Charles Bell

28 October 2018

Dear Mr Bell,

Further to your request for information dated 18 June, please accept our apologies for the delay in response. Your questions and our answers are provided below, this relates:

1. a. How many requests(referrals) have been received by the police to accommodate children in police protection whom the local authority has been requested to receive under section 46(3)(f) Children Act 1989?

b. On how many occasions did a local authority social worker attend the police station to undertake an assessment?

c. How many of those children were already looked after by the local authority or another local authority?

d. What percentage of those children, broken down by age and gender, were i. Left in police or another form of place of safety; ii. Placed with foster parents; iii. Placed in a residential establishment; iv. placed with family or friends; v. placed in secure accommodation?

This information is not held. This information would be held on the Police custody record which is held by Greater Manchester Police rather than the Council. As a separate public authority, you would need to contact GMP directly to ascertain this information.

2. a. How many requests (referrals) were received from the police concerning juveniles (those aged below 17) who had been detained by the police pursuant to section 38 Police and Criminal Evidence Act?

Please break this down by gender and age if possible.

This area of work is handled by 2 separate teams, the Youth Offending Service, and for any cases after 4.30pm on a weekday or at weekend, our Out of Hours team. We can advise from our records within the Youth Offending Services that there have been 38 referrals. However, in terms of information held by the Out of Hours team, the council is unable to provide this information. This is because, we do not hold the information in such a way that it can reasonably be collated and provided in response to your request. As you may be aware, under section 12(1) of the FOIA, public authorities are not obliged to comply with requests for information if they estimate that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’. The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 set an ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 for public authorities, which equates to 18 hours work at a statutory rate of £25 per hour.

We are unable to provide further statistical breakdown of gender and age as requested. We would not release information of this kind detailing such a low level of breakdown as we believe this would be too descriptive to properly preserve the anonymity of individuals. In this case, we believe the exemption 40 (2) concerning personal data would apply, as there would be an expectation that this information would remain confidential.

b. What percentage of requests were specifically for secure accommodation? Where this was requested which units were contacted?

0%

c. On how many occasions did a social worker or member of the youth offending team attend the police station to undertake an assessment?

0

d. How many children were already looked after by the LA or another LA?

5

e. What percentage of juveniles were: i. Left in police cells, ii.Moved to residential accommodation; moved to a foster placement; iv. Otherwise placed.

Information not held. This information would be held on the Police custody record which is held by GMP rather than the Council.

f. Making a distinction according to age and between those transferred to LA accommodation and those left in police cells, what were the outcomes on the juveniles concerned at first court appearance?

Outcome / Number
No Substantive Outcome / 16
Youth Rehabilitation Order / 8
Referral Order / 5
Reprimand / 4
Detention and Training Order / 2
Youth Conditional Caution / 2
Conditional Discharge / 1
Total / 38

3. For the last three years how many juveniles (not 17 year olds) have had their liberty restricted by virtue of a remand with a security requirement/ remand to custody/ remand to youth detention on first court appearance after charge?

68 young people have been remanded into custody on their first appearance in court in this timeframe.

The council considers it has fulfilled your Freedom of Information request. However, if you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request or wish to make a complaint or appeal against any decision we have made in response to your request you should write in the first instance to David Hunter by e-mail or via the following address:

Assistant Director - Corporate ICT& Transformation

Customer & Support Services Directorate

Salford City Council

Civic Centre

Chorley Road

Swinton

Salford

M27 5DA

Guidance on how to make a formal appeal against a decision under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is also available on our web site at

Should you continue to disagree with a decision following any appeal you may wish to contact the Office of the Information Commissioner at:-

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

Fax : 01625 524510

Yours sincerely,
P Egerton
Paula Egerton
Principal Information Governance Officer
Salford City Council

1