FOI Request - Safeguarding Referrals from Schools to Social Work

Request 101003854938

Scope and timeframe

Please provide the following recorded information for academic years 2015/16 to 2024/25 (year-to-date) for referrals/concerns originating from schools (including mainstream, special and specialist bases/units) to Social Work/Children’s Services:

A. Annual referrals (service-level):
• Total number of referrals/concerns from schools each year.

B. Outcomes (service-level):
• Annual totals by the outcome categories you use at screening/decision stage (e.g., No further action; Single-agency support; Early help/Family support; Initial Referral Discussion (IRD); Child protection investigation; Child Protection Register).
• Please provide your definitions for the outcome categories and indicate any changes over time.

C. Timeliness (if routinely reported):
• Median (and, if held, 90th percentile) decision time from referral/concern to initial outcome (e.g., NFA/support/IRD).

D. Policy and systems:
• Current procedures/guidance for handling safeguarding referrals from schools.
• The system(s) used to record referrals and outcomes and any standard reports used.

Format
Please supply data in CSV or XLSX. Fields such as academic_year, referrals_from_schools_total, outcome_category, outcome_count, and (if held) median_days_to_decision, p90_days_to_decision would be helpful.

Disclosure control / personal data
Aggregate, anonymised figures only; no personal data is sought. Please suppress values <5 where necessary.

Advice & assistance / cost
If you estimate this may exceed the section 12 cost limit, please advise under section 15 how I can refine it—for example, limiting to the outcome categories you already report or removing timeliness metrics if not routinely produced.

Published information
If any of the requested information is already published (section 25), please provide the direct URL and the specific document/table location.
Information not held / exemptions
If any part is not held (section 17), please state this explicitly. If you intend to withhold information, please provide a schedule of items withheld, the exemption/exception relied upon (e.g., s30/s33 FOISA), and the public-interest test where applicable.