The number of individual referrals to Children’s Social Services

The request was refused by Aberdeenshire Council.

Letter 3 - 2016

Dear Aberdeenshire 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

Acknowledge email, Aberdeenshire Council

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your information request.

If you are making a request for information under FOI(S)A we will respond
within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days.

If you are making a request for environmental information under EIRs we
will aim to respond within 20 working days. However for requests of a
complex nature it could take us up to 40 working days. If so we will write
and tell you this within 5 working days of receipt.
If you are making a request for information under DPA we will respond
within the statutory timeframe of 40 calendar days, following receipt of
the necessary fee.

Regards,
Aberdeenshire Information Enquiries

Social Work, Aberdeenshire Council

Dear Mrs C Emery

 

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (“The Act”)

Excessive Cost Notice

 

We refer to your request dated 03/04/2018 16:06, for the following
information FOI: Referrals to Children’s Social Services (FII / MBPS) 2016
- Aberdeenshire Council.

 

Under Section 16(4) of the Act, Aberdeenshire Council is not required to
comply with a request for information if the cost of complying with the
request would exceed an amount (meantime £600) prescribed in Regulations
made by the Scottish Ministers.

The cost of complying with your request for information on the number of
referrals made to children’s services involving suspected FII or MBPS in
2016 has been estimated at £5915 This is estimated on the basis of 591.5
hours work for an admin worker manually going through 2366 records (the
number of children referred to children’s services in 2016) in order to
find the information, at a rate of £10 per hour.

Consequently, the cost of complying with your request exceeds the
prescribed amount.

 

If you wish this decision to be reviewed, please refer to the undernoted
Review Procedure.

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

 

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator

Health & Social Care

 

 

 

Further Information:

Aberdeenshire Council’s Review Procedure under the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland)
Regulations 2004 can be accessed at the following link:

http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/council-...

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