S47 reports by Social Services
Dear Haringey Borough Council,
1. Taken from an extract from an article, link below, please can you tell me the rules and procedures to compile a s47 report
2. Please can you tell me over the last 5 years how many s47 reports your council has completed acting without outside agencies such as police
3. Please can you tell me how many s47 reports have been falsified or conducted illegally or maliciously
4. if any social worker was caught maliciously writing reports, such as revenge for complaints made against them, what action has been taken. What action was taken against the social workers in this case
"Except in dire emergencies, a Section 47 inquiry can only legally be ordered after a screening inquiry to eliminate groundless complaints, and an initial assessment with interviews. There must be evidence giving reasonable cause to fear significant harm, and a multi-agency strategy meeting involving police, health and education, should agree it. But Haringey acted completely alone."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/l...
Yours faithfully,
Michelle vonAhn
Dear Ms vonAhn,
Freedom of Information Request: Reference LBH/5459016
I acknowledge your request for information received on 04 July 2016.
This information request will be dealt with in accordance with the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 and we will send the response by 01 August 2016.
If you have any questions, please contact us on 020 8489 1988 or
[email address].
Yours sincerely,
Sirkku Pietikäinen
Information Governance Officer
Haringey Council
River Park House, 225 High Road, London N22 8HQ
T. 020 8489 2552
[1][email address]
[2]www.haringey.gov.uk
[3]twitter@haringeycouncil
[4]facebook.com/haringeycouncil
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Response by email to
[1][FOI #343516 email]
Sent on behalf of Neelam Bhardwaja
Assistant Director – Safeguarding & Social Care
Ms VonAhn
Thank you for your FOI request received on 4 July 2016. My responses are
attached to your original questions below.
1. Taken from an extract from an article, link below, please can you
tell me the rules and procedures to compile a s47 report We follow the
London Child Protection Procedures that clearly stated how S47 enquiries
should be undertaken.
2. Please can you tell me over the last 5 years how many s47 reports your
council has completed acting without outside agencies such as police None
as we always start with a strategy meeting which includes the Police and
other agencies who need to agree that a S47 is necessary and proportionate
to the presenting issues.
3. Please can you tell me how many s47 reports have been falsified or
conducted illegally or maliciously. There have been no s47 being reported
as being falsified or conducted illegally or maliciously.
We are not able to give you a precise figure because of the very low
numbers of social workers who have been disciplined for a number of
reasons and therefore the possibility that the individuals involved could
be identifiable. If it were possible to identify the individuals involved
from the information that we provide and other information that may be
available to people) it would be a breach of the Data Protection Act to
disclose the information. Where it would breach the Data Protection Act to
disclose information, that information is exempt from the Freedom of
Information Act under Section 40(2)].
Our general approach is not to provide a number when that number is 5 or
less in order to minimise the risk of identification.
4. if any social worker was caught maliciously writing reports, such
as revenge for complaints made against them, what action has been taken.
What action was taken against the social workers in this case See my
response to question 3 above.
A social worker found writing a malicious report would be subjected to
disciplinary procedures due to gross misconduct. A report would be made
to the HCPC.
If you have any further queries, or are unhappy with how we have dealt
with your request and wish to make a complaint, please contact the
Feedback and Information Team as below. (Please note you should do this
within two months of receiving this response.)
Feedback and Information Governance Team
River Park House
225 High Road
N22 8HQ
T 020 8489 1988
E [2][email address]
Regards.
Neelam Bhardwaja
Assistant Director – Safeguarding & Social Care
Haringey Council
The Children & Young People’s Service
1^st floor, River Park House, 225 High Road, London N22 8HQ
Tel : 020 8489 4676 – PA 3860
Email: [3][email address]
[4]www.haringey.gov.uk
facebook.com/haringeycouncil
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Opal Koboi left an annotation ()
The case described in http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/l... has several similarities to the Musa case. Specifically, Haringey Social Workers began a "Section 47" in the High Court based on a tip-off from a supposed neighbour.
Although the Musa case borders your reasonable five year window, documents filed in the High Court by Haringey Social Workers (in 2010 or so) included a very anomalous report with police markings which was undated and contained several typographic errors which were consistent with Optical Character Recognition. Even if the police used boilerplate text within their reports, I am at a loss why such text would be scanned from paper.
No individuals were ever held to account for such an obvious forgery.