Corporate Policy & Performance

Southampton City Council

Civic Centre

Southampton SO14 7LY

Direct dial: 023 8083 3050Fax: 023 8083 3232

Email: r ref:

Please ask for: Tracey ArrowsmithMinicom: 023 8083 2798

Date22nd October 2009

Ms Angela Wileman

Request-19184-8f5870b1@wahtdotheyknow

Dear Ms Wileman,

I write in response to your email of 9th October 2009 requesting a review of the handling of your FOI request relating to information on ‘looked after children’. I have now completed my investigation in to the response that you were given to your FOI request and have set out my conclusions below.

The information you requested under the FOI Act:

  1. How many children were taken into local authority care on interim care orders and emergency protection orders under the category of emotional harm during the above period? I do not wish you to include any children for any other categories of harm/abuse.
  1. Out of these children who were taken into care for emotional harm how many of them were specifically for domestic violence betweentheir parents? Again I do not wish you to include children who had violence directed at them as that would fall into a differentcategory being physical abuse.
  1. Out of these children who were put into care for domesticviolence how many were returned to family or extended family?
  1. Out of these how many children were put on full care orders?
  1. Of the children put on full care orders how many were adopted during these periods.

Having reviewed your request and the Council’s information system, I can confirm that unfortunately, the City Council is unable to supply the information requested, as this specific data is not recorded. I have outlined the reasons for this below:

In line with other authorities, the Council follows national guidance on recording information on children looked after, supplied by the Department for ChildrenSchools and Families. These guidelines are available online at

The guidance requires the Council to record a "Main reason for a child being looked after at start of current period of care". The reasons are:

CiN code / Main reason for child being looked after at start of current period of care / Definition
N1 / Abuse or neglect / Children in need as a result of, or at risk of, abuse or neglect
N2 / Child’s Disability / Children and their families whose main need for services arises out of the child’s disabilities, illness or intrinsic condition
N3 / Parental illness or disability / Children whose main need for services arises because the capacity of their parents or carers to care for them is impaired by disability, illness, mental illness, or addictions
N4 / Family in acute stress / Children whose needs arise from living in a family going through a temporary crisis such that parenting capacity is diminished and some of the children’s needs are not being adequately met
N5 / Family dysfunction / Children whose needs arise mainly out of their living with families where the parenting capacity is chronically inadequate
N6 / Socially Unacceptable Behaviour / Children and families whose need for services arises primarily out of their children’s behaviour impacting detrimentally on the community
N7 / Low income / Children, either living in families or independently, whose need for services arises mainly from being dependent on an income below the standard state entitlements
N8 / Absent Parenting / Children whose need for services arises mainly from having no parents available to provide for them. Children whose parents decide it is in the best interest for the child to be adopted would be included in this category

These reasons can be found on page 29 of the guidance at

You will see that there is no code specifically describing either emotional abuse or domestic violence.

There is a category of Emotional Abuse as a reason for children starting to have Child Protection Plans, but these children are rarely also looked after.

The Council do record – not because of national guidance, but as a local indicator – whether at initial referral stage domestic violence was a factor in the referral. This does not mean, however, that domestic violence was the specific or primary reason why a child becomes looked after. Things may have changed since the referral and in any case recording at time of referral is just whether there is an element of domestic violence present in the referral information, not whether this is a key issue. The Council would not have this information for all children becoming looked after during the period as it only started to record it just over a year ago.

I hope this clarifies our reasons for being unable to provide you with the information that you requested. In the event that you are dissatisfied with the way in which I have dealt with your complaint, your next recourse is to the Information Commissioner’s Office, who can be contacted by way of letter addressed to:

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Or by telephone on 01625 545 700 or 08456 30 60 60

Yours sincerely

Tracey Arrowsmith

Corporate Complaints Officer

If you would like this letter sent to you in another format or language, please contact the number at the top of this letter

cc. Janice Austin, Information Compliance Officer, Southampton City Council