County Hall Beverley East Riding of Yorkshire HU17 9BA Telephone (01482) 887700

www.eastriding.gov.uk

Malcolm Sims Director of Corporate Resources

Miss S Mitchell
/ Your Ref:
Our Ref: 3d/TT/DJ/FOI05042
Enquiries to: Tracey Tomlinson
E-Mail:
Tel. Direct: (01482) 393203
Fax. Number: (01482) 393269
Date: 13 March 2014

Dear Miss Mitchell

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Request for Information

On 12 February 2014 East Riding of Yorkshire Council received your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The information you have requested, along with the Council’s response, is set out below.

Details of Request:

Please could you provide the following information on your Fostering Service.

Definitions: for these purposes Kinship is the term referred to for any Friends and Family carers or Connected Persons.

1.  In House fostering Capacity as of the 01/01/14

A. Total number of fostering households excluding Link, Kinship and respite only carers.

B. Total number of placements that A are approved for.

C. Total number of current placements within A.

2.  Kinship numbers as of the 01/01/14

A. Total number of kinship carers households with full approval.

B. Total number with reg24 approval.

C. Does your local authority offer Family Group Conferences?

D. Is there a separate kinship fostering team or equivalent in operation?

3.  Fostering Panel

A. Total number of terminations of approval in 2012/13.

B. Total number of terminations of approval in the financial year to date.

C. Total number of new approvals in 2012/13 excluding respite only, link and kinship.


D. Total number of new approvals in the financial year to date excluding respite only, link and kinship.

E. Total number of annual reviews presented to panel in the financial year to date.

F. Total number of changes of approvals presented to panel in the financial year to date.

4.  Foster carer annual reviews

A. Total number of annual reviews completed outside of panel in 2012/13.

B. Total number of annual reviews completed outside of panel in the financial year to date.

C. Who chairs the reviews outside of panel: team manager, independent reviewing officer, supervising social worker, nobody, other (please state title).

D. Total number of reviews overdue.

5. Named individuals

A. Names of Agency Decision Makers.

B. Names and contact details of Head of Fostering or the Service Manager responsible for fostering.

C. Name and contact details of B's line manager.

Response:

1a One hundred and twenty cases. We are not able to separate respite cares from main stream as some are approved for both or are approved mainstream but take respite as well.

1b 201.

1c 182.

2a 23.

2b. 16.

2c. We do not offer Family Group Conferences.

3a. 24.

3b. 15.

3c. 16.

3d. 19.

3e. 3.

3f. 38.

4 A, B, C, D - We are unable to provide you with this information as to do so would exceed the cost limit of £450 which equates to 18 hours of officer time.

We estimate that it would take in excess of 52 hours to provide information for question 4 which is £1300. There are 120 cases and it would take approximately 2 hours to determine if the information is held, approximately 10 minutes to check each case record to locate the information and a further 15 minutes to retrieve and extract the information.

5a ADM Pam Allen, Head of Service.

5b. Steve Comb, Service Manager Corporate Parenting.

5c. Pam Allen.

If you are dissatisfied with the above response or how your request has been handled you can ask for the Council to review this by contacting the Freedom of Information Coordinator on the above telephone number or by email on within 6 weeks of this letter which is 28 April 2014.

A senior manager will carry out the review within 10 working days of receipt of your request and provide a response within 20 working days. It will provide a fair and thorough review of the decisions taken and where necessary how your request has been handled.

If you are not content with the outcome of the review you can apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the Council’s review procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Web: www.ico.gov.uk

Email:

Tel: 01625 545745 or 08456 30 60 60

Yours sincerely

for the Director of Corporate Resources