19 May - Bexley answers the question while most donְ’t
As an alternative hobby to submitting one hundred plus
FOIs in not much over a year may I suggest one FOI to 100+ Councils? A lot less
work for a similar amount of data.
While perusing WhatDoTheyKnow
I was initially enthused by a list of Bexleyְ’s CCTV locations until I realised
it was 15 years old and pre-dates the traffic spy cameras. If I may digress,
yesterday I was approaching the Knee Hill traffic lights and the unnecessarily
large yellow box when the car behind me switched on its blue lights and siren.
It was unable to overtake so I used the rapid acceleration of the EV to very
quickly tuck myself into the exit of Hurst Lane a few feet away from the lights so
that ‘blue lights’ could pass. As the exit from the yellow box was clear when I
entered it and I don’t think I actually came to a complete standstill I should
be in the clear; but it is yet another example of how easily yellow box
junctions dish out injustices and why no one is very happy about anything any more.
Sooner or later there will be a massive rebellion.
Back to the WhatDoTheyKnow archive of FOIs. I found one which had gone to a large number if not all
Councils. It was a simple enough request about the number of children being
educated at home but many Councils regard the number as a State Secret
while others said it would cost too much to count them all.
To its credit Bexley Council answered the question in full albeit a full two months late.
Probably it is not something of very wide interest but having dug out the answers it may as well be posted here.
1. How many children/young people within your Local Authority with an EHCP have no school or setting
named in Section I of their Plan (as at Jan 24)?
Answer: 13
2. How many children/young people within your Local Authority with an EHCP are electively home
educated (as at Jan 24)?
Answer: 26
3. How many children/young people within your Local Authority have been awarded and currently access
Personal Budgets for Education (as at Jan 24)?
Answer: 21
4. How many of the Personal Budgets for Education currently accessed have been provided as part of an
Education Otherwise Than At/In School or College (EOTAS(C)/EOTIS(C)) provision described in their
Education Health and Care Plan (as at Jan 24)?
Answer: 13
5. How many of the Personal Budgets for Education currently accessed have been awarded to
children/young people who are being Electively Home Educated (EHE) (as at Jan 24)?
Answer: 3
6. How many of the Personal Budgets for Education currently being accessed are awarded in the form of
Direct Payments to families (as at Jan 24)?
Answer: All of the above
7. What is the total annual cost of Personal Budgets for Education within your Local Authority (as at Jan 24)?
Answer: £170,377.22. This varies all of the time but this figure is the agreed amounts as at Jan 24.
8. What is the total annual cost of Personal Budgets for Education allocated as Direct Payments to
families within your Local Authority (as at Jan 24)?
Answer: As Q 7
I suppose it would be cheeky to point out that the authority that pays out £170,000
to families educating their SEND children at home
lavishes quite a lot more on keeping their Director of Children's Services
in the style to which he has become accustomed?
Note: SEND - Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
EHCP - Education, Health and Care Plan.
EOTASC/EOTISC - Education Other than In/At School or College.