The Number of Individual Referrals to Childrens Social Care Services

The request was refused by Cornwall Council.

Dear Cornwall Council,

In accordance with The Freedom Of Information Act [2000] I am requesting the following Information:

For clarity, in all requests, if the response to a specific question is ‘one case’ or ‘two cases, please respond with ‘fewer than three cases’. If the response to a specific question is ‘zero cases’, please say so.

• How many individual referrals to Children’s Social Care Services were made in your Local Authority, involving suspected Fabricated and Induced Illness (FII) and/or Muchausens By Proxy Syndrome (MBPS) in 2014?

• In those referrals involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2014, how are they defined to be genuine cases of FII or MBPS?

• Please provide a breakdown of the overall number of these referrals involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2014, by the type of organisation that made the initial referral. For the NHS and Local Authority categories, please break down by clinic/department.

Type of Organisation ------- Clinic or Department
NHS
Local Authority
Schools (please do not identify individual schools).
Other (Please describe type of organisation in this case)

Number of referrals made on the grounds of FII or MBPS for each of those departments in 2014.

Please provide these statistics in a table format.

• In how many of these referrals involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2014 were, children removed from families and placed for adoption? How many were returned to families? Please specify a figure for each question.

• In each of these referrals were suspected FII or MBPS was not substantiated. How many of these cases were, closed completely with records amended to reflect no FII or MBPS? How many were subject to on-going monitoring? Please specify a figure for each question please.

I look forward to receiving a response to this request within 20 working days from receipt as per section 10 of The Freedom Of Information Act [2000].

Yours faithfully,

Mrs C Emery

Freedom Of Information Mail, Cornwall Council

Dear Mrs Emery

 

Thank you for your four Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to Cornwall
Council, please note that as all four of your requests relate to the same
subject we have amalgamated them to be processed as one request under
Reference FOI-101003665663.   In normal circumstances we will provide a
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Children, Schools and Families - Freedom of Information, Cornwall Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mrs Emery,

 

Your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

 

Thank you for your request dated 10^th April 2018.

 

I can confirm that Cornwall Council holds information falling within the
description specified in your request.  However, we estimate that the cost
of complying with your request would exceed the appropriate limit of £450
as it would take at least more than 18 hours to locate, retrieve and
collate the information. This is due to the way the data is held which
would involve a manual search through our Childrens social care system, as
we do not report on your request about:

 

The number and referral of Fabricated and Induced Illness (FII) and/or
Muchausens By Proxy Syndrome (MBPS).

 

We would need to manually search the approximate number of referrals for
the requested years, to identify if FII or MBPS was involved:

 

2014 – 3400 taking approximately 850 hours

2015 – 3500 taking approximately 875 hours

2016 – 3000 taking approximately 750 hours

2017 – 4500 taking approximately 1125 hours

 

The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for Local
Government it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one
person spending approximately 2½ working days (18 hours) in determining
whether the Council holds the information, and locating, retrieving and
extracting the information.

 

 

If we do not hear from you within one month of receiving this letter, we
will assume you no longer wish to proceed.

 

Cornwall Council is committed to open and transparent government and
provides information to members of the public about all aspects of the
authority. 

 

We deal with around 2000 FOI/EIR requests for information each year, with
the cost to the Council ranging between £25 and £450 per request. You may
be able to find the information by checking previous responses on our
[1]Disclosure Log, the Council’s [2]Publication Scheme, or by checking the
Council’s website at [3]www.cornwall.gov.uk.  Therefore if you do
subsequently find the information you require by this method and no longer
wish us to process your request, please do let us know.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any further queries.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

 

If you wish to complain about the way the Council is dealing with your
request, please write to:

 

Freedom of Information Complaints

Cornwall Council

Room 4S

County Hall

Treyew Road

Truro

TR1 3AY

 

Email: [4][Cornwall Council request email]

 

If this does not resolve the matter to your satisfaction, you have the
right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner, their contact
details are:

FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Email: [5][email address]

Yours sincerely,

Edward Gunnell

Information Governance & Complaints Officer
Practice Development & Standards Service

Children & Family Service

Children, Schools & Families

Cornwall Council

Tel: 01872 323164

[6]csf[Cornwall Council request email]

3rd Floor, West Wing, New County Hall, Treyew Road, Truro TR1 3AY

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This e-mail and attachments are intended for above named only and may be
confidential. If they have come to you in error you must take no action
based on them, nor must you copy or show them to anyone; please e-mail us
immediately at [email address].

Please note that this e-mail may be subject to recording and/or monitoring
in accordance with the relevant legislation and may need to be disclosed
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004.

Security Warning: It is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that
this e-mail and any attachments are virus free. The Authority will not
accept liability for any damage caused by a virus.

References

Visible links
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2. http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/council-and-d...
3. http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/
4. mailto:[Cornwall Council request email]
5. mailto:[email address]
6. mailto:csf[Cornwall Council request email]
9. http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/onevision