Informal Residence/Special Guardian/Kinship Care Agreements

Samantha Kerr made this Freedom of Information request to Argyll and Bute Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was partially successful.

Dear Argyll and Bute Council,

Under FOISA please provide me with the information contained in your records as follows:
1. The Total amount of the tax payers money spent on Informal Residence/Special Guardian/Kinship Care Agreements since 1st April 2014 until present date?

Please break this figure down year on year month on month and week on week.
Please also include the number of types of agreement into your criteria, i.e. Informal Residence order: Informal Guardianship Order: Informal Kinship Carer Agreement?

2. The Total number of children that social work have arranged an Informal Residence/Special Guardian/Kinship Care Agreements since 1st April 2014 until present date?

Please break this figure down year on year month on month and week on week.
Please also include the number of types of agreement into your criteria, i.e. Informal Residence order: Informal Guardianship Order: Informal Kinship Carer Agreement?

3.Please provide me with your full policy and procedure used to ensure that all informal agreements are done so within the confines of the law.

I shall expect your full and frank response within 20 working days or I will be requesting an internal review with a view to getting this request to the Scottish Information Commissioner as quickly as I possibly can.

Yours faithfully,

Samantha Kerr

Administrator, Argyll and Bute Council


Dear Samantha Kerr

Request for information: Freedom of Information request - Informal
Residence/Special Guardian/Kinship Care Agreements

Thank you for your information request which we have logged as reference
argyllbuteir:10617.

It has been passed to the relevant service(s) for attention and you should
receive a response under either the Freedom of Information (Scot) Act 2002
or the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 by 2019-09-27
00:00:00.

Please quote the reference number above in any correspondence you may have
with the Council in regard to this request.

Regards

FOI Officer

Privacy information: Any personal information you have provided in
relation to this request will be used only for the intended purpose -
please read the full privacy notice to find out more about how your
personal information will be handled, and your rights under data
protection legislation.

Sinclair, David (Risk Management Assistant), Argyll and Bute Council

4 Attachments

Classification: OFFICIAL

Dear Ms Kerr

 

Request for information: Freedom of Information request - Informal
Residence/Special Guardian/Kinship Care Agreements

Reference: argyllbuteir:10617.

 

I refer to your request for information which was dealt with in terms of
the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).

 

I have attached the following information in fulfilment of your request:

 

A Spreadsheet with the response to Qs 1 and 2. Please note this
information covers both informal and formal kinship payments. We are
unable to separate this out as it not broken down to that level of detail
in the ledgers.

 

Q3. Please provide me with your full policy and procedure used to ensure
that all informal agreements are done so within the confines of the law.

 

Response: Informal kinship carers apply for and are awarded kinship care
orders (residence orders) by the courts. This can take a young person out
of the LAAC system unless there is a reason for them to remain LAAC.
Argyll and Bute recognise informal kinship carers as defined by Scottish
legislation and, where they meet the criteria, offer them kinship
assistance. This includes kinship allowances. I have attached a copy of
our Kinship Policy Procedures.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request for information
has been dealt with you are entitled to request a review by writing to the
Executive Director Customer Services, Argyll and Bute Council, Kilmory,
Lochgilphead, Argyll PA31 8RT, or by email to [1][Argyll and Bute Council request email].

 

Your request for review must state your name and address for
correspondence, specify the request for information to which your request
for review relates and why you are dissatisfied with the response. 

 

You must make your request for review not later than 40 working days after
the expiry of the 20 working day period for response to your initial
request by the Council, or not later than 40 working days after the
receipt by you of the information provided, any fees notice issued or any
notification of refusal or partial refusal.

 

If you make an application for review and remain dissatisfied with the way
in which the review has been dealt with you are entitled to make an
application to the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle,
Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9DS (Tel: 01334 464610) for a
further review. You can now do this online here -
[2]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal.

 

You must make representation to the Scottish Information Commissioner no
later than 6 months after the date of receipt by you of the notice or
decision you are dissatisfied with or within 6 months of the expiry of the
period of 20 working days from receipt by the Council of your request for
review.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

[3]David Signature

[4]roundel_fc_cmyk_with_initials_signature_0_0

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Dear Argyll and Bute Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Argyll and Bute Council's handling of my FOI request 'Informal Residence/Special Guardian/Kinship Care Agreements'.

Thank you for providing the information you have, but you have not supplied the costs or payments since 2014 nor the amount of children involved.

To assist I shall narrow the scope of this request to kinship care payments and the correlation of number of children these payments refer to from 1st April 2014 until present date, broken down year on year then month on month.

Many thanks

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

Yours faithfully,

Samantha Kerr

foi, Argyll and Bute Council

Classification: OFFICIAL

Dear Ms Kerr,

Thank you for your e-mail, a review file has been opened and passed to the Executive Director of Customer Services you should receive a response by 24th October 2019

Regards,

David Sinclair

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Hendry, Douglas, Argyll and Bute Council

Classification: OFFICIAL

Ms Kerr

 

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA)

Section 20 Review – argyllbuteir:10617

 

I refer to your email of 25 September 2019 in which you requested a review
of how the Council responded to your email of 30 August. I’ve noted that
the original request was responded to within the 20 working day timescale
on 24 September. 

 

I’ve reviewed the terms of your request and the response and it’s clear
that the information provided in the response fully complies with the
terms of your request, in respect of the information held by the Council.
The spreadsheet contains details of the information requested between the
years 15/16 and 19/20, it also clearly shows that the data for 14/15 is
not available.  

 

In that regard, the response should have confirmed that your request for
that years data had been refused in terms of section 17 of FOISA as it is
information ‘not held’ by the Council. I apologise that the response did
not do so. 

 

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which the review has been dealt
with you are entitled to make an application to the Scottish Information
Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9DS
(Tel: 01334 464610) for a review.  You can also do this online by visiting
[1]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal  

 

You must make representation to the Scottish Information Commissioner no
later than 6 months after the date of receipt by you of the notice or
decision you are dissatisfied with or within 6 months of the expiry of the
period of 20 working days from receipt by the Council of your request for
review. 

 

If you make an application for a further review to the Scottish
Information Commissioner and remain dissatisfied by the decision then you
may appeal on a point of law to the Court of Session. 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Douglas Hendry 

Executive Director 

 

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