The number of individual referrals to Children’s Social Care Services

The request was refused by Aberdeen City Council.

Letter 3 - 2016

Dear Aberdeen City 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 2016?

• In those referrals involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2016, 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 2016, by the type of organisation that made the initial referral, as shown in the table. For the NHS and Local Authority categories, please break down by clinic/department (add rows as required).

Type of Organisation
Clinic or Department
Number of referrals on Grounds of FII or MBPS
NHS

Local Authority

Schools (please do not identify individual schools).

Other (Please describe type of organisation in this case)

• In how many of these referrals involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2016 were, children removed form 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

Foi Enquiries, Aberdeen City Council

Dear Mrs Emery,

 

Information enquiry reference FOI-18-0566.

 

Thank you for your recent request for information, which we received on 03
April 2018. 

 

The scheduled date for our response to your request for information is on
or before 01 May 2018.

 

Please be informed that we will provide one response to your requests
reference: Letter 2 – 2015, Letter 3 -2016 and Letter 4 – 2017.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries in the
meantime.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Salomeh Kheyri Rad
Information Compliance Officer

Information Compliance Team | Customer Feedback | Customer Experience

Aberdeen City Council,  Business Hub 17, 3rd Floor North, Marischal
College,

Broad Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1AB
Tel 03000 200 292

Email [1][Aberdeen City Council request email]

[2]www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

 

*03000 numbers are free to call if you have ‘free minutes’ included in
your mobile call plan.

Calls from BT landlines will be charged at the local call rate of 10.24p
per minute (the same as 01224s).

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail (including any attachment to it) is
confidential, protected by copyright and may be privileged. The
information contained in it should be used for its intended purposes only.
If you receive this email in error, notify the sender by reply email,
delete the received email and do not make use of, disclose or copy it.
Whilst we take reasonable precautions to ensure that our emails are free
from viruses, we cannot be responsible for any viruses transmitted with
this email and recommend that you subject any incoming email to your own
virus checking procedures. Unless related to Council business, the
opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and they do not
necessarily constitute those of Aberdeen City Council. Unless we expressly
say otherwise in this email or its attachments, neither this email nor its
attachments create, form part of or vary any contractual or unilateral
obligation. Aberdeen City Council's incoming and outgoing email is subject
to regular monitoring.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Aberdeen City Council request email]
2. http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/

Foi Enquiries, Aberdeen City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mrs Emery

 

Thank you for your information requests of 3 April 2018.  Aberdeen City
Council (ACC) has completed the necessary search for the information
requested.

 

Letter 2 – 2015

Letter 3 – 2016

Letter 4 - 2017

 

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 2015, 2016 and
2017?

ACC is unable to provide you with information on the number of individual
referrals to Children’s Social Care Services made involving suspected
Fabricated and Induced Illness (FII) and/or Muchausens By Proxy Syndrome
(MBPS) in 2015, 2016 and 2017 as the cost of providing it has been
calculated as being in excess of the statutory maximum (£600).  To explain
this, data cannot accurately be provided on Munchausen by Proxy or
Fabricated and Induced Illness as it is not a classification that ACC
holds on its electronic recording system.

 

The only way to capture whether there have been any such cases would be to
read through all relevant case files.  Between 2015 and 2017 there were
51,402 referrals for 18,960 children.  These totals include referrals
between social work teams.  To read through all of the files would mean
reading 18,960 files, which would take at least 30 minutes per file,
meaning it would take 9,480 hours to extract the information at a cost of
£142,200.  Please note that ACC has calculated that it would still cost
more than £600 to provide the data for one year, as approximately 17,130
referrals would need to be looked at.

 

In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of
the FOISA, ACC hereby give notice that we are refusing your request under
the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA.

 

ACC would be happy to discuss ways in which you may refine your request,
so we can provide some information of interest to you within the maximum
cost limits.  Please do contact the Information Compliance team, who will
be happy to advise you, if this is something you would like to pursue.

 

• In those referrals involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2015, 2016 and
2017 how are they defined to be genuine cases of FII or MBPS?

Please refer to the response above.

 

ACC is unable to provide you with information on in those referrals
involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2015, 2016 and 2017, how they were
defined as being genuine cases of FII or MBPS as the cost of providing it
has been calculated as being in excess of the statutory maximum (£600) for
each year requested.

 

In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of
the FOISA, ACC hereby give notice that we are refusing your request under
the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA.

 

ACC would be happy to discuss ways in which you may refine your request,
so we can provide some information of interest to you within the maximum
cost limits.  Please do contact the Information Compliance team, who will
be happy to advise you, if this is something you would like to pursue.

 

• Please provide a breakdown of the overall number of these referrals
involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2015, 2016 and 2017 by the type of
organisation that made the initial referral, as shown in the table. For
the NHS and Local Authority categories, please break down by
clinic/department (add rows as required).

 

Type of Organisation

Clinic or Department

Number of referrals on Grounds of FII or MBPS NHS

Local Authority

Schools (please do not identify individual schools).

Other (Please describe type of organisation in this case)

Please refer to the response above.

 

ACC is unable to provide you with information on a breakdown of the
overall number of these referrals involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2015,
2016 and 2017 as the cost of providing it has been calculated as being in
excess of the statutory maximum (£600) for each year requested.

 

In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of
the FOISA, ACC hereby give notice that we are refusing your request under
the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA.

 

ACC would be happy to discuss ways in which you may refine your request,
so we can provide some information of interest to you within the maximum
cost limits.  Please do contact the Information Compliance team, who will
be happy to advise you, if this is something you would like to pursue.

 

• In how many of these referrals involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2015,
2016 and 2017 were, children removed from families and placed for
adoption? How many were returned to families? Please specify a figure for
each question.

Please refer to the response above.

 

ACC is unable to provide you with information on the number of these
referrals involving suspected FII or MBPS in 2015, 2016 and 2017 were
children removed from families and placed for adoption and how many were
returned to families as the cost of providing it has been calculated as
being in excess of the statutory maximum (£600) for each year requested.

 

In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of
the FOISA, ACC hereby give notice that we are refusing your request under
the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA.

 

ACC would be happy to discuss ways in which you may refine your request,
so we can provide some information of interest to you within the maximum
cost limits.  Please do contact the Information Compliance team, who will
be happy to advise you, if this is something you would like to pursue.

 

• 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.

Please refer to the response above.

 

ACC is unable to provide you with information on 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 and how many were subject to on-going monitoring as the cost of
providing it has been calculated as being in excess of the statutory
maximum (£600) for each year requested.

 

In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of
the FOISA, ACC hereby give notice that we are refusing your request under
the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA.

 

ACC would be happy to discuss ways in which you may refine your request,
so we can provide some information of interest to you within the maximum
cost limits.  Please do contact the Information Compliance team, who will
be happy to advise you, if this is something you would like to pursue.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Anna Buchan

Information Compliance Officer

 

INFORMATION ABOUT THE HANDLING OF YOUR REQUEST

 

ACC handled your request for information in accordance with the provisions
of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Please refer to the
attached PDF for more information about your rights under FOISA.

 

Information Compliance Team | Customer Feedback|Customer Experience
Aberdeen City Council, Business Hub 17, 3^rd Floor North, Marischal
College, Broad Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1AQ
Tel 03000 200 292
Email [1][Aberdeen City Council request email]

[2]www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

 

*03000 numbers are free to call if you have ‘free minutes’ included in
your mobile call plan.

Calls from BT landlines will be charged at the local call rate of 10.24p
per minute (the same as 01224s).

 

 

 

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail (including any attachment to it) is
confidential, protected by copyright and may be privileged. The
information contained in it should be used for its intended purposes only.
If you receive this email in error, notify the sender by reply email,
delete the received email and do not make use of, disclose or copy it.
Whilst we take reasonable precautions to ensure that our emails are free
from viruses, we cannot be responsible for any viruses transmitted with
this email and recommend that you subject any incoming email to your own
virus checking procedures. Unless related to Council business, the
opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and they do not
necessarily constitute those of Aberdeen City Council. Unless we expressly
say otherwise in this email or its attachments, neither this email nor its
attachments create, form part of or vary any contractual or unilateral
obligation. Aberdeen City Council's incoming and outgoing email is subject
to regular monitoring.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Aberdeen City Council request email]
2. http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/