10.10 Information Sharing

“Practitioners need to understand their organisation’s position and commitment to information sharing. They need to have confidence in the continued support of their organisation where they have used their professional judgement and shared information professionally.”

Information Sharing: Guidance for Practitioners and Managers (DCSF 2008)

We recognise that parents have a right to know that information they share will be regarded as confidential as well as be informed about the circumstances, and reasons, when we are obliged to share information.

We record and share information about children and their families (data subjects) in line with the six principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) (2018) which are further explained in our Privacy Notice that is given to parents at the point of registration The six principles state that personal data must be:

Processed fairly, lawfully and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.
Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed for other purposes incompatible with those purposes.
Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which data is processed.
Accurate and where necessary, kept up to date.
Kept in a form that permits identification of data subjects fo no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data is processed.
Processed in a way that ensures appropriate security of the persona data including protection against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures

We are obliged to share confidential information without authorisation from the person who provided it or to whom it relates if it is in the public interest. That is when:

it is to prevent a crime from being committed or intervene where one may have been, or to prevent harm to a child or adult; or
not sharing it could be worse than the outcome of having shared it.

The decision should never be made as an individual, but with the back-up of management committee officers. The three critical criteria are:

Where there is evidence that the child is suffering, or is at risk of suffering, significant harm.
Where there is reasonable cause to believe that a child may be suffering, or at risk of suffering, significant harm.
To prevent significant harm arising to children and young people or serious harm to adults, including the prevention, detection and prosecution of serious crime.

Procedures

Our procedure is based on the GDPR principles as listed above and the seven golden rules for sharing information in the Information sharing Advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers. We also follow the guidance on information sharing from the Local Safeguarding Children Board.

Remember that the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 and human rights law are not barriers to justified information sharing as per the Children Act 1989, but provide a framework to ensure that personal information about living individuals is shared appropriately.

[Our/My] policy and procedures on Information Sharing provide guidance to appropriate sharing of information both within the setting, as well as with external agencies.

Be open and honest with the individual (and/or their family where appropriate) from the outset about why, what, how and with whom information will, or could be shared, and seek their consent, unless it is unsafe or if I have a legal obligation to do so. A Privacy Notice is given to parents at the point of registration to explain this further.

receive information about our information sharing policy when starting their child in the setting and they sign a form to say that they understand circumstances when information may be shared without their consent. This will only be when it is a matter of safeguarding a child or vulnerable adult. This is on our registration form;
have information about our Safeguarding Children and Child Protection policy; and
have information about the circumstances when information will be shared with external agencies, for example, with regard to any special needs the child may have or transition to school.

Seek advice when there are doubts about possible significant harm to a child or others.

Managers contact children’s social care for advice where they have doubts or are unsure.

Share with consent where appropriate. Respect the wishes of children and parents not to consent to share confidential information. However, in the interests of the child, know when it is reasonable to override their wish.

Guidelines for consent are part of this procedure.

Managers are conversant with this and are able to advise staff accordingly. Consider the safety and welfare of the child when making a decision about sharing information – if there are concerns regarding ‘significant harm’ the child’s well being and safety is paramount.
In our setting we:

record concerns and discuss these with the setting’s designated person and/or designated officer from the management committee for child protection matters. Record decisions made and the reasons why information will be shared and to whom; and
follow the procedures for reporting concerns and record keeping.

Information shared should be accurate and up-to-date, necessary for the purpose it is being shared for, shared only with those who need to know and shared securely.

Our Child Protection procedure and Record Keeping procedure set out how and where information should be recorded and what information should be shared with another agency when making a referral.

Reasons for decisions to share information, or not, are recorded.

Provision for this is set out in our Record Keeping procedure.

Consent

When parents choose our setting for their child, they will share information about themselves and their families. This information is regarded as confidential. Parents have a right to be informed that we will seek their consent to share information in most cases, as well as the kinds of circumstances when we may not seek their consent, or may override their refusal to give consent. We] inform them as follows:

Our policies and procedures set out [our/my] responsibility regarding gaining consent to share information and when it may not be sought or overridden.
We may cover this verbally when the child starts or include this in our prospectus.
Parents sign our Registration Form at registration to confirm that they understand this.
We ask parents to give written consent to share information about any additional needs their child may have, or to pass on child development summaries to the next provider/school.
We give parents copies of the forms they sign.
We consider the following questions when we assess the need to share:

Is there a legitimate purpose to us sharing the information?
Does the information enable the person to be identified?
Is the information confidential?
If the information is confidential, do we have consent to share?
Is there a statutory duty or court order requiring us to share the information?
If consent is refused, or there are good reasons for us not to seek consent, is there sufficient public interest for us to share information?
If the decision is to share, are we sharing the right information in the right way?
Have we properly recorded our decision?

Consent must be freely given and informed - that is the person giving consent needs to understand why information will be shared, what will be shared, who will see information, the purpose of sharing it and the implications for them of sharing that information as detailed in the Privacy Notice.
Consent may be explicit, verbally but preferably in writing, or implicit, implied if the context is such that sharing information is an intrinsic part of [our/my] service or it has been explained and agreed at the outset.
Consent can be withdrawn at any time.
We explain our Information Sharing Policy to parents.

Separated parents
Consent to share need only be sought from one parent. Where parents are separated, this would normally be the parent with whom the child resides. Where there is a dispute, we will consider this carefully.

Where the child is looked after, [we/I] may also need to consult the Local Authority, as ‘corporate parent’ before information is shared.

All the undertakings above are subject to [our/my] paramount commitment, which is to the safety and well-being of the child. Please also see our Safeguarding Children and Child Protection Policy.

All the undertakings above are subject to the paramount commitment of the setting, which is to the safety and well-being of the child. Please also see our Safeguarding Children & Child Protection policy.

Legal Framework

Further Guidance

Information Sharing: Guidance for Practitioners and Managers (DCSF 2008)