Looked After Children - Freedom of information requests

Looked After Children

15464

02/08/2021

FOI

I would like to request the following FOI.If you can not supply all statistics please supply the ones you can within the given time framework allowed. LAC means looked after child by child social services.
1. How many children have become LAC in your area each calendar year for the past 10 years.
2. How many LAC children are diagnosed with mental health issues in any category in your area each calendar year for the past 10 years.
3. How many LAC children have tried or succeeded in committing suicide in your area each calendar year for the past 10 years.
4. How many parents of LAC, meaning the parents they lived with before becoming LAC have been since diagnosed with mental health issues in any category in your area each calendar year for the past 10 years.
5. How many parents of LAC, using the above definition have committed suicide each calendar year for the past 10 years.
6. How many complaints have been filed against child social services in your area each calendar year for the past 10 years.
7. How many LAC have run away or disappeared in your area each calendar year for the past 10 years.
8. How many LAC have died from any cause in your area each calendar year for the past 10 years.

Q1 Scottish Borders Council is not obliged to provide information if is it is reasonably obtainable through other means under S25 of FOI(S)A Otherwise Accessible. The information that you have requested is published annually for all local authorities - Children's Social Work statistics - gov.scot and is accessible by following the link provided below.

Q2-5 Scottish Borders Council has considered your request and concluded that the cost of complying with it would be more than £600. Under S12 (1) of FOISA 2002 Scottish Borders Council is not obliged to comply with a request that is estimated to exceed this cost. The Council does not hold this information in a systematic, accessible way and it would place a substantial burden on Scottish Borders Council (SBC) in terms of costs and resources required. It would require manual reading of all case files (including historic cases) each requiring a minimum of 2 hours to read carefully to get relevant information to answer questions. This would be prohibitive in terms of staff time.

Therefore Scottish Borders Council is refusing your request.

We appreciate that this will be disappointing to you. We would be pleased to discuss whether your request could be changed, to bring down the cost of providing the information and allow us to respond. Please contact the Information Management Team to discuss options.

Q6 Complaints filed against child social services
Opened
2020 33
2019 36
2018 32
2017 32
2016 10
The figures for 2016 is a part year and we have no access to collated data before 2016 as a different complaints system was used. Therefore we refer to S17 of FOI(S)A 2002 and declare that the information is not held.

Q7
Year No. of Children
2014 6
2015 14
2016 10
2017 14
2018 9
2019 9
2020 0
2021 4

Q8 We have taken the decision not to release information where numbers are 5 or less. This is because by releasing the information could potentially identify individuals. Therefore we are relying on section 38(1)(b) of FOI(S)A 2002.

Scottish Government