LA employing expert witnesses.Recent concerns of misconduct / within children's social services

The request is waiting for clarification. If you are Sheila Hersom, please sign in to send a follow up message.

Dear Haringey Borough Council,

Please list under the Freedom of information Act the following:

With recent findings of misconduct of social workers and corruption from independent expert witnesses the LA pay or employee, please supply statistics for the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

1. How many forced adoptions or care proceedings have your LA taken against service users in the last 5 years

2. How many of these care proceedings / forced adoptions did the LA entail the work of an “expert witness”

3. How many of these expert witness reports sided with the LA?

4. How many of these expert witness reports sided with the service user?

5. Does the LA commission reports from the same expert witness in two or more separate cases?

6. Should the expert witness favour the service user, as in Q4, would / have the LA commission any further reports on separate cases from him / her?

7. How much has the LA spent on expert witnesses in the last 5 years?

8. Have the LA refused to pay an expert witness for services commissioned, or any court proceedings been undertaken in regards of the LA refusal to pay / part pay an expert witness? Please supply reasons for failure or refusal of payment.

9. Have any of the social workers / expert witnesses been that your LA employee or commission been under suspicion (by a service user, GSCC or any LA) of any fraud, misconduct or gross misconduct? Please supply details.

10. Have any of the social workers / expert witnesses been that your LA employee or commission been found guilty (by a service user, GSCC or any LA) of any fraud, misconduct or gross misconduct? Please supply details.

11. Should there have been a forced adoption or care proceedings taken place where a child is “illegally” and “forcibly” removed from its parents and, as in Q9 or Q10, social workers or expert witnesses have been found to be acting untoward (suspicion or guilty), how many cases have the children been rightfully returned to their parents?

12. Please state your policy or what consists of fraud, misconduct and gross misconduct and how you deal with this? How many cases have you had where these concerns have been raised? Please supply details.

13. How many social workers or expert witnesses has the LA commissioned / employed where complaints of fraud, misconduct or gross misconduct have been made? What action was taken

14. What action would be taken by the LA if a social worker “covered” the mistakes of another social worker?

Yours faithfully,

Sheila Hersom

FOI, Haringey Borough Council

Dear Ms Hersom,

 

Although you have indicated that you wish to make a request for
information, further to your 'right to know' contained in section 1 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), your email contains an enquiry
rather than a specific request for recorded information held by Haringey
Council.

 

Guidance given by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) states that
requests which are not for recorded information, but instead ask
questions, such as "please explain your policy on x" or "please explain
your decision to do y" are not requests for recorded information and
therefore should be treated as routine correspondence."

 

The ICO has produced guidance for people who wish to make a request for
information under the Freedom of Information Act, you can access it by
following this link:
[1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

 

Our web site contains detailed information about Haringey Council’s
structure and services. You may want to look at the information that is
available on the site and consider submitting a specific request for
copies of information held by the council. Alternatively, we can direct
your query to the appropriate council team to be dealt with as a normal
‘course of business' enquiry. Please advise how you would like to proceed.

 

 

Regards,

 

 

 

Ms Sirkku Pietikäinen | Feedback Review Officer | Haringey Council  |
Feedback & Information Governance Team | 020 8489 2552

 

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sandy Joyce left an annotation ()

Dear Sheila

I cannot see anything but reasonable questions here, i wonder why the LA is reluctant to answer this, I would take it to SCR

Dear Haringey Borough Council,

Thank you for your response, I have gone through my questions and on the majority of questions I have asked for information,

Questions 1, 2, 3*, 4*, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 are all asking for information

*Q3&4 I will re-phrase this question - out of all the expert witnesses employed by your LA, how many supported the LA / or supported the service user

Q12 I have asked for what constitutes misconduct / gross misconduct and fraud. I then ask how many complaints have been made within these categories or sub categories

Q14 is the only question I can see that asks for policy

Yours faithfully,

Sheila Hersom

name removed 23 Oct 2012 (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

10 April 2012

Dear Sheila

"Please provide the Haringey Council's policy on investigating complaints about their employees, including Social Workers"

This might be a substitute for Q14 as it specifically requesting the recorded information.

Best wishes

Rosemary

name removed 23 Oct 2012 (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

10 April 2012

Dear Sheila

So you have more than one option - one for FOI asking for recorded information and another for standard enquiry. And of course you do have the option of contacting your MP and the Care Quality Commission and PHSO, and European Parliament via MEP and the House of Lords.

Good luck with your search for information.

Best wishes

Rosemary

FOI, Haringey Borough Council

Dear Ms Hersom

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry but we do need further clarification from you in order to identify and locate the information that you have asked for.

Please clarify exactly what you mean by 'expert witness.'

Please note that we will take no further action on this request until we receive clarification from you.

We await your further feedback.

Yours sincerely

Jane Selby | Feedback Review Officer | Haringey Council | Feedback & Information Governance Team | 020 8489 1971

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sandy Joyce left an annotation ()

Why wait until now to ask what is meant by expert witness

Trying their best not to answer you suggests there's something to hide