Policies and Procedures / Social Services - Child Adoption

The request was partially successful.

The Advocacy Fund

Dear North Yorkshire County Council,

Under the Freedom of information act please can you send to me electronic copies of

A The policies and procedures which relate to social services removing children from the care of their parents.

B The criteria which has to be fulfilled to make a child eligible for being adopted out of a parents care

C What psychological assessments are used on the parents? (or other assessments) and a copy of a blank version.

PLEASE NOTE FOR CLARITY SAKE:

This FOI is made by the following organisation and not by an individual

This FOI Request is made by the Advocacy Fund which is an organisation and not by an individual.

http://advocacy-fund.org

ICO Section 8 Guidance states:

In the case of a company, it is not necessary to provide the full registered name. It will be acceptable to provide another name which exists as a real entity, such as a trading name.

Also under the guidance an email address is considered sufficient under the DPA for an address.

FOR CLARITY:
The Advocacy Fund is the Name of the organisation that is managed by Advocati Massa Ltd (Reg In England), who appoints it officers. Both are Not for Profit Organisations.

Both are real names in law and this FOI request is therefore compliant with the FOI Act and section 8 Guidance.

Please Forward all Responses to our Information Officer

Yours faithfully

Jane Clearly
Information Officer
The Advocacy Fund

Data Management Officer, North Yorkshire Council

Dear Ms Clearly

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom Of Information Act 2000, of which we acknowledge receipt.

Your request has been passed to the appropriate officer to provide a response as soon as possible, and in any event within 20 working days, as required by the Act.

Kind regards

Paul Atkinson, for

Data Management Officer
North Yorkshire County Council
01609 533219 [email address]

show quoted sections

Kathy Peacock, North Yorkshire Council

2 Attachments

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your request for information, please find below our reply.

A. Please see attached a copy of the NYCC guidelines that are followed when Children's Social Care remove a child from the care of their parents. Some personal details have been removed from this document. We are withholding this information under section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which exempts personal information from disclosure if disclosure would breach one or more principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. In this case we consider that disclosure would breach the first principle, namely that personal information must be fairly and lawfully processed and must meet one of the conditions for processing as provided by schedule 2 of the Act. In this case we consider that the disclosure would be unfair and unlawful and none of the conditions for processing would be met.

I have attached a copy of the appeals procedure for your information.

B. The law dictates the criteria to be fulfilled when considering whether a child should be placed for adoption. This is contained in section 1 Adoption & Children Act 2002, which refers to any harm suffered under section 31 Children Act 1989. This can be found at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002...

C. NYCC commission individual psychological assessments jointly with other parties within care proceedings as and when required and therefore do not hold a blank assessment. Psychologists are independent experts used within care proceedings when considered appropriate by the Court.

I hope you find this information of use.

Kind regards

Kathy Peacock

Room SB09
County Hall
Northallerton
North Yorkshire
DL78AE
01609532107/07974768883

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk.

WARNING

Any opinions or statements expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily those of North Yorkshire County Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this in error, please do not disclose any information to anyone, notify the sender at the above address and then destroy all copies.

North Yorkshire County Council’s computer systems and communications may be monitored to ensure effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. All GCSX traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Although we have endeavoured to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are free from any virus we would advise you to take any necessary steps to ensure that they are actually virus free.

If you receive an automatic response stating that the recipient is away from the office and you wish to request information under either the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Environmental Information Regulations please forward your request by e-mail to the Data Management Team ([email address]) who will process your request.

North Yorkshire County Council.