Freedom of information response

Statutory guidance places a responsibility on organisations to contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) within one working day where it is alleged that a member of staff or volunteer who works with children has:

• behaved in a way that has harmed a child or, may have harmed a child
• possibly committed a criminal offence against a child or related to a child
• behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates that they may pose a risk of harm to children
• behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children

1. Please provide a list of all children’s homes within your local authority area, including the operator.

There are 6 children’s homes operating in the Thurrock area. They are run privately.

They are managed by the following operators

Satash Community Care Project

Potton Homes

Nirmal Homes

Green Harvest

Gims Care (2 establishments)

2. Please provide the number of referrals to the LADO made in the local authority in the calendar year 2022.

Number of referrals sent to the LADO relating to children’s homes only - 17

3. Please provide the number of referrals to the LADO made in relation to each children’s home in the year 2022.

Unfortunately we are unable to provide in full the information you have requested.  We do hold the information but an absolute exemption applies.  Personal Information (Section 40,2)

Personal data of any other person (third party data) is exempt under section 40(2) if disclosure would breach one of the data protection principles. This aspect of Section 40 is an Absolute Exemption and is therefore not subject to the Public Interest Test.

We are unable to provide an exact numbers for question 3 above as:

• There is a low number involved.
• The release of this information could identify individuals which would constitute their personal data under the Data Protection Act
• There is no prior expectation on the part of these individuals that their personal information would be published in the wider public domain under the FOI Act
• Personal data of any other person is exempt under section 40 (2) of the Data Protection Act.

As mentioned above the council had 17 referrals across the 6 children's homes located in the borough. At this time we are unable to provide the number broken down by home as we believe this would lead to identification of the young people involved. The Children's homes in Thurrock, due to complexity and careful matching often only house 1 or 2 young people at a time due to their high  needs, the release of the numbers could be in relation to one child/family.

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. 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.