Freedom of information response
Children taken into care
In relation to the first 20 cases of children that were taken into care (either interim or full) by your authority in the 2023 calendar year please provide me with the following information in connection with each of these cases.
1. The sex of the child?
2. The age of the child?
3. If any of the following factors are recorded in the papers you hold on the case as having been a factor in the council’s decision to take the child into care: (a) proximity to a dangerous dog (b) the obesity of the child, (c) a concern the child spends too much time playing computer games and/or on the internet, (d) the child’s home environment is unhealthy due to cigarette smoke, (e) the parents do not care adequately for the child because they spend too much time watching television and/or on the internet or (f) that the child is not being given enough food to eat.
NOTE: Please note that if you feel providing an answer to Q.1 and Q.2 with Q3 would breach S.40 then I would request that you ONLY answer Q.3. If you decide to take that option I would ask you to justify your decision as I reserve my right to appeal against it.
NOTE: If scrutinizing the papers for the first 20 care cases would breach the cost limit under FoI then please limit the search to just the first 10 cases.
1.The sex of the child? Given the small numbers for one gender this detail has not been provided so as not to risk identifying a child.
2.The age of the child? The ages of children because of small numbers for each age range have not been provided so as not to risk identifying a child.
3.If any of the following factors are recorded in the papers you hold on the case as having been a factor in the council’s decision to take the child into care:
- proximity to a dangerous dog: 0
- the obesity of the child: 0
- a concern the child spends too much time playing computer games and/or on the internet: 0
- the child’s home environment is unhealthy due to cigarette smoke: 0
- the parents do not care adequately for the child because they spend too much time watching television and/or on the internet or: 0
- that the child is not being given enough food to eat. 0
You are free to use any information supplied to you for your own use, including non-commercial research purposes. However, any other type of re-use, for example, by publishing the information or issuing copies to the public will require the permission of the copyright owner.
Where the copyright is owned by Thurrock Council, you must apply to the Council to re-use the information. Please email information.matters@thurrock.gov.uk if you wish to re-use the information you have been supplied. For information where the copyright is owned by another person or organisation, you must apply to the copyright owner to obtain their permission.
If you are dissatisfied with the way in which the council have managed your FOI request you can pursue an Internal Review by contacting us using the above email address. An internal review must be submitted within 40 working days of your original reply. Your request will be considered by a senior member of the Information Management Team who will update you with the outcome of the review.
If you remain unhappy following the outcome of your Internal Review you may wish to refer your case to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and details of this organisation can be found at www.ico.org.uk . Please be advised that the ICO will not consider your case until they have confirmation that you have already been through the Internal Review stage with the council.