FOI 417676
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 417676
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 25th June 2025. Please find below the response to your request:
We know from Subject Access Requests that Herefordshire Childrens Services Managers instruct “the social worker will then call the Police to support her in gaining access to the property in order to complete a safe and well / SC47 visit”.
Q1. So what powers do Herefordshire Council have for engaging West Mercia Police to support Childrens Social Workers gaining access to the property ?
Q2. Which of these powers require judicial approval for WM Police to lawfully support Childrens Social Worker gaining access to the property?
Q3. Which of these powers don’t require judicial approval and are only direct calls for WM Police assistance to support Childrens Social Worker gaining access to the property?
Q4. Each time Police are engaged to support Herefordshire Childrens Social Workers is a record logged and is each scrutinised to ensure against overreach and unlawful action?
Q5. How many times did West Mercia Police support Herefordshire Childrens Social Workers gaining access to the property in 2022?
Q6. How many times did West Mercia Police support Herefordshire Childrens Social Workers gaining access to the property in 2023?
Q7. How many times did West Mercia Police support Herefordshire Childrens Social Workers gaining access to the property in 2024?
Q8. How many times did West Mercia Police support Herefordshire Childrens Social Workers gaining access to the property in 2025 to date (25/6/25)?
Reply
West Mercia Police hold some of the information requested.
Your request for information has been considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”), and I am not obliged to provide the information requested.
S.12(1) of the Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”. For police forces in England and Wales, the "appropriate limit" is £450 or 18 hours of work as set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
The information you have requested for questions 5 – 8 is not available in a readily retrievable format. West Mercia Police cannot easily identify incidents that have originated from Hereford Children’s Services . In order to ascertain whether the information you have requested is held would take in excess of 18 hours as each record would have to be checked individually.
In accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.
However, In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide some of the information requested as this was retrieved during our initial research. This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests.
Q1. Information will be held by Children’s Social Care.
Information regarding powers of access can be found here:
Police response to concern for a child | College of Policing
Q4. Each time Police are engaged to support Herefordshire Children’s Social Workers is a record logged and is each scrutinised to ensure against overreach and unlawful action?
Whenever police are contacted, regardless of any follow-on actions, a contact record is created. In addition, where it is deemed that police activity may be required an incident log would also be created. Logs are always put through a THRIVE (threat, harm, risk, investigation, vulnerability and engagement) assessment in order to understand the risk involved in any incident. This THRIVE assessment is initially done by the call taker and should be regularly reviewed until the log is deemed as suitable to close. Throughout this process, and dependent on the nature of the incident, a log will be reviewed by others which could include; dispatchers, control room supervisors, control room sergeants and ultimately the control room inspector. The logs assessed to potentially contain a high risk, or those relating to locally identified mandatory escalation, will automatically be reviewed by the sergeants and/or inspector. This entire process should ensure regular reviewing of logs and more senior oversight for those with additional risks, which should highlight any unlawful activity and overreach