working day following receipt of your email.

If you have access to the Internet you may wish to see if your enquiry can be dealt with online at www.trafford.gov.uk.  The council's website enables many forms to be completed and payments to be made online, as well as providing comprehensive information.

Thank you
Trafford Council

show quoted sections

Jones, Nicola, Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear sir/madam
 
Further to your freedom of Information request dated 29^th April 2018
please see the Council’s response below:
 
 
I would like to advise that under the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
Trafford Council has a duty to supply any information on request, unless
there is an exemption. In this instance, the following absolute exemption
applies to some of the information you have requested, and thus because
the individual totals to these questions would be less than 5 it is
therefore potentially possible to identify the relevant child/ young
person. Where this is the case the figure will be shown as  <5
 
 
Section 40 – we cannot disclose all of the information to you because it
may be possible to identify individuals and this would be a breach of the
Data Protection Act.
 
 

A) Can you please categorise how those The majority come from schools
known to the team dealing with following the duty to inform us
elective home education became known? when a pupil is removed from roll
E.g. School, Doctor, self-referral, to be home educated. Some parents
concerns about the educational self-refer and a small number come
provision reported etc. from referrals from the Children
  Missing Education group or other
agency referrals.
 
i) Does the local authority seek to
satisfy itself that the educational
provision the parent(s) are providing
is suitable to the child's age, Yes, as soon as is practicably
aptitude, ability and any SEN as soon possible (0.4FTE)
as they become aware that parents are
electively home educating, regardless
of how they become known to the local
authority?
 
ii) How many instances have there been
in the years (from January 1st to
December 31st) 2015, 2016, 2017 and to
the date of this FOI where the person
dealing with elective home education <5
has or has had concerns that a
'suitable' education is not being
provided?
 
B) I would also appreciate it if this
information could be broken down into
categories:
 
1) whether they feel that no education
is taking place?
2) whether they feel that the
philosophy of education is inadequate
- for example in the case of
autonomous or child led learning, that
the particular child is not appearing
to be learning 'enough'? <5
3) whether there are concerns because
the family have not implemented a
structured approach?
4) or whether the fact that the
national Curriculum is not being
followed is causing concern?
5) a qualified third party is not
involved in the child’s education?
6) An educational report has not been
provided by a third party such as; a
teacher etc.
 
C) I would like to know of these
children, how many of these concerns <5
were proven?
 
i) Of the children in the above 6
categories, please indicate if further
steps have or are being taken - for
example, referred to CME or issued <5
with a School Attendance Order. Please
break it down into each year asked
for.
 
 
ii) Please indicate how many of these <5
went to court in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
 
iii) Please also indicate if any
Education Supervision Orders are
currently in court for this <5
population?
 
* Policy and flow chart available
on Council Website.
* Updated policy & procedures 
due September 18 pending new
DfE guidance.

 
 
 
 
Notice of Refusal Issued under
Section 12, Freedom of Information
Act, (2000)
 
Under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, Trafford Council has a
duty to supply any information on
request, unless there is an
exemption.
 
Please be advised that to supply
all the information that you have
requested, it is estimated to
* Finally, please provide all exceed the statutory limit of £450.
recorded documentation relating to  
elective home education including Although this information is held,
policies, procedures (2015 - we are unable to supply it to you
present) and; as it is estimated to take more
than 18 hours to determine, locate,
  retrieve and extract the
  information. This request is
  therefore refused under Section 12
  of the Freedom of Information Act
  2000.
   
This section relieves a public
* recorded communications relating authority from the obligation to
to elective home education (2017 - comply with a request for
present), including any e-mail information under Section 1(1) of
attachments. This does not include the Act where the estimated time
communications between the required to locate, review and
Elective Home Education team and extract the information exceeds a
electively home educating parents certain threshold set out in
or information that falls under Regulations. The Regulations set
S40 (which I expect to be out the cost limit for Government
redacted). departments and for other public
authorities. For local government,
  Regulation 3 states that the cost
limit is £450 and Regulation 4(4)
states that the prescribed hourly
rate is £25 which equates to 18
officer hours.
 
For this FOI request, it is
estimated that the time taken would
be in excess of the statutory 18
hours’ time limit because we do not
hold the information in the format
requested. To produce this
information would require an
officer to manually identify
potential cases then access and
review all archived emails from
members of staff (some who have
since left the council) to
establish if there is any
correspondence specific to this
request.  This will be a very
lengthy process and could take
weeks.
 
 

 
 
I hope this is helpful however if you are dissatisfied with the handling
of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review.
Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date
of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed
to: Information Governance Manager, Trafford Council, Town Hall, Talbot
Road Stretford M33 0TH or via email to
[1][Trafford Council request email]    
 
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.
 
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 faithfully
 
 
Nicola Jones
Integrated Customer Engagement Team Manager, Children, Families and
Wellbeing
Trafford Council
Trafford Town Hall
Talbot Road
Stretford
Manchester
M32 OTH
 
 
Tel:  0161 912 4698
Email: [2][email address]
 
Trafford Council is a well-performing, low-cost council delivering
excellent services to make Trafford a great place to live, learn, work and
relax.
You can find out more about us by visiting [3]www.trafford.gov.uk
The supply of information in response to a freedom of information request
does not confer an automatic right to re-use the information.  Under UK
copyright law you can use any information supplied for the purposes of
private study and non-commercial research without requiring permission.
 Similarly, information supplied can also be re-used for the purposes of
news reporting. An exception to this is photographs.
 
For other forms of re-use, for example publishing the information, you
would need the permission of the organisation or person who owns the
copyright.  In the case of information produced by government departments
and agencies you can re-use the information under the Open Government
Licence.  For information about this please see
[4]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...
If, however, the copyright is identified as belonging to somebody else,
you will need to apply for permission.  For information about how to
obtain permission from a third party, please go to Intellectual Property
Office’s website at [5]www.ipo.gov.uk
 
 
 
 
 
_____________________________________________

show quoted sections