Question
- How many times the PSNI attended in the last 12 months at:
- General children’s homes;
- Specialist children’s homes including specialist children’s homes for children with complex needs;
- Lakewood Regional Secure Care Centre;
- Beechcroft Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit;
- The Iveagh centre;
- Respite provision for children with complex needs, and;
- Foster placements
2. On how many occasions in the last 12 months when the PSNI attended those facilities listed at 1. was a child:
- formally interviewed
- arrested and detained
Answer
Police Service systems cannot be interrogated easily to provide the information requested, however, the figures below represent the total number of reports to the locations listed, whether or not police physically attended the premises. The figure for Foster placements, in particular, cannot be treated as accurate, as it is dependent on the words ‘foster’ , ‘LAC’ or ‘Kinship’ being used in the report to police. We are unable to provide data in respect of Respite provision.
| Location | Total | |
|---|---|---|
| i & ii | Children’s Home (we are unable to differentiate between general and specialist homes) | 5770 |
| iii. | Lakewood Regional Secure Care Centre | 143 |
| iv. | Beechcroft Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit | 224 |
| v. | The Iveagh Centre | 41 |
| vi. | Respite Provision | Unable to source this data |
| vii. | Foster Placements (inc kinship / LAC) | 295 |
These figures include missing reports combined with other calls such as ASB, assaults, criminal damage, etc.
It is not possible to provide accurate information in relation to a child being ‘formally interviewed’ as this would require a manual trawl of approximately 6000 reports. The Niche Records Management System does not record a ‘formally interview’ as a searchable criteria and, often, notebook interviews would be recorded on the Occurrence Enquiry Log for each specific incident.
A manual process undertaken in respect of the number of arrests at the locations listed indicates that 251 children were arrested at a Children’s home in the last Financial Year. This is subject to the caveat that is an operational figure, dependant on a serial having been closed with an “Arrest” closing code, and, in circumstances where more than one child was arrested will not show the second or subsequent children in the figures.
Nuala McAllister - Alliance