Dear Mr Figueira,

Thank you for your request asking for information that we hold as follows. I apologise for the delay in response, please see our response below in blue:

I am submitting this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Given Barnet Homes’ role in housing allocations, safeguarding, and duty of care, I request the following information:

  1. Care Act Assessments & Duty of Care Responsibilities
  1. What is the required procedure and statutory timeframe for conducting a Care Act Assessment if:
    • Health professionals (e.g., GPs, NHS specialists, social workers) provide evidence of an applicant’s vulnerabilities?
    • Vulnerabilities are disclosed by the applicant themselves?
    • A Care Act Assessment is refused by the applicant despite health professionals raising concerns?
      (If no specific policy exists, provide the expected procedure and timeframe that should apply.)
  2. Provide copies of all internal policies, procedures, or legal guidance Barnet Homes follows when handling Care Act Assessment refusals despite documented safeguarding risks.
    • Specifically reference relevant sections in any documents provided.
  3. How many Care Act Assessments were formally offered and recorded for homeless applicants in Barnet between January 2024 and March 2025?
  4. If a Care Act Assessment is refused, but health professionals or the applicant have already raised concerns about their vulnerabilities, does Barnet Homes override the refusal under its statutory duty of care?
  5. How does Barnet Homes formally record the offer and outcome of a Care Act Assessment, and what evidence is required to prove it was offered?

Barnet Homes does not carry out Care Act Assessments, this would be done by Barnet Council.

  1. Safeguarding & Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) Referrals
  1. What is the recorded average and the official required timeframe between a safeguarding concern being raised with Barnet Homes and its formal referral to Social Services or MASH?
    (If no formal timeframe exists, provide the expected procedure and timeframe that should apply.)

We are unable to provide a recorded average for the time taken between a safeguarding concern being raised with Barnet Homes and its formal referral to Social Services or MASH as this data is not collected on the Housing Jigsaw database – there is no field on the Jigsaw database to record either that a safeguarding referral has been made, the date that a safeguarding concern was noted or the date that referral was made.

Refusal Notice

s12 (cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit)

 

We estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate time/costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently 18 hours /£450. Section 12 (1) of the FOIA does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the time or cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit as set out above. To identify the data, you have requested would need a manual exercise carried out which would take significant resources and time. In the homelessness module, we undertook a ‘keyword’ search, and we have 2941 cases with the word MASH, 1706 with the word Safeguarding; please note this may refer either to a concern being identified by an officer and/or a referral being made to Social Services and the MASH. A case-by-case search to respond to this enquiry would conservatively take 5 minutes per case, and with 2941 cases a manual search would take over approximately 245 hours. Therefore we are refusing your request on that basis.

The attached Safeguarding procedure sets a timeframe for a referral of one day where the threshold for ‘safeguarding concern’ is reached; the definition of ‘safeguarding concern’ is on page 1.

  1. How many safeguarding concerns raised by an applicant were NOT referred to Social Services or MASH, and what were the stated reasons for non-referral?

Where a member of staff believes that a situation is identified which is identified as a ‘safeguarding concern’ then a referral is made; the definition of ‘safeguarding concern’ is on page 1 of the attached Safeguarding Procedure.

  1. Provide a copy of Barnet Homes’ internal policies on processing and escalating safeguarding concerns to Social Services and MASH, including:
    • Timeframes and procedures
    • Thresholds for referral
    • Steps taken if a concern is not escalated
      (Specifically reference relevant sections in any documents provided.)

Please see the response for Q6 and Q7 above.

Appendix 1 gives examples of signs of potential abuse

Where the threshold for ‘safeguarding concern’ is reached then a referral must be made.

  1. Provide details of any internal audits or reviews conducted since January 2023 to assess compliance with safeguarding obligations.

No internal audits or reviews have been conducted since January 2023 to assess compliance with safeguarding obligations.

  1. For safeguarding concerns formally referred to MASH:
  • What is the recorded average and required timeframe from the concern being raised to referral?
  • How many cases took longer than:
    • 24 hours
    • 48 hours
    • One week
    • One month
    • Never referred
      (If no records exist, provide the expected timeframe and general procedure Barnet Homes follows.)

Please see the response at Q6 and Q7 above.

We are unable to provide a recorded average for the time taken between a safeguarding concern being raised with Barnet Homes and its formal referral to Social Services or MASH as this data is not collected on the Housing Jigsaw database – there is no field on the Jigsaw database to record either that a safeguarding referral has been made, the date that a safeguarding concern was noted or the date that referral was made.

Refusal Notice

s12 (cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit)

 

We estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate time/costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently 18 hours /£450. Section 12 (1) of the FOIA does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the time or cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit as set out above. To identify the data, you have requested would need a manual exercise carried out which would take significant resources and time. In the homelessness module, we undertook a ‘keyword’ search, and we have 2941 cases with the word MASH, 1706 with the word Safeguarding; please note this may refer either to a concern being identified by an officer and/or a referral being made to Social Services and the MASH. A case-by-case search to respond to this enquiry would conservatively take 5 minutes per case, and with 2941 cases a manual search would take over approximately 245 hours. Therefore we are refusing your request on that basis.

  1. How many safeguarding concerns raised by a resident were NOT referred to MASH, and what were the stated reasons for non-referral?

 

We are unable to provide data on safeguarding concerns raised by a resident where they were not referred to MASH as this data is not collected on the Housing Jigsaw database – there is no field on the Jigsaw database to record either that a safeguarding referral has been made or not made.

Refusal Notice

s12 (cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit)

 

We estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate time/costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently 18 hours /£450. Section 12 (1) of the FOIA does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the time or cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit as set out above. To identify the data, you have requested would need a manual exercise carried out which would take significant resources and time. In the homelessness module, we undertook a ‘keyword’ search, and we have 2941 cases with the word MASH, 1706 with the word Safeguarding; please note this may refer either to a concern being identified by an officer and/or a referral being made to Social Services and the MASH. A case-by-case search to respond to this enquiry would conservatively take 5 minutes per case, and with 2941 cases a manual search would take over approximately 245 hours. Therefore we are refusing your request on that basis.

  1. Provide details of whether any safeguarding concerns were escalated directly by housing officers, including cases where concerns were rejected or delayed.

We are unable to provide details of whether a safeguarding concern was identified by a housing officer – there is no field on the Jigsaw database to record either that a safeguarding referral has been identified or whether the concern was noted by the housing officer or the client.

Refusal Notice

s12 (cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit)

 

We estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate time/costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently 18 hours /£450. Section 12 (1) of the FOIA does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the time or cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit as set out above. To identify the data, you have requested would need a manual exercise carried out which would take significant resources and time. In the homelessness module, we undertook a ‘keyword’ search, and we have 2941 cases with the word MASH, 1706 with the word Safeguarding; please note this may refer either to a concern being identified by an officer and/or a referral being made to Social Services and the MASH. A case-by-case search to respond to this enquiry would conservatively take 5 minutes per case, and with 2941 cases a manual search would take over approximately 245 hours. Therefore we are refusing your request on that basis.

  1. Subject Access Requests (SAR), FOI Compliance & Data Handling
  1. How many SAR responses provided by Barnet Homes between January 2024 and March 2025 were formally identified as incomplete, missing internal emails, or in breach of Data Protection Act compliance?
  2. Provide copies of all policies and procedures Barnet Homes follows to ensure SAR and FOI responses include all relevant internal communications in compliance with the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.
    (Specifically reference relevant sections in any documents provided.)

Please see attachments 3 and 4

  1. How many complaints and internal reviews have been received regarding:
  • Delayed or incomplete SAR responses
  • Delayed or incomplete FOI responses
  • Contradictory information found in SAR disclosures compared to FOI responses
  1. Ombudsman Cases & Complaints Handling
  1. How many complaints have been submitted to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) against Barnet Homes since January 2023 regarding:
  • Housing suitability
  • Safeguarding concerns
  • Failure to follow statutory housing obligations

Refusal Notice

s12 (cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit)

 

We estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate time/costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently 18 hours /£450. Section 12 (1) of the FOIA does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the time or cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit as set out above. To identify the data, you have requested would need a manual exercise carried out which would take significant resources and time.

 

63 Local Government and Social Care enquiries have been received since January 2023 and a case-by-case search to respond to this enquiry would conservatively take 20 minutes per case, and with 63 cases a manual search would take over approximately 21 hours. Therefore we are refusing your request on that basis.

  1. Provide copies of Barnet Homes’ official guidelines for responding to an Ombudsman enquiry regarding a housing case.
    (Specifically reference relevant sections in any documents provided.)

Barnet Homes follows the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint-Handling Code.

  1. Internal Decision-Making & Transparency
  1. How many internal reviews of housing decisions have been conducted by Barnet Homes since January 2024?
  • How many resulted in a change of decision?
  1. What formal policies exist to prevent misleading, incomplete, or contradictory information in:
  • FOI responses
  • Safeguarding case handling

No formal policy exists specifically to prevent misleading, incomplete, or contradictory information with relation to Safeguarding case handling, the aim of the Safeguarding Policy – attached – is to out The Barnet Group’s approach to safeguarding children and adults at risk. Section 3.4 of the policy sets out how the Barnet Groups responds to suspected or alleged abuse or neglect.

  • Formal complaints processing
    (Specifically reference relevant sections in any documents provided.)

Advice and assistance

 

As some of the information you have requested, namely regarding Care Act Assessments is not held by The Barnet Group, it may be more appropriate for Barnet Council to provide the information in this case, as it is possible they may hold some or all of the information you have asked for.

 

Barnet Council can be contacted at:

 

Barnet Council

Information Management Team (IMT), Building 2 North London Business Park

Oakleigh Road South, New Southgate, London N11 1NP

 

Email: foi@barnet.gov.uk

Your Rights

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been handled, you can request a review by emailing Talk2Us@barnethomes.org and marking it as an appeal for the attention of the Data Controller. There is no charge for making an appeal.

After this, if you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint, you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner:

Kind regards,

Carly Williamson

Complaints and Information Manager