Dear Sir/madam,
I submit the following request for information under the Freedom of Information legislation to your Local Authority concerning criminal exploitation of young people.
National Referral Mechanism (NRM)
1. How many children under 18 did your Local Authority refer to the National Referral Mechanism in the following periods of time?
a) 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018
b) 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017
c) 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016
2. Of the data recorded as in question 1, how many children aged under 18 has your Local Authority referred to the NRM for suspected criminal exploitation in a) 2017/18, b) 2016/17 and c) 2015/16? For clarity, this means the referral ticked ‘criminal services (i.e. involved the commission of an offence by the victim)’ under Section D of the referral form.
a) 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018
b) 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017
c) 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016
3. Of the total number of children referred to the NRM for suspected criminal exploitation in a) 2017/8, b) 2016/17 and c) 2015/16 as in question 2 how many were:
a) Male
b) Female
If it is not possible to provide a breakdown by years, please provide the total number of males and females for the period time the data is available.
4. Of the total number of children referred to the NRM for suspected criminal exploitation in a) 2017/8, b) 2016/17 and c) 2015/16 as in question 2 how many were:
a) British Nationals male
b) British Nationals female
If it is not possible to provide a breakdown by years, please provide the total number of British National males and females for the period time the data is available
5. Of the total number of children referred to the NRM for suspected criminal exploitation in a) 2017/8, b) 2016/17 and c) 2015/16 as in question 2 how many were:
a) Foreign Nationals male
b) Foreign Nationals female
If it is not possible to provide a breakdown by years, please provide the total number of Foreign National males and females for the period time the data is available.
6. Of the total number of children referred to the NRM for suspected criminal exploitation in a) 2017/8, b) 2016/17 and c) 2015/16 as in question 2 how many:
a) Received a reasonable grounds decision from the NRM following referral
b) Received a conclusive grounds decision from the NRM following their referral
In response to questions 1-6, we can confirm that the totals are very low and to disclose any of the numbers in response to these questions would risk identifying the individuals concerned. This would be unfair to the children and would therefore be a breach of the first data protection principle under the General Data Protection Regulation. This information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to s.40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Children’s Social Care
7. How many children who were a) subject to a child in need plan b) subject to a child protection plan and c) a Looked After Child at 31st March 2018 did the Local Authority consider to be at risk of child criminal exploitation, in relation to county lines?
If it is not possible to provide a breakdown by category, please provide the total number of children in need who the Local Authority consider to be at risk of child criminal exploitation, in relation to county lines.
Devon County Council do not hold a central record of this information and this information could only be obtained by a manual trawl of thousands of records of children currently registered as CIN, subject to a child protection plan or a Looked After Child. This would take a significant amount of time. Even allowing for a short review time of, say, 15 minutes per case of only 1,000 records, this would total 250 hours and would be in excess of the appropriate time limit of 18 hours. This information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to s.12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
8. Of those children who were Looked After Children at 31 March 2018 and considered to be at child criminal exploitation how many were in a placement outside the local authority area?
We refer to our response to question 7 above.
Missing from care
9. In the year ending 31st March 2018, what was the total number of males aged 10-17 who were missing from care?
77
10. In the year ending 31st March 2018, what was the total number of females aged 10-17 who were missing from care?
70
11. In the year ending 31st March 2018, what were the total number of missing episodes for males aged 10-17 who were missing from care?
736
12. In the year ending 31st March 2018, what were the total number of missing episodes for females aged 10-17 who were missing from care?
463
13. In the year ending 31st March 2018, what were the total number of days that males aged 10-17 were missing from care?
775
14. In the year ending 31st March 2018, what were the total number of days that females aged 10-17 were missing from care?
1313
15. Of the total number of males aged 10-17, who were missing from care, how many had the following risks identified
a) CSE
b) Gang involvement
c) Criminal Exploitation, in relation to county lines
d) Trafficking
Devon County Council do not hold a central record of this information so this would involve an individual review of the 775 cases referred to above. Allowing for, say, 15 minutes per case, this would total in excess of 193 hours. This is in excess of the appropriate time limit of 18 hours and this information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to s. 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
16. Of the total number of males aged 10-17, who were missing from care, and had the risk identified as criminal exploitation, what were the total number of days they were missing in the year ending 31st March 2018?
We refer to our answer to question 15 above.
17. Of the total number of females aged 10-17, who were missing from care, how many had the following risks identified
a) CSE
b) Gang involvement
c) Criminal Exploitation, in relation to county lines
d) Trafficking
Devon County Council do not hold a central record of this information so this would involve an individual review of the 1313 cases referred to above. Allowing for, say, 15 minutes per case, this would total in excess of 328 hours. This is in excess of the appropriate time limit of 18 hours and this information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to s. 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
18. Of the total number of females aged 10-17, who were missing from care, and had the risk identified as criminal exploitation, what were the total number of days they were missing in the year ending 31st March 2018?
We refer to our answer to question 17 above.