* 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018
* 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019
* 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020
1. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority that have been:
a). identified as having been trafficked or a victim of modern slavery – including, but not limited to those identified through the National Referral Mechanism.
Modern slavery is recorded as ‘Other’ and then recorded in a free text box on our system. This means that in order to answer this question accurately we would have to examine each record individually.
Over the three year period of the question this would be many thousands of records. We therefore estimate that compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently £450 or 18 hours of officer time.
In addition, this means that we cannot distinguish between children who are at risk of modern slavery and those who have been subjected to modern slavery. However, in the interests of providing advice and assistance, we can provide the combined figures for questions a) and b) for trafficking only, which are as follows:
2018 – 8
2019 – 8
2020 – 5
b). suspected of having been a victim of trafficking or modern slavery, if not included in a.
Modern slavery is recorded as ‘Other’ and then recorded in a free text box on our system. This means that in order to answer this question accurately we would have to examine each record individually.
Over the three year period of the question this would be many thousands of records. We therefore estimate that compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently £450 or 18 hours of officer time.
In addition, this means that we cannot distinguish between children who are at risk of modern slavery and those who have been subjected to modern slavery. However, in the interests of providing advice and assistance, we can provide the combined figures for questions a) and b) for trafficking only which are as follows:
2018 – 8
2019 – 8
2020 – 5
c). identified as an unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC) or a separated child
2018 – 28
2019 – 30
2020 – 25
d). identified as being a victim of exploitation
As with modern slavery in a) and b) above, we can identify only child sexual exploitation (CSE) from assessment factors automatically; other exploitation types would need to be reviewed manually.
Over the three year period of the question this would be many thousands of forms. We therefore estimate that compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently £450 or 18 hours of officer time.
However, in the interests of providing advice and assistance, we can provide figures on the risk of child sexual exploitation only, rather than those identified as actually being a victim or other types of exploitation. These figures are as follows:
2018- 29
2019 – 35
2020 – 5
2. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority:
a. identified or suspected as having been trafficked/victim of modern slavery and that have gone missing or absent.
2018 – 3
2019 – *
2020 – 3
One of the numbers in the response above has been redacted. This is because we consider this information is exempt under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (Personal Data).
Devon County Council recognises that there is a public interest in openness and transparency. however, we are not obliged to provide information that is the personal information of another person if releasing would contravene any of the provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018.
In this instance we believe that the release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore section 40(2) is applied.
b. identified as an UASC or separated child and that have gone missing or absent.
We consider this information is exempt under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (Personal Data).
Devon County Council recognises that there is a public interest in openness and transparency. however, we are not obliged to provide information that is the personal information of another person if releasing would contravene any of the provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018.
In this instance we believe that the release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore section 40(2) is applied.
c. identified as being a victim of exploitation and that have gone missing or absent
2018- 16
2019 – 19
2020 – 3
3. The total number of individual incidents (which could involve the same child on more than one occasion) of looked after children in the care of your authority:
a. identified or suspected as having been trafficked/victim of modern slavery and that have gone missing or absent.
2018 – 43
2019 – 62
2020 – 13
b. identified as an UASC or separated child and that have gone missing or absent.
2018 – 3
2019 – *
2020 – *
Some of the numbers in the response above have been redacted. This is because we consider this information is exempt under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (Personal Data).
Devon County Council recognises that there is a public interest in openness and transparency. however, we are not obliged to provide information that is the personal information of another person if releasing would contravene any of the provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018.
In this instance we believe that the release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore section 40(2) is applied.
c. identified as being a victim of exploitation and that have gone missing or absent.
2018 – 279
2019 – 202
2020 – 21
4. The total number of looked after children in the care of your authority that are still missing or absent (including those that subsequently turned 18 without being found) that were identified or suspected as having been trafficked or identified as an UASC or separated child.
We consider this information is exempt under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (Personal Data).
Devon County Council recognises that there is a public interest in openness and transparency. however, we are not obliged to provide information that is the personal information of another person if releasing would contravene any of the provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018.
As the response is a very low number, we believe that the release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore section 40(2) is applied.
5. For all of the above please provide a breakdown of these numbers by year and nationality of the child (e.g. British, Vietnamese, etc.) If identification is a concern due to small numbers involved, please give the total figures and specify whether the child is British / an EU national / non EU national. For Q3 & Q4, please add the length of time the child was missing during each incident.
We are unable to provide the ethnicity or durations of missing events because responding to questions 1 – 4 has already taken 18 hours, and to comply with this question would lead us to exceed the 18 hour appropriate limit specified within section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000.
Please note that statutory duties include collecting and recording the following:
* Whether a child is a victim of trafficking/modern slavery, or whether there is reason to believe they may be a victim
* Whether a child is an unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC)
* Data on children reported missing from care