Children’s Social Care accommodation (FOI)

Request

Please can you confirm:

A

When exactly did Brig-y-don formally close and how many children were accommodated in there at the time of its closure? How were these children accommodated afterwards? Were they split up?

B

Please confirm how many ‘holiday lets’ or any other kind of temporary letting the Government has taken since the beginning of 2020 to date for the purpose of accommodating children for care purposes. Please confirm the lengths of these contracts, and cost of each.

C

At the time of asking, please confirm how many holiday / temporary lets are being used to accommodate children for care purposes, and many children are being accommodated in these overall. Please confirm how many staff are involved with each of these. Please confirm what qualifications, if any, staff are required to hold in order to work in these settings.

Response

A

Brig-y-Don closed in December 2018. There were fewer than five children residing in the home at the time, they were moved together into an alternative residential home which offered a smaller, more family-friendly environment.

B

Temporary accommodation has been used for fewer than five children since the beginning of 2020. We’re unable to give details of individual placements but the total rental cost was £27,000.00 and the total length was 23 weeks and 1 day.

C

There are currently fewer than five temporary lets. The Department is unable to identify the number of staff as this would likely result in the identification of individuals. All staff are employed by Children’s Social Care and have the relevant qualifications and DBS checks.

The Department have determined that the small numbers identified, releasing the actual figure would likely breach the privacy of the individuals. Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied to the request.

Article Applied

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if – (a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and (b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.