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Missing Children

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Dear Leeds City Council,

Please can you tell me how many children went missing from care for each of the last 5 years (Jan to Dec 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013) and of these children how many were also reported missing from education and/or at risk of sexual abuse.

For each year please can you tell me the reasons given for why the children went missing.

Yours faithfully,
Chris Murray

DPFOI, Leeds City Council

Dear Mr. Murray

Freedom of information request Ref 21487 : Missing children 2013 - 17

Thank you for your request for the above information which we received 26, June 2018. We will respond to your request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

We have passed your request onto Nicola Palmer, Information Access Manager, Childrens & Families, [email address] who will arrange a response within the appropriate statutory time limit.

Please remember to quote reference number FOI 21487 in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Malika Doust
Information Governance Support Officer
Information Governance and Managements Team (City and Communities)
Digital Information Service

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IMG.AC.FOI, Leeds City Council

Dear Chris Murray,

 

Freedom of Information Request (Ref: 21487)

 

I refer to the above and your request dated 26, June 2018. I have
contacted the relevant services and now provide a response to the
following request regarding Missing children 2013 - 17.

 

Please can you tell me how many children went missing from care for each
of the last 5 years (Jan to Dec 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013) and of
these children how many were also reported missing from education and/or
at risk of sexual abuse. For each year please can you tell me the reasons
given for why the children went missing.

 

The following table shows a count of children who went missing from care
in each of the last four financial years (data do not exist beyond this
point in a reportable format, data is also not available in calendar years
as the statutory return is in financial years).  This is a count of
children, not a count of missing episodes (some children may have gone
missing from care on multiple occasions).  Reasons for children going
missing are not required for the statutory return on children looked after
- the SSDA903 (this is from where the data come).  Similarly, reasons such
as ‘at risk of sexual abuse’ are not required to be collected as part of
the 903 return, so we do not hold these data in a reportable format.

 

Financial year
2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18
Number
of
children
looked
after
missing
from
care 79 70 198 168

 

There are numerous different definitions for ‘missing from education’. 
Some of cohorts of children missing from education are held in central
databases/case management systems, some are not.  Given that there are
multiple ‘missing from education’ definitions, and we do not have a common
child identification number across our difference case management systems,
we are unable to match the children in care against the various missing
from education cohorts.  Any attempt to do this manually would take more
than 18 hours as individual episodes of missing from care would need to be
matched against missing from education (and in some cases, we record an
aggregate number of school sessions missed per term, but not the dates of
those missed sessions).

 

The reason that a child goes missing is not a required category for our
statutory returns. Therefore I am unable to provide a response to your
request as we estimate that it would take us over 18 hours to retrieve and
locate the information you have requested. Therefore your request falls
above the “appropriate limit”. This limit is set by fees regulations at
£450 (equally 18 hours) for public authorities such as ours and is
calculated using a rate of £25 per hour which is also prescribed under the
same regulations.

 

As a result under Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act we are
not obliged to provide the information which you have requested. We are,
however, still obliged under Section 1(a) of the Act to inform you whether
or not the information in question exists. I can confirm Leeds children’s
services holds the information requested. However the reasons for a child
going missing are not centrally recorded we would be required to manually
review the case notes of every child who went missing over four years and
this would take more than 18 hours.

 

I trust that this response is satisfactory. If however you are
dissatisfied with this response you have a right to appeal to an
independent officer within Resources and Housing. They will re-examine
your request and assess whether we have adhered to the requirements of the
act. Should you wish to follow this course of action please address your
concerns in writing to Moin Patel, Information, Knowledge & Procedures
Lead, Resources & Housing via email to [1][email address].

 

You also have a right under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act
to ask the Information Commissioner to decide whether we have met with our
obligations under the act.  The Commissioner has however made it clear
that he expects all applicants to exhaust internal appeals procedures
prior to making such an application. Should you wish to contact the
Commissioner’s office then you can write to the following address:

 

            Office of the Information Commissioner,

            Wycliffe House,

            Water Lane,

            Wilmslow,

            Cheshire,

            SK9 5AF.

 

You may also contact the Commissioner via his website at [2]www.ico.gov.uk

 

I trust that this is self-explanatory.  If you have any queries please
contact me on 0113 378 4251, or by return email.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr Adam O’Connell

Information Governance Assistant

Information Management & Governance

Digital and Information Service

Leeds City Council

 

0113 37 84251

[3]www.leeds.gov.uk

 

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References

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3. http://www.leeds.gov.uk/

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Chris Murray please sign in and let everyone know.