Good Morning,

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Information Request ENQ-467478-L0N0M8

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 received on 13 March 2021.

We have up to 20 working days in which to deal with your request; however, the current circumstances relating to Coronavirus (COVID-19) may impact on our ability to meet deadlines and so we may take longer to provide you with a response.

If we require clarification regarding your request, we will contact you to explain this. The 20 working day period will then start from the day that we receive your clarification.

You will also be informed in advance if there is a charge for supplying copies of the information.

Please also be aware that, if the requested information contains references to any third parties, we may need to consult these individuals about the release of their personal data before making a decision whether or not to release the information to you.

We will also provide an explanation if any information is not released to you.

For future reference please note that you can now submit FOI/EIR requests through our new online webform which can be found at https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/what-we-do-an....

Should you have any queries regarding your request, please contact the team by email [email address] or by telephone 01603 222661.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Cooper, Business Support Assistant
Information Compliance Team
Dept: 01603 222661
Bay 7-9, Ground Floor, County Hall, Norwich

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Dear Yohannes Lowe
 
Freedom of Information Request ENQ-467478-L0N0M8
 
I refer to your request for information dated 13 March 2021.
 
You asked for:
 

* Please can you break down the below information for the following
calendar years:  2019 and 2020. Can you also please provide me the
information for the period between 1 January 2021 and 28 February
2021.

 
Q1) Over the stated period, on how many separate occasions did a member of
the public contact your council to inform you they suspected that a child
was living in a private fostering arrangement (that hadn't been reported)?
In order to report such a suspected private fostering arrangement, people
are often directed to a council's children safeguarding board/children's
services team (or similar) or encouraged to fill out a form (such as via a
Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub) on the local authority's website. Please
can you break down Q1 in terms of what type of person reported the private
fostering arrangement (for example, but not limited to:
school/teacher,neighbour)
 
1a) How many of the children living under such private fostering
arrangements were found to have a disability (please specify what kind-
such as autism, down syndrome- if that information, indeed, is recorded
and retrievable under the constraints of the act)
 
1b) Following the subsequent completion of the Private Fostering
Assessment (or similarly titled) form, how many placements were found to
be prohibited?
 
1c) How many of the private foster carers had convictions recorded on
their DBS  disclosure form? Could you please breakdown all the above
information in a table and on a case to case basis over the requested
period.
 
 
Our response:  
 
Please see our response detailed within the following table.
 

Private
Referrals By Whom Disability Prohibited foster
(including but not     carer with
limited to     DBS
Year No. of school/teacher,     conviction
Referrals  neighbour)     recorded.
Q1      
  Q1a Q1b  
 
Q1c
1 Jan
to 31 All schools None
Dec 29   recorded  
2019    
     
1Jan 26- schools    
to 31 Other members of None   Less than 5
Dec 29 public less than 5 recorded Less than 5 over the
2020   over the whole
  whole period
1 Jan period  
to 28 Less than 5 Less than 5 None
Feb recorded
2021

 
 
Exemption under Section 40   
 
We are withholding exact low numbers under Section 40 of the Freedom of
Information Act, which states that if the information constitutes personal
data about a third party and any of the data protection principles would
be contravened by the release of the information, the County Council is
not required to provide the information.
 
The redacted data comprises of cases when the number is less than 5, as
due to the low numbers it may be possible to identify individuals from the
details, or by combining it with other information. The information that
you have requested relates to individuals within a highly specific set of
circumstances and could be used to identify them, therefore placing them
at risk.
 
If you are dissatisfied with our handling of your request you have the
right of appeal through the Council’s internal review procedure by setting
out the grounds of your appeal in writing to:
 
[1][Norfolk County Council request email]
or Information Compliance Team
County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich
NR1 2DH
 
An appeal should be submitted within 40 working days of the date of this
notice and should be identified as "FOI Appeal".
 
If you are dissatisfied after pursuing the complaints procedure, you may
apply to the Information Commissioner under Section 50 of the Act for a
decision whether your request for information has been dealt with in
accordance with the requirements of Part I of the Act.  Refer to the ICO
Website at: [2]https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ for advice on how to report a
concern.  Or you can write to them at:
 
First Contact Team
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane, Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
 
Yours sincerely
 
Information Compliance Officer 
Information Compliance Team, Insight and Analytics, Strategy and
Transformation 
Tel Dept: 01603 222661
Bays 7,8 & 9, Ground Floor, South Wing, County Hall, Martineau Lane,
Norwich 
  
 
 
 

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