How many active/inactive post adoption letterboxes do you have? (By active, I mean where correspondence from at least one party is made)
Devon: 2435 active letterbox contacts – 2435 active contacts involving 539 children, 412 adopters and 787 birth relatives – in 2021 we had 84 new contacts started and 0 that ended
Somerset: 2966 active contacts involving 488 children, 345 adopters and 826 birth relatives – in 2021 w had 137 new contacts and 117 that ended
Torbay: 1115 active contacts involving 193 children, 154 adopters and 336 birth relatives – in 2021 we had 75 new contacts and 42 that had ended
Plymouth: 3314 active contact involving 438 children, 314 adopters and 825 birth relatives – in 2021 we had 109 new contacts and 61 contacts that had ended
The system used to record this data is a ‘live’ system. Therefore, this figure will change daily. As of 27 May 2021, the total active contacts per year is 8830. This involves 3554 children, 1225 adopters and 2774 birth relatives. We have had 405 new contacts started and 220 that ended.
Of the active post adoption letterboxes, how many receive only mail from (a) the birth family or (b) the adoptive family and (c) both?
Devon County Council does not hold this information in a manner that is capable of being easily analysed. The database used does not provide statistics of birth family only; adoptive family only or both. We estimate that it would take greater than the 18 hours that the Council is obliged to spend answering a freedom of information request to provide a response to this question. As such, we consider that Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies.
Under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 public authorities are not obliged to comply with requests which exceed the cost limit of £450 (equating to 18 hours of time).
We are however, in the early stages of updating the database and we may have this information available towards the end of the year.