Referrals of those who Abuse / Neglect Children

LS Palmer made this Freedom of Information request to Bournemouth Borough Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was partially successful.

Dear Bournemouth Borough Council,

1. In relation to the years from 2003 to 2010 Please could you provide your accounts in respect of

A. children's Services
B. Legal Services.

2. Since 2003, Regarding abuse/neglect of children by staff(employed and agency) of children's services, please could you provide a year by year breakdown of how many applications/referrals you have made to:

a. GSCC
b. The Criminal Court/Crown Prosecution
c. Independent Safeguarding Authority (or Scottish Equivalent).

3. Since 2003, Regarding abuse and neglect of children by clients of children and Family services, please could you provide a year by year breakdown of how many applications/referrals you have made to.

a. The Family Court
b. The Criminal Court/Crown Prosecution
c. The Independent Safeguarding Authority (or Scottish Equivalent).

Yours faithfully,

LS Palmer

Information Compliance, Bournemouth Borough Council

Dear LS Palmer

Freedom of Information Request

I am writing to acknowledge your request for information received on 21^st
January 2011.

We are dealing with your request and will be in contact with you again.

In respect of item 1 of your request, this information is exempt under the
Freedom of Information Act under Section 21 as the information being
sought is accessible to you by other means. The Council's budget book and
statement of accounts are publicly available on the Council's website at
the following link:
[1]http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/Library/PD....
Please refer to page 7 for Law & Governance and page 59 for Education &
Children's Services.

A response will be made within 20 working days to the remainder of your
request, either supplying you with the information which you have asked
for, or explaining why we cannot supply it. If we need any further
clarification we will contact you.

After we have responded to your request, you may receive a short feedback
form. You are under no obligation to complete the feedback form.
However, this will help us to assess and improve the service we provide.
If you would like to provide feedback with regard to the handling of your
request, you can do so by completing our online feedback form available on
the following link:
[2]https://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/secure/fe...

Yours sincerely

Rob Adams

Assistant Information Compliance Officer

Law & Corporate Governance

Telephone: 01202 451179

e-mail: [email address]

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.bournemouth.gov.uk

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Information Compliance, Bournemouth Borough Council

Dear LS Palmer

Information Request

In my letter dated 24^th January, we acknowledged receiving your request
for information and that we would contact you again.   Please see below
our response.

1. In relation to the years from 2003 to 2010 Please could you provide
your accounts in respect of

     A. children's Services

     B. Legal Services.

The Council's budget book, statement of accounts and treasury management
strategy are annually published to the Council's website.  Please refer
to published literature available on the following link: 
[1]http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/Council/De...

    

2. Since 2003, Regarding abuse/neglect of children by staff(employed and
agency) of children's services, please could you provide a year by year
breakdown of how many applications/referrals you have made to:

a. GSCC 

b. The Criminal Court/Crown Prosecution

c. Independent Safeguarding Authority (or Scottish Equivalent).

This statistical data is not recorded centrally in either an electronic or
paper-based format.  In order to provide a response, the Council would be
required to review each and every employment file to identify if any
applications/referrals had been made.  Unfortunately, the estimated costs
of undertaking the necessary search, retrieval and preparation work to
allow us to respond to your request will exceed the £450 fee limit as set
out in the Fee and Appropriate Limit Regulations 2005.  Therefore, the
Council is not obliged to provide you with the information. The fee limit
equates to a maximum of 18 hours of search, retrieval and preparation
time.   

3. Since 2003, Regarding abuse and neglect of children by clients of
children and Family services, please could you provide a year by year
breakdown of how many applications/referrals you have made to.   

a. The Family Court  As detailed in our response to item 2, this would
involve the manual review of each and every social care file to
extrapolate this information.  This would exceed the fee limit as set out
in the Fee and Appropriate Limit Regulations.

b. The Criminal Court/Crown Prosecution.  No recorded information held. 
It is the responsibility of the Police to bring criminal proceedings
against perpetrators.

c. The Independent Safeguarding Authority (or Scottish Equivalent).  No
recorded information held.  Additionally, ISA has only been in effect
since 2009/10.

A modified request will be given due consideration provided the work
involved does not, again, exceed the fee limit.  Any modification to your
request will be treated as a new request for the purposes of the Freedom
of Information Act.

Please contact us again if you require any further assistance on this
matter. 

You were advised in our acknowledgement to you that you may receive a
short feedback form.  This is to help us assess and improve the services
we provide.  This is to remind you that you may be selected to take
part.  However, if you want to provide feedback to us, you can do so by
completing the online feedback form on the Council's website on the
following link:
[2]https://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/secure/fe...

If you are dissatisfied with this response you can ask for a review, which
will be dealt with through the Council's complaints procedure. Details of
the complaints procedure can be found at:

[3]http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/Residents/...

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the Council's review you have
the right to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office.
Contact details for the Information Commissioner can be found at:

[4]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Rob Adams

Assistant Information Compliance Officer

Law & Corporate Governance

Telephone: 01202 451179

e-mail: [email address]

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.bournemouth.gov.uk  

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