Safeguarding referrals from Nurseries within the past 5 years. - Find a freedom of information request

Please provide the following information concerning abuse or neglect in nurseries for each of the last five financial years, including 2023/24.

1. Please provide a list of all safeguarding referrals (typically known as section 47 referrals) relating to alleged abuse or neglect in nurseries for each year. Please provide the following break down for each one:

a) Year

b) Nature of abuse i.e. neglect/ physical abuse/ sexual abuse

c) Brief description of allegation i.e. child was struck on the head by staff member recorded on CCTV

d) Whether there was a LADO referral or not

e) Outcome of investigation into incident (make clear who carried it out): i.e. substantiated

f) Whether there was a complex abuse investigation (typically carried out by the local authority and police)

2. Please provide the highest number of allegations received in total in relation to an individual nursery over the entire period and detail how many were substantiated over the entire period

(i.e. not year by year).

If you are responding to this request on behalf of multiple of local authorities, please provide a response for all of them rather than query if a response is required for all of them.

1.b) It is not possible to state which safeguarding referrals resulted in a S47 as Lado referrals do not always been there has been a S47.  To determine this we would have to go into each individual record and review.

Below is the Lado referrals, relating to individuals who work at Nursery settings, outcome and category type.  

c) It is not possible to share this without going into each individual record

d) As above you have the number of Lado referrals relating to Nursery workers

e) Included above

f) Not possible to share this without going into each individual record, this would take longer than the 18 hours allowed under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000.

2. This is not possible as the above information relates to individual nursery workers, not nursery settings as Lado ( Local Authority Designated Officers) would not record Lado Outcomes e.g substantiated against the setting.