Thank you for your e-mail requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

We will proceed with the request which we received today. It is our
intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible
otherwise within the statutory 20 working days.

In consideration of the request, which may be subject to any exemptions/
exceptions the Council may rely on to refuse the request, some of which
are absolute and some of which only apply where the public interest in
maintaining the exemption/exception outweighs that in disclosing the
information.

Please note that should you be requesting information under the
Environmental Information Regulations although we provide free access to a
wide range of information through our website, access to any public
registers which we hold and for inspecting information at our offices, we
are allowed to charge you a reasonable fee for providing certain
information.  If applicable, we will issue you with a fee notice.  This
will detail the tasks involved in responding to the request, and
associated costs.  Further information is available on the EIR page of
Bedford Borough Council’s website at the following link:

[1]http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...

Please note that once a response has been forwarded to you an anonymised
summary of all requests appear on the Bedford Borough website at the
following link:

[2]http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...
Our current practise is that the information will be available to view on
the web for 2 years.

Any future correspondence you may have with the Council in relation to
this matter should be emailed to [3][Bedford Borough Council request email] .

Any emails containing personal or sensitive data will be sent as ‘secure
e-mails’.  In order for you to access a secure email you will be asked to
create an account and log into the Council’s secure e-mail reply service. 
If you do receive a secure email there will be instructions explaining how
to do this.

“Confidentiality: The information contained in this e-mail and any
attachment may be confidential and may contain legally privileged
information. It is intended only for the use of the named recipient. If
you are not the named recipient, please notify us immediately and delete
it from your system. In such an event, you should not disclose the
contents of this e-mail to any other person, or print it.”

References

Visible links
1. http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...
2. http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...
3. mailto:[Bedford Borough Council request email]

Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure

Dear Ms Savage

Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No 11537

I refer to your recent enquiry for information held by the Council. 

Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the authority must
state whether or not the information exists and I confirm that we do hold
the information you requested.

Please find the information you requested enclosed. 

You requested:

1.a. How many children became looked-after in your local authority in
2016? Answer: 133

1.b. Of the children from 1.a. how many were in a group of siblings of two
or more? Answer: 59

1.c. How many of the above children were initially placed in Kinship
Care/Family and Friends care/Connected Persons care in 2016? Answer: 8

2. How many looked-after children are currently placed following care
proceedings:

a. With long-term local authority foster carers Answer: 40

b. In kinship care foster placements Answer: 15

3.a. How many applications to be a kinship carer did you receive in 2016
in respect of children subject to Care Proceedings?  Answer: 3

3.b. Of the above (3.a.), how many applications were the subject of
Viability Assessments? Answer: 3

3.c. Of the applications subject of Viability Assessments in 2016, how
many were successful and how many were unsuccessful? Answer:  We do not
hold/record this information. We are unable to give a figure for all
applications as some are for private proceedings which the Fostering Team
do not have any involvement in.

4. How many prospective Kinship Carers failed to be approved as family and
friends Carers after a full assessment in 2014, 2015 and 2016
respectively? Answer: None were refused at panel

5. How many children in your local authority in 2016 have been made the
subject of a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) following Care Proceedings?
Answer: 7

6. How many foster carers in your local authority are currently prepared
for and approved to be long-term foster carers of sibling groups of:

      a) 2 Answer: 9

      b) 3 or more  Answer: 6

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder.  For
further information regarding Re-use of Public Sector information please
see link below.

If after viewing the information you are for whatever reason unhappy with
our response to your application you are entitled to pursue any
dissatisfaction through the Council's Internal Review Procedure.  Pursuant
to Section 17 (7) of the Act the procedure provided by the Council for
dealing with complaints about the determination of this request for
information is the Council’s FOI Complaints Procedure, a copy of which can
be obtained on request or is set out at: 
[1]http://www.bedford.gov.uk/council_and_de...

Yours sincerely
Daniela

Daniela Hanson
Freedom of Information Administrator (Children's Services)
Support Services
Children's Services
Bedford Borough Council, Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP
Tel: 01234 276749 (Internal 44749)
[2]www.bedford.gov.uk 

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