safeguard and promote the welfare of children (FOI-720)
Message from the customer
To: ChildrenFOI - Generic Account
Cc: Information Management
Subject: RE: FOI request response - FOI-000408
Dear Sirs,
Please find below my reformulated FOI request.
Under Section 17(1) of the Children Act 1989, local authorities have a general duty to
safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are In Need; and so far as
is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families, by
providing a range and level of services.
Please provide a spreadsheet showing the ENTIRE range and level of services that you provide
under s.17 and also those that have been provided from since 06 April 2017 to-date. Please
provide all policy documents relating to the same.
Please specify on how many occasions since 6 April 2017 you provided accommodation under
S.17 and the reasons behind each decision to provide the same.
Have you provided financial assistance under s.17, since 6 April 2017, if yes, what were the
circumstances for each case, Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
Regards
Message from Hackney Council
Your request has been raised as an internal review.
I have asked the department to confirm whether or not they could provide the figures from 2017 as you asked and, if not, to explain in more detail what the work would entail to do so, and why we estimate it would take more than 18 hours of officer time.
We should also have explained that the Information Commissioner"s advice is that if even one part of a request would take longer than 18 hours, then we should exempt the whole request and wait for a reformulated FOI. This was why the other aspects of your question were not answered.
I will come back to you when I have heard from them.
Kind regards
Katharine Schopflin
Information Governance Lead
Information Management
London Borough of Hackney
Customer
I've not yet received the council's reply to my request for an internal
review!!.
Regards
Ben See
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, 11 September 2018 3:18 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [FOI-720] safeguard and promote the welfare of children
Dear Ben See,
Your request has been raised as an internal review.
I have asked the department to confirm whether or not they could provide the
figures from 2017 as you asked and, if not, to explain in more detail what
the work would entail to do so, and why we estimate it would take more than
18 hours of officer time.
We should also have explained that the Information Commissioner's advice is
that if even one part of a request would take longer than 18 hours, then we
should exempt the whole request and wait for a reformulated FOI. This was
why the other aspects of your question were not answered.
I will come back to you when I have heard from them.
Kind regards
Katharine Schopflin
Information Governance Lead
Information Management
London Borough of Hackney
Message from Hackney Council
Hello,
I received a response from the department on Monday but have another question for them before I can get back to you.
Kind regards
Katharine
Message from Hackney Council
Dear Ben See,
On re-reading the response that I have been provided with, I am happy that it meets the need of this review.
You originally asked:
Please provide a spreadsheet showing the ENTIRE range and level of services that you provide under s.17 and also those that have been provided from since 06 April 2017 to-date. Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
Please specify on how many occasions since 6 April 2017 you provided accommodation under S.17 and the reasons behind each decision to provide the same..
Have you provided financial assistance under s.17, since 6 April 2017, if yes, what were the circumstances for each case, Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
In your review request, you said
For the avoidance of doubt my last request for information was for the period from 6 April 2017 and not 6 April 2010 as stated in your letter of August 6, 2018. Hence your reason is not applicable.
I also do not believe that providing this information from 6 April 2017 would exceed the limit to time and resource under FOIA.
Notwithstanding the above you have not cited any exemption why you could not provide the following requested information;
"Please provide a spreadsheet showing the ENTIRE range and level of services that you provide under s.17 and also those that have been provided from since 06 April 2017 to-date. Please provide all policy documents relating to the same".
Please note that the response did cite Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. We have also confirmed that 2010 was a misprint and that their response applied to the period from April 2017.
I asked Children and Family Services to clarify why it would take more than 18 hours to fulfil the request. Their response:
Services provided under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 will include, but not be limited to:
- An assessment of need
- Advice, Assistance and Support from a social worker or another children and family practitioner
- The provision of specific services arising out of the needs of the child(ren)
- Financial support which may include subsistence payments of payments for accommodation; payment for other specific items; payments for other services provided to a child.
To provide a full list of such support would necessitate manually auditing all of the 4,000 plus assessments undertaken during the course of the period April 2017 to date which would take far in excess of 18 hours.
I am satisfied that to provide a spreadsheet would require far in excess of 18 hours of manual work and there is no means of running a report which would produce the data you would like to receive. I cannot, in this case, think of a simplified means of answering your request, other than the information provided above.
Given that we did not make it clear that, unless guidance is given as to weighting of the question by the requester, we should exempt the whole request, I asked the department whether we could provide answers to the other questions you asked, to save you the need to put the requests in a new FOI.
Below are the questions and answers:
Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
There is not a policy document that relates to the use of resources under Section 17.
Please specify on how many occasions since 6 April 2017 you provided accommodation under S.17 and the reasons behind each decision to provide the same..
We have provided accommodation for in excess of 200 families during the relevant period of time, most of which had no recourse to public funds. Again, the records for these are not kept in such a way that we could run a report listing the reasons for each decisions - we would have to examine each record manually, which would take far more than 18 hours. Section 12 again applies in this case. We have, however, been able to respond to the first part of your request.
Have you provided financial assistance under s.17, since 6 April 2017, if yes, what were the circumstances for each case, Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
We have provided financial assistance to families during the relevant period of time. Again, to provide the circumstances of each case would require a manual audit of all cases to establish whether financial assistance had been provided and, if so, the purpose of that expenditure. We therefore believe that to do so would take far more than 18 hours and that Section 12 applies in this case too. However, we have been able to answer the first part of your question and, if should be able to produce top level numbers for the period if you were to make this request.
If you are still not satisfied following this Internal Review, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner.
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/
Information Commissioner"s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113
Kind regards
Katharine Schopflin
Information Governance Lead
Information Management
London Borough of Hackney
Customer
I've not yet received a reply to [FOI-720].
Regards
Ben See
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, 18 October 2018 1:27 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [FOI-720] safeguard and promote the welfare of children
Hello,
I received a response from the department on Monday but have another
question for them before I can get back to you.
Kind regards
Katharine
Message from Hackney Council
Hello,
Did you receive this message? If you did receive it, but are not happy, you should contact the Information Commissioner"s office using the details supplied below.
thanks
Katharine
Dear Ben See,
On re-reading the response that I have been provided with, I am happy that it meets the need of this review.
You originally asked:
Please provide a spreadsheet showing the ENTIRE range and level of services that you provide under s.17 and also those that have been provided from since 06 April 2017 to-date. Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
Please specify on how many occasions since 6 April 2017 you provided accommodation under S.17 and the reasons behind each decision to provide the same..
Have you provided financial assistance under s.17, since 6 April 2017, if yes, what were the circumstances for each case, Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
In your review request, you said
For the avoidance of doubt my last request for information was for the period from 6 April 2017 and not 6 April 2010 as stated in your letter of August 6, 2018. Hence your reason is not applicable.
I also do not believe that providing this information from 6 April 2017 would exceed the limit to time and resource under FOIA.
Notwithstanding the above you have not cited any exemption why you could not provide the following requested information;
"Please provide a spreadsheet showing the ENTIRE range and level of services that you provide under s.17 and also those that have been provided from since 06 April 2017 to-date. Please provide all policy documents relating to the same".
Please note that the response did cite Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. We have also confirmed that 2010 was a misprint and that their response applied to the period from April 2017.
I asked Children and Family Services to clarify why it would take more than 18 hours to fulfil the request. Their response:
Services provided under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 will include, but not be limited to:
- An assessment of need
- Advice, Assistance and Support from a social worker or another children and family practitioner
- The provision of specific services arising out of the needs of the child(ren)
- Financial support which may include subsistence payments of payments for accommodation; payment for other specific items; payments for other services provided to a child.
To provide a full list of such support would necessitate manually auditing all of the 4,000 plus assessments undertaken during the course of the period April 2017 to date which would take far in excess of 18 hours.
I am satisfied that to provide a spreadsheet would require far in excess of 18 hours of manual work and there is no means of running a report which would produce the data you would like to receive. I cannot, in this case, think of a simplified means of answering your request, other than the information provided above.
Given that we did not make it clear that, unless guidance is given as to weighting of the question by the requester, we should exempt the whole request, I asked the department whether we could provide answers to the other questions you asked, to save you the need to put the requests in a new FOI.
Below are the questions and answers:
Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
There is not a policy document that relates to the use of resources under Section 17.
Please specify on how many occasions since 6 April 2017 you provided accommodation under S.17 and the reasons behind each decision to provide the same..
We have provided accommodation for in excess of 200 families during the relevant period of time, most of which had no recourse to public funds. Again, the records for these are not kept in such a way that we could run a report listing the reasons for each decisions - we would have to examine each record manually, which would take far more than 18 hours. Section 12 again applies in this case. We have, however, been able to respond to the first part of your request.
Have you provided financial assistance under s.17, since 6 April 2017, if yes, what were the circumstances for each case, Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
We have provided financial assistance to families during the relevant period of time. Again, to provide the circumstances of each case would require a manual audit of all cases to establish whether financial assistance had been provided and, if so, the purpose of that expenditure. We therefore believe that to do so would take far more than 18 hours and that Section 12 applies in this case too. However, we have been able to answer the first part of your question and, if should be able to produce top level numbers for the period if you were to make this request.
If you are still not satisfied following this Internal Review, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner.
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/
Information Commissioner"s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113
Kind regards
Katharine Schopflin
Information Governance Lead
Information Management
London Borough of Hackney
Customer
This response I received.
My query relates to another freedom of information request regarding procedure manuals which I have not yet received.
Sent from my iPhone
> On 2 Nov 2018, at 13:35, "[email protected]"
>
> Hello,
>
> Did you receive this message? If you did receive it, but are not happy, you should contact the Information Commissioner's office using the details supplied below.
>
> thanks
>
> Katharine
>
>
>
> Dear Ben See,
> On re-reading the response that I have been provided with, I am happy that it meets the need of this review.
> You originally asked:
> Please provide a spreadsheet showing the ENTIRE range and level of services that you provide under s.17 and also those that have been provided from since 06 April 2017 to-date. Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
> Please specify on how many occasions since 6 April 2017 you provided accommodation under S.17 and the reasons behind each decision to provide the same...
> Have you provided financial assistance under s.17, since 6 April 2017, if yes, what were the circumstances for each case, Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
> In your review request, you said
> For the avoidance of doubt my last request for information was for the period from 6 April 2017 and not 6 April 2010 as stated in your letter of August 6, 2018. Hence your reason is not applicable.
> I also do not believe that providing this information from 6 April 2017 would exceed the limit to time and resource under FOIA.
> Notwithstanding the above you have not cited any exemption why you could not provide the following requested information;
> "Please provide a spreadsheet showing the ENTIRE range and level of services that you provide under s.17 and also those that have been provided from since 06 April 2017 to-date. Please provide all policy documents relating to the same".
> Please note that the response did cite Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. We have also confirmed that 2010 was a misprint and that their response applied to the period from April 2017.
> I asked Children and Family Services to clarify why it would take more than 18 hours to fulfil the request. Their response:
> Services provided under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 will include, but not be limited to:
> An assessment of need
> Advice, Assistance and Support from a social worker or another children and family practitioner
> The provision of specific services arising out of the needs of the child(ren)
> Financial support which may include subsistence payments of payments for accommodation; payment for other specific items; payments for other services provided to a child.
> To provide a full list of such support would necessitate manually auditing all of the 4,000 plus assessments undertaken during the course of the period April 2017 to date which would take far in excess of 18 hours.
> I am satisfied that to provide a spreadsheet would require far in excess of 18 hours of manual work and there is no means of running a report which would produce the data you would like to receive. I cannot, in this case, think of a simplified means of answering your request, other than the information provided above.
> Given that we did not make it clear that, unless guidance is given as to weighting of the question by the requester, we should exempt the whole request, I asked the department whether we could provide answers to the other questions you asked, to save you the need to put the requests in a new FOI.
> Below are the questions and answers:
> Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
> There is not a policy document that relates to the use of resources under Section 17.
> Please specify on how many occasions since 6 April 2017 you provided accommodation under S.17 and the reasons behind each decision to provide the same...
> We have provided accommodation for in excess of 200 families during the relevant period of time, most of which had no recourse to public funds. Again, the records for these are not kept in such a way that we could run a report listing the reasons for each decisions - we would have to examine each record manually, which would take far more than 18 hours. Section 12 again applies in this case. We have, however, been able to respond to the first part of your request.
> Have you provided financial assistance under s.17, since 6 April 2017, if yes, what were the circumstances for each case, Please provide all policy documents relating to the same.
> We have provided financial assistance to families during the relevant period of time. Again, to provide the circumstances of each case would require a manual audit of all cases to establish whether financial assistance had been provided and, if so, the purpose of that expenditure. We therefore believe that to do so would take far more than 18 hours and that Section 12 applies in this case too. However, we have been able to answer the first part of your question and, if should be able to produce top level numbers for the period if you were to make this request.
> If you are still not satisfied following this Internal Review, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner.
> https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/
> Information Commissioner's Office
> Wycliffe House
> Water Lane
> Wilmslow
> Cheshire
> SK9 5AF
> 0303 123 1113
> Kind regards
> Katharine Schopflin
> Information Governance Lead
> Information Management
> London Borough of Hackney
>
>
>
Page updated: 15/06/2021 10:17:54