Social Care FOI

[Name Removed] made this Freedom of Information request to Reading 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 Reading Borough Council,

1) What is the organisation structure of the Children's Social care department with employee numbers for each role?

2) Does Reading Borough Council employ staff who have had previous criminal records in the social care team in particular suspended sentences ? If the LA has a policy of not employing staff in social care with criminal requests is the check based on barring search or based on potential employee disclosure?

3) What is the standard procedure , standard operating procedures, policy for data sharing the outcomes of a CIN Section 17 Assessment with the SEND team for the EHCP Team? Please share the policy and Standard operating procedures as part of the reply for this question.

4) Please share a copy of a blank template of the SEND EHCP Social Care provision statement and the CIN Section 17 report template documents used by the Social Care Team. A copy of the consent form provided to families for engagement in the process.

5) Can the Voluntary CIN Section 17 Assessment (Disabilities not safeguarding)outcome be shared with parties without 'specific and informed consent'? If yes what is the legal basis of this for disabilities CIN assessment excluding safeguarding CIN assessments.

6) What specific postgraduate qualifications in disabilities does the LA expect its social workers to hold at the LA in their post if involved CIN disabilities assessment?

7) What is the LA process for initiating a parental carers assessment who cares for a child under the age of 16 years, is this a CIN Section 17 Disabilities Social Care Assessment ?

8) Please provide the Standard Operating Procedures for a Child In Need Assessment and explain how the CIN Section 17 Disabilities assessment and Safeguarding are different and what checks are done for each.

9) Please share a copy of the LA standard operating procedures for identification and decision making for CIN Section 17 Assessments disabilities and safeguarding thresholds that the LA use.

10) Is the legal basis of a CIN Assessment Section 17 offered in the voluntary framework of the Children's Act 1989?

11) Is the legal basis of family engagement in a CIN Assessment based on consent or another legal basis? Please clarify which.

12) Does the LA operate consent being specific and concise and informed in the process or open consent only? Please confirm if open consent the basis of this request.

Yours faithfully,

MR B K

FOI, CRT, Reading Borough Council

Thank you for contacting Reading Borough Council regarding a Freedom of
Information Request. If this is the first time you have contacted us with
this request, we will log your request and pass it on for a response to be
prepared for you. If you are requesting an update regarding a request you
have sent in previously, we will reply to your e-mail shortly.

 

Kind Regards

Customer Relations Team

0118 937 2905

FOIeng_GenMail,

If you have contacted us with an FOI or Subject Access Request, please
note:

We have been assessing the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on our ability
to continue to deliver our services in respect of  FOI requests and
Subject Access Requests, while at the same time protecting our colleagues.

We have been reviewing the developments and Government announcements on a
daily basis and have closely followed the advice issue by Public Health
England.

Our staff are working from home, flexibly, and we will endeavour to
continue to deal with your open enquiry however, there may be some
interruption to those making contact with us for the first time. This
means, during this time, we will log any new enquires received however we
may not be able to deal with it fully until the current crisis is over. If
you have already registered an FOI or SAR, with us, we may continue to
work on it and but please be aware our ability to progress cases may be
limited. This is because the Council is a front line response service and
considerable effort is being made to keep essential services running by
redeploy staff from other areas. In that context, we have to make
difficult decisions and it might take a bit longer to respond to your
enquiry.

We appreciate your support and understanding at this challenging time as
we endeavour to maintain essential services while protecting our staff and
customers.  We will update our website regularly to keep you informed.

 

FOI, CRT, Reading Borough Council

Dear [name removed] [name removed]

Please take this e-mail as an acknowledgement of your request for information under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (2000), received by Reading Borough Council on 26 February 2021. This has now been passed to the appropriate officer for a response.
In accordance with the Act, you can expect to receive a formal response to your enquiry by the 26 March 2021.

We may contact you prior to this date if we require further information from you.

PLEASE NOTE : On 1 March 2021, the process to submit Freedom of Information Act requests changed to an online request form via Reading Borough Council’s website.

Yours sincerely

Mr N Bullough
Customer Relations Officer
Customer Relations Team| Directorate of Resources
Civic Office
Bridge Street
Reading Borough Council
RG1 2LU
Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

show quoted sections

FOI, CRT, Reading Borough Council

6 Attachments

OFFICIAL

 

 

Dear Ms [name removed]

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

 

Thank you for your recent request received in this office on 26 February
2021.

 

You have requested the following information under the provisions of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000: Your request and our response are below:

 

 

 1. What is the organisation structure of the Children's Social care
department with employee numbers for each role? 

Organisation structure for the company is attached. The company employs
589 people in a variety of roles including frontline social care roles as
well as in support services

 

For your information, we are only able to provide you with the names of
individuals who it is deemed to be against the public interest to
withhold.  For the purposes of requests for information under the terms of
the Freedom of Information Act, this is deemed to be members of staff at
Assistant Director level and above.  The provision of the names of any
other individual members of these teams would constitute a breach of the
First, Second and Sixth Data Protection Principles and is therefore exempt
from disclosure by virtue of Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information
Act.

 

The Attachment shows the Senior Leadership roles that can be released.

2) Does Reading Borough Council employ staff who have  had previous
criminal records in the social care team in particular suspended sentences
? If the LA has a policy of not employing staff in social care with
criminal requests is the check based on barring search or based on
potential employee disclosure?  

 

Reading Borough Council promotes equality of opportunity for all and
welcomes applications from a wide range of candidates, including those
with criminal records. Candidates are selected for interview based upon
their skills, qualifications and experience.

 

According to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, candidates should
be only asked to declare convictions and cautions that are “unspent” under
the terms of the Act. However, certain positions, including those with
significant access to vulnerable groups, are exempt from the Act and as
such candidates are required to declare all convictions, cautions,
warnings or reprimands, even if they are “spent” (excluding those that are
“protected” and subject to filtering under the legislation). Such posts
are subject to a DBS check.

 

Where a positive disclosure is received, either from the individual or
later in the DBS disclosure, a fair and objective process is followed to
determine the candidate’s suitability for the post. Factors such as the
nature of the offence, the time elapsed, context and frequency are
considered.

 

3) What is the standard procedure , standard operating procedures, policy
for data sharing the outcomes of a CIN Section 17 Assessment with the SEND
team for the EHCP Team? Please share the policy and Standard operating
procedures as part of the reply for this question. See Appendix A
4) Please share a copy of a blank template of the SEND EHCP Social Care
provision statement and the CIN Section 17 report template documents used
by the Social Care Team. A copy of the consent form provided to families
for engagement in the process. See Appendix A & attached form

5) Can the Voluntary CIN Section 17 Assessment (Disabilities not
safeguarding)outcome be shared with parties without 'specific and informed
consent'? If yes what is the legal basis of this for disabilities CIN
assessment excluding safeguarding CIN assessments.  See Appendix A
6) What specific postgraduate qualifications in disabilities does the LA
expect its social workers to hold at the LA in their post if involved CIN
disabilities assessment? 

 

All social workers must hold a relevant social work qualification in order
to meet the statutory requirements for professional registration.
7) What is the LA process for initiating a parental carers assessment who
cares  for a child under the age of 16 years, is this a CIN Section 17
Disabilities Social Care  Assessment ? See Appendix A

 

8) Please provide the Standard Operating Procedures for a Child In Need
Assessment and explain how the CIN Section 17 Disabilities assessment and
Safeguarding are different and what checks are done for each. See Appendix
A
9) Please share a copy of the LA standard operating procedures for
identification and decision making for CIN Section 17 Assessments
disabilities and safeguarding thresholds that the LA use.

 

See Appendix A

 

10) Is the legal basis of a CIN Assessment Section 17 offered in the
voluntary framework of the Children's Act 1989? See Appendix A

 

11)  Is the legal basis of  family engagement  in a CIN Assessment based
on consent or another legal basis? Please clarify which. See Appendix A

 

12) Does the LA operate consent being specific and concise and informed in
the process or open consent only? Please confirm if open consent the basis
of this request. – Please find attached.

 

You are free to use any information supplied to you for your own personal
purposes or for non-commercial research, private study or news reporting.
However, you do not have the right to re-use the information in a way
which infringes copyright, for example, by distributing, making copies of
or publishing the information, without the permission of the copyright
holder, which in most cases will be Reading Borough Council. If you wish
to obtain permission for such use, please contact the Information
Governance Team, at Reading Borough Council by emailing
[1][Reading Borough Council request email].

 

Please note that your request may itself be the subject of a FOI request
and will be disclosed in that event.

 

If you are unhappy with this response to your request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act then you may ask for an internal
review. If you want an internal review carried out please make a request
by email to [2][Reading Borough Council request email].  If you request such a review and
are not content with its outcome, then you have a right to apply directly
to the Information Commissioner for a decision.  The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

 

Mr N Bullough

Customer Relations Officer

Customer Relations Team| Directorate of Resources

Civic Office

Bridge Street

Reading Borough Council

RG1 2LU

Team 0118 9372905

Direct 0118 9372726

[3]Website | [4]Facebook | [5]Twitter | [6]YouTube

[7]cid:image001.jpg@01D3A71D.49188430

 

 

 

 

 

 

OFFICIAL

 

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

The information in this e-mail is confidential to the intended recipient to whom it has been addressed and may be covered by legal professional privilege and protected by law. Reading Borough Council does not accept responsibility for any unauthorised amendment made to the contents of this e-mail following its dispatch. If received in error, you must not retain the message or disclose its contents to anyone. Please notify us immediately quoting the name of the sender and the addressee and then delete the e-mail. Reading Borough Council has scanned for viruses. However, it is your responsibility to scan the e-mail and attachments (if any) for viruses. Reading Borough Council also operates to the Protective Document Marking Standard as defined for the Public Sector. Recipients should ensure protectively marked emails and documents are handled in accordance with this standard (Re: Cabinet Office - Government Security Classification).

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Reading Borough Council request email]
2. mailto:[Reading Borough Council request email]
3. http://www.reading.gov.uk/
4. http://www.facebook.com/readingcouncil
5. http://www.twitter.com/readingcouncil
6. http://www.youtube.com/readingbc