Return Home Interviews (RHIs)
Dear Greenwich Borough Council,
I am writing with a freedom of information request for data relating to the content and outcome of Return Home Interviews (RHIs) provided for runaway or missing children by your authority.
When you respond with confirmation that you have received my request, could you please advise whether any clarification is needed in order to complete my request? Please ensure any questions arrive to me prior to the 20 day deadline.
Yours faithfully,
Poppy Damon
Please can you send over answers to the following:
+ How many recorded instances of missing then returned children did you have in your authority per year between Jan 1st 2014-Jan 1st 2019? If you can provide a per month break down please do.
+How many of these instances were children who had runaway more than once? If possible can you send a break down which shows a numbered list to indicate individual children and a second column with how many times they ran away? This would of course not include their name or any details.
+ A summary of the recorded outcomes or actions taken for all completed Return Home Interviews (for example a safeguarding referral, report to the police or to another service). I would like a breakdown of these for Jan 2014-Jan 2019. Ideally this would be laid out by outcome, beside a number of times this was taken. This would sit along side a number of how many RHIs were carried out in total per year. Excel or PDF formats are fine.
+ How many of these return interviews contained content about child exploitation?
+How many times were the police notified of potential child exploitation, following a RHI?
+ Can you send me the hiring requirements for staff employed in-house to carry out RHIs? If you outsource this service please respond with who does this for you.
+If you do not outsource and complete RHIs yourself - could you please provide the aide memoire/guidelines/checklist that you use when completing Return Home Interviews?
Dear Ms Damon
Freedom of Information request: FOI-25341
Thank you for your request dated 04 March 2019
Your request will be answered by 01 April 2019
If you have any queries about this request, please contact me, quoting the
reference number above.
Yours sincerely,
Jackie Jago
Head of Corporate Services
Corporate Services
Directorate of Central Services
Royal Borough of Greenwich
' 020 8921 5044
* Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW
ü Please consider the environment before printing this email
Dear Ms Damon
Freedom of Information request: FOI-25341*
Thank you for your request dated 04 March 2019
Our response is as follows:
+ How many recorded instances of missing then returned children did you
have in your authority per year between Jan 1st 2014-Jan 1st 2019? If you
can provide a per month break down please do.
See attached
+How many of these instances were children who had runaway more than once?
If possible can you send a break down which shows a numbered list to
indicate individual children and a second column with how many times they
ran away? This would of course not include their name or any details.
See attached
+ A summary of the recorded outcomes or actions taken for all completed
Return Home Interviews (for example a safeguarding referral, report to the
police or to another service). I would like a breakdown of these for Jan
2014-Jan 2019. Ideally this would be laid out by outcome, beside a number
of times this was taken. This would sit along side a number of how many
RHIs were carried out in total per year. Excel or PDF formats are fine.
See attached
+ How many of these return interviews contained content about child
exploitation?
Section 12
+How many times were the police notified of potential child exploitation,
following a RHI?
Section 12
+ Can you send me the hiring requirements for staff employed in-house to
carry out RHIs? If you outsource this service please respond with who does
this for you.
IRHI outsourced to National Youth Advocacy Service
+If you do not outsource and complete RHIs yourself - could you please
provide the aide memoire/guidelines/checklist that you use when
completing
N/A.
Section 12 exemption
The Council will not comply with parts (question 4 and 5) of the request
headed Return Home Interviews in accordance with section 12 of the Act
which states:-
Section 1(1) does not oblige a local authority to comply with a request
for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with
the request would exceed the appropriate limit.
The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004 (“the Fees Regulations) sets the appropriate limit
at £450 for the public authority in question. Under these Regulations, a
public authority can charge a maximum of £25 per hour for work undertaken
to comply with a request. This equates to 18 hours work.
A public authority is only required to provide a reasonable estimate or
breakdown of costs and in putting together its estimate it can take the
following processes into consideration:-
(a) Determining whether it holds the information
(b) Locating the information, or a document which may contain the
information;
(c) Retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the
information, and
(d) Extracting the information from a document containing it.
We have estimated the length of time it will take to do the following
tasks in accordance with section 12.
Determining whether we hold the information and locating the information,
or a document which may contain the information. It will take one officer
approximately 5 minutes to request the paper files from our off-site
archive. (Total 5 mins).
Retrieving and extracting the information.
To retrieve and extract the information one officer will have to read
through each case record, This would take approximately 11.5 minutes (1.5
minutes to locate file and 10 minutes to retrieve and extract the
information. 11.5 minutes x 1000 records /60 = 191 hours .
Total hours to complete the request equates to hours 191 hours + 5 minutes
We estimate that it will take us in excess of 18 hours to determine the
appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract the information in
reference to your request. Therefore your request will not be processed
any further.
Under section 16 of the Act the council is not able to provide advice and
assistance due to the large volume of records held by us.
If you have any queries about this correspondence, please contact me,
quoting the reference number above.
If you are not satisfied with our response to your request, you can ask
for an Internal Review. Internal review requests must be submitted within
two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original
request. If you wish to do this, please contact us in writing, setting
out why you are dissatisfied.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the Internal Review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision.
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
Internal Review procedure provided by the Council. You can contact the ICO
by emailing [1][email address], or by post at Customer Contact,
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely,
Jackie Jago
Head of Corporate Services
Corporate Services
Directorate of Communities & Environment
Royal Borough of Greenwich
' 020 8921 5044
* Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW
ü Please consider the environment before printing this email
From: foi
Sent: 05 March 2019 09:09
To: 'Poppy Damon' <[FOI #558168 email]>
Cc: foi <[Greenwich Borough Council request email]>
Subject: FOI-25341: Freedom of Information request - Return Home
Interviews (RHIs)
Dear Ms Damon
Freedom of Information request: FOI-25341
Thank you for your request dated 04 March 2019
Your request will be answered by 01 April 2019
If you have any queries about this request, please contact me, quoting the
reference number above.
Yours sincerely,
Jackie Jago
Head of Corporate Services
Corporate Services
Directorate of Central Services
Royal Borough of Greenwich
' 020 8921 5044
* Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW
ü Please consider the environment before printing this email
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