Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) Practice Guidance 4 - Information sharing

5. Decision Making – the importance of sharing information

This guidance cannot aim to provide advice on decision making to cover the range of unique circumstances that people working with children, young people and families face. However, most situations will require the following key decisions:

5.1 What information do you hold and should this information be shared?

Ascertain what information you hold, the purpose for which you hold it and what benefit or outcome would be gained by sharing the information. Then consider what information sharing is necessary to achieve that outcome.

Once you have identified your purpose and the relevant data to be shared you need to ensure that you can comply with all the other data protection principles. Early sharing of appropriate information about wellbeing can be vital in preventing child protection (see glossary) issues occuring. The Independent Care Review highlighted that in many cases with tragic outcomes, Significant Case Reviews find that:

“Key information about a child was not shared timeously or not listened to. In many cases the information shared was not taken account of by the people who needed that information”.

If you are concerned about a child or young person’s wellbeing or a possible child protection issue, you should follow local child protection procedures.

In an emergency situation (e.g. safeguarding children or young people) you should go ahead and immediately (and without consent) share information as is necessary and proportionate. You should record the reasons why you have done as soon as possible afterwards. Section 13 goes into more detail on information sharing in an emergency situation.

Concerns identified by one organisation may form part of a larger picture once shared appropriately with other organisations, enabling support to be offered before as issue becomes more serious.

In many cases, legislation places a duty on practitioners to take appropriate action, including sharing information to ensure the wellbeing of a child or young person.

In many situations information will need to be shared to enable a child, young person or their family to access a service or support that they have requested or agreed to. Sharing information in this way can prevent a child, young person or their family from being asked to repeat themselves.

5.2 Should the child, young person or family be asked for consent?

You should only ask for consent when this will genuinely affect whether the information is shared, and you will be relying on consent as the lawful basis (see section 10) for sharing information (see glossary for definition of consent). It is important that you do not give the impression that you are asking for consent if there is a lawful basis for sharing the information without consent and you have decided to share the information in the best interests of the child or young person. The ICO provide guidance at Consent.

You can still seek a child, young person or families’ views on sharing their personal information and use that to inform your decision making. Relying on a lawful basis other than consent does not preclude you from seeking their views.

It is appropriate to ask for consent where information sharing would enable a child, young person or family to access support that, while possibly helpful, is entirely optional.

Example: A school offers to refer parents (see glossary) to a local authority parenting support programme. The parents’ participation in the programme is entirely optional. The school should advise the parents that they can contact the parenting support programme themselves; or the school could offer to make the referral. If the school makes the referral it would require to pass on the parents’ contact details. Before doing so the school should seek the parents’ explicit consent.

If appropriate, you should explain the possible consequences of withholding consent (for example, you might not be able to refer them to services that could help them).

Consent should be specific to the specific information-sharing circumstances.

Example: A parent has consented to information sharing for the purposes of a parenting support programme. In order for their information to be shared for another purpose, for example, a healthy eating programme, specific consent should be sought.

It will not be appropriate to seek consent if asking for consent could increase the risk of physical, mental or emotional harm to a child or young person; or if asking for consent could otherwise place a child or young person at risk. Under these circumstances there are other more appropriate lawful bases (see glossary).

In an emergency situation (e.g. safeguarding children or young people) you should go ahead and immediately (and without consent) share information as is necessary and proportionate. You should record the reasons why you have done as soon as possible afterwards. Section 13 goes into more detail on information sharing in an emergency situation.

5.3 Can you share this personal information without consent?

Under data protection legislation you may share information without consent if in your judgement there is a lawful basis to do so. For example, if there is a child protection concern then you can share information for the purpose of protecting a child or young person from harm and the lawful basis would likely be public task or legal obligation (for more detail on information sharing in relation to child protection, see section 14). You will need to base your judgement on the facts about the case. When you are sharing or requesting personal information from someone, be clear about the basis upon which you are doing so. Be mindful that an individual might not expect information to be shared, and bear in mind the need for transparency (Right to be informed). Where a decision to share information without consent is made, a record of what has been shared should be kept.

5.4 Should the child, young person or family be asked for their views?

It is good practice, and in keeping with taking a child’s rights-based approach to give the child or young person the opportunity to say what they think about the sharing of their information (in some circumstances, such as those listed at 5.5, this may not be appropriate). Their views should be taken into account and given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity, as part of any decision making process. This approach is rights-respecting and helps to ensure services respect the rights of children and young people. Advocacy (see glossary), translation or communication support may be helpful, or in some cases essential, to supporting children, young people and families to contribute their views. Section 6, Rights of the child, discusses forms of communication that can be used.

Seeking the views of the child or young person should always be done in a safe, protected and trauma-informed way. Practitioners should consider what is in the best interests of the child or young person, and their wider rights, when seeking views which may increase their risk of physical, mental or emotional harm, or if asking for their views could otherwise place them at risk.

In an emergency situation (e.g. safeguarding children or young people) you should go ahead and immediately (and without consent) share information as is necessary and proportionate. You should record the reasons why you have done as soon as possible afterwards. Section 13 goes into more detail on information sharing in an emergency situation.

5.5 Should the child, young person or family be informed?

Individuals have the right to be informed about the collection and use of their personal data. This is a key transparency requirement under the UK GDPR. Therefore the child, young person or their family should be informed about what information about them is being shared, with whom and for what purpose. There are circumstances where you may not have to inform the child, young person or family that you intend to share information. For example, where it would seriously impair the achievement of the objectives of the processing (e.g. you would not need to inform the child, young person or family that you intend to share information for the purposes of safeguarding a child or young person where the family members are being investigated for neglect of that child or young person).

You should not routinely rely on exemptions; you should consider them on a case-by-case basis. You should justify and document your reasons for relying on an exemption. There is more information on exemptions on the ICO’s website Exemptions.