IRO services and children looked after

The request was successful.

Dear Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council,

The information requested

This request seeks information about the independent review officer function for statutory reviews of children looked after by the authority. This information is requested for multiple time periods.

A. Personnel on date

1. Number of staff, in whole time equivalents (WTE), employed by the authority as IROs. This includes staff on permanent and fixed term contracts;
2. Number of people (WTE) engaged as IROs by the authority through a staffing agency;
3. Number of people (persons) approved by the authority to perform IRO functions who are neither employed nor engaged by the authority through an agency

Exclude personnel supervising or administering the activities of IROs.

This information should be provided as at one day of the year, for example 30 September. Please state which date has been used in the response.

B. Activity in year

Number of statutory reviews carried out in year by:

4. Staff employed by the authority as IROs on permanent and fixed term contracts;
5. People engaged by the authority through a staffing agency as IROs;
6. People approved by the authority to perform IRO functions that are neither employed nor engaged by the authority through an agency.

C. Expenditure in year

Expenditure, excluding payments for mileage and subsistence, on statutory review activity undertaken by:

7. Staff permanently employed by the authority as IROs. This includes staff on permanent and fixed term contracts;
8. People engaged by the authority through a staffing agency as IROs; and,
9. People approved by the authority to perform IRO functions who are neither employed nor engaged by the authority through an agency

Definitions

Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO)

An IRO is employed or retained by the authority and performs the following tasks:
• chairs the authority’s looked after children reviews;
• monitors the authority’s review of the care plan; and
• where necessary, refers cases to the Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) to take legal action as a last resort if the failure to implement the care plan might be considered to breach the child’s human rights.

If staff undertaking IRO duties carry out roles in addition to statutory reviews, for example, chairing child protection case conferences, pro rata the total number of WTE to reflect the proportion of time spent on children looked after.

Personnel supervising or administering the activities of IROs are excluded from this request.

Children looked after

‘Children looked after’ refers to children and young people who are:
• in an adoptive placement, prior to an adoption order, are covered by the legislation.
• subject of a care order (under section 31 of the Children Act 1989);
• voluntarily accommodated for a period of more than 24 hours (section 20 of the Children Act 1989), including those described in Short Break Care;
• placed for adoption under the Adoption and Children Act 2002; or,
• compulsorily looked after such as those remanded by the court to the local authority accommodation.

Statutory reviews

Statutory reviews are meetings chaired by an IRO which considers the plan for the welfare of the child, monitors the progress of the plan and make decisions to amend the plan as necessary in the light of changed knowledge and circumstances.

Frequency of reviews

Under the provisions of the Review of Children’s Cases Regulations (1991)3 local authorities are required to review the case of any child who is Looked After or provided with accommodation as follows:
• first review must take place within 28 days of the date upon which the child begins to be looked after or provided with accommodation;
• second review must be carried out no later than 3 months after the first review;,
• subsequent reviews shall be carried out not more than 6 months after the date of the previous review; and,
• reviews may be brought forward under certain circumstances

Years

All ‘annual’ data should be provided for financial years, i.e. 1 April to 31 March of succeeding year.

All ‘date’ data should be provided for one date in the financial year e.g. 31 March.

Expenditure

Expenditure excludes payments for travel and subsistence.

Expenditure includes:
• salaries and employer on-costs for staff employed by the authority on permanent and fixed term contracts;
• fees paid to staffing agencies as well as remuneration to individuals;
• fees paid to people approved by the authority to perform IRO functions that are neither employed nor engaged by the authority.

Yours faithfully,

Edward Rudolf

Dear Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council,

The time periods covered by this request are 2006/07, 2007/08, 2008/09 and 2009/10.

Yours faithfully,

Edward Rudolf

Alison Ross-dow, Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council

Hammersmith & Fulham - Information request - Information Management Team

Our reference: 303202

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Dear Mr. Rudolf

I am sorry to inform you that there will be a delay in providing the
information you have requested.

This delay is due to technical issues with the system used to process
requests for information as the system failed completely on Monday 06
December. The issues are being rectified however this has resulted in a
backlog of cases and a delay in responding to all requests.

We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible.

If you have any queries please contact me immediately.

Joan Power

Information Management Officer

Procurement and IT Strategy

SmartSpace 3rd floor

Hammersmith Town Hall

King Street, London W6 9JU

Hammersmith & Fulham Council

Ext: 020 8753 1990

Email: [1][email address]

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Alison Ross-dow, Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council

4 Attachments

Hammersmith & Fulham - Information request - Information Management Team

Our reference: 303202

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Dear Mr. Rudolf,

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Your request for information, received 12 November 2010, has now been
considered.

Your request
This request seeks information about the independent review officer
function for statutory reviews of children looked after by the authority.
This information is requested for multiple time periods.

A. Personnel on date

1. Number of staff, in whole time equivalents (WTE), employed by the
authority as IROs. This includes staff on permanent and fixed
term contracts;

2. Number of people (WTE) engaged as IROs by the authority through a
staffing agency;

3. Number of people (persons) approved by the authority to perform IRO
functions who are neither employed nor engaged by the authority
through an agency

Exclude personnel supervising or administering the activities of IROs.

This information should be provided as at one day of the year, for example
30 September. Please state which date has been used in the
response.

B. Activity in year

Number of statutory reviews carried out in year by:

4. Staff employed by the authority as IROs on permanent and fixed term
contracts;

5. People engaged by the authority through a staffing agency as IROs;

6. People approved by the authority to perform IRO functions that are
neither employed nor engaged by the authority through an agency.

C. Expenditure in year

Expenditure, excluding payments for mileage and subsistence, on statutory
review activity undertaken by:

7. Staff permanently employed by the authority as IROs. This includes
staff on permanent and fixed term contracts;

8. People engaged by the authority through a staffing agency as IROs; and,

9. People approved by the authority to perform IRO functions who are
neither employed nor engaged by the authority through an agency

Please see attached

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of this response, please contact
the Information Manager, Business Technology, 2nd floor, Hammersmith Town
Hall Extension, King Street, London W6 9JU or email:
[1][email address].

You can also obtain further information from the Information
Commissioner's Office at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 08456 306060
Website: [2]www.ico.gov.uk
Enquiries: [3]www.ico.gov.uk/Global/online_enquiries.aspx

Yours sincerely,

Jon Hill

Senior Information Management Officer

London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham

Information Management Team/Finance & Corporate Services

3rd Floor Smartspace

Hammersmith Town Hall

King Street

London W6 9JU

DL: 020 8753 5865

[4]www.lbhf.gov.uk

Director of Finance & Corporate Services: Jane West

References

Visible links
1. mailto:h&[email address]
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/online_enqu...
4. http://webapps3:8080/off/htmlarea/editor...

Dear Alison Ross-dow,

Thanks you for the prompt and full response to my request.

Yours sincerely,

Edward Rudolf

Ross-Dow Alison, Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council

Thank you for your enquiry. I am currently out of the office. If you have an urgent query about the following, please contact the appropriate officer below:
* Requests For Information and Information Rights Compliance - Jon Hill on 020 8753 5865;
* Offsite Archiving and Storage Service - Joan Power on 020 8753 1990;
* EDMS (Information @ Work) - Howell Huws on 020 8753 5025

All other urgent queries are to be referred to Ciara Shimidzu on 020 8753 3895. If you are making a request for information under either the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environment Information Regulations 2004, please email your request to: h&[email address].
Kind regards,

Alison Ross-Dow
Senior Information Management Officer
Information Management Team

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Hammersmith & Fulham - Local Government Chronicle "Council of the Year" 2010
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