Q1)Please give the name of your Local Authority?
Devon County Council
Q2) How many sets of twins were taken into care between the years 2010 ‘ 2018?
We may hold the information for Questions 2- 5 but to identify, locate and compile the information we estimate would take 29.6 hours, well in excess of the 18 hours allowed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 12 – Cost of Compliance and therefore exempt from disclosure. Twins are only recorded as siblings in our childrens social care management system so the records for all sibling groups would have to be manually examined to identify twins first, then review every placement in each of the nine years manually to answer the other questions. Compiling the information for each question would depend on the work for the previous questions, in each case reviewing thousands of cases. Reviewing placements in relation to siblings/twins is particularly time consuming as an individual child may have several placements in one year, and a placement may stretch over multiple years.
It may be possible to provide information for a shorter time frame.
Q3) How many sets of twins were separated when taken into care, whether into foster care or a care home, at any point through their care journey between the years 2010 ‘ 2018?
(NB. please note we are asking how many sets of twins and not how many times. We are aware they could have been separated for a brief period and then reunited but please answer if separated at any point)
Please see the response to Q2
Q4) How many sets of twins were kept in a ‘long term placement’ or ‘long term foster care’ separately from one and other through their care journey between the years 2010 ‘ 2018?
(NB. by Long-term care we mean that the care plan for the child is to remain in a specific fostering placement or care home, until reaching adulthood and leaving care, and/ or for the foreseeable future)
Please see the response to Q2
Q5) How many sets of twins have since been adopted into separate families, after being taken into care between the years 2010 ‘ 2018?
Please see the response to Q2