Worsbrough Common Primary School and Rising Star’s Children’s Centre Information Sharing Protocol Reviewed 15/10/11 Adopted 18/10/10
1. Aim and Purpose Aim – Sharing Information is vital for early intervention to ensure that children and young people with additional needs get the services they need. It is also essential to protect children and young people from suffering harm from abuse or neglect and to prevent them from offending. Purpose – To give practitioners in contact with children & young people the confidence to apply a systematic approach to information sharing by: Understanding what to do; and The most effective ways of sharing information, if they believe a child or family may require particular services in order to achieve positive outcomes or are at risk of suffering harm.
2.
Legal obligation and relevant legislation
This protocol does not affect or remove any partner agencies statutory and other legal obligations. All partner agencies should have their own operational policies and procedural guidance in place to support this multi-agency Information Sharing protocol. Extract taken from HM Government publication: ‘Information Sharing: Further guidance on legal issues Integrated working to improve outcomes for children and young people’ ‘The law specifically concerned with information sharing: The Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention of Human Rights Common law duty of confidentiality Data Protection Act 1998 Pieces of legislation which may provide statutory agencies and those acting on their behalf, working with children, young people or families, with statutory powers to share information: The Children Act 1989, sections 17, 27 & 47
The Children Act 2004, sections 10 & 11 Education Act 2002, sections 157 & 175 Education Act 1996, sections 13 & 434(4) Learning and Skills Act 2000, sections 117 & 119 Education (SEN) Regulations 2001, regulations 6 & 18 Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 Protection of Children Act 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, section 20 Local Government Act 2000, sections 1, 2 & 3 Criminal Justice Act 2003, section 325 Crime and Disorder Act 1998, section 17, 37, 39(5) & 115 National Health Service Act 1977, section 2 Health Act 1999, section 27 The Adoption and Children Act 2002’
Key points and consent The school and Children’s Centre subscribe to, the principles set out in the DfES Information Sharing: Practitioners Guide, and encourages practitioners in Barnsley to work to these principles using the following key points:
Explain openly and honestly at the outset what information will or could be shared, and why, and seek agreement – except where doing so puts the child or others at risk of significant harm. The child’s safety and welfare must be the overriding consideration when making decisions on whether to share information about them. Respect the wishes of children and families who do not consent to share confidential information – unless in your judgement there is sufficient need to override that lack of consent. Seek advice when in doubt. Ensure information is accurate, up-to-date, necessary for the purpose for which you are sharing it, shared only with those who need to see it, and shared securely. Always record the reasons for your decision – whether it is to share or not.
This protocol is to be read in conjunction with individual agencies information sharing operational policies and procedural guidelines.
3.
Information Quality and Security
When sharing information it is the practitioner’s responsibility to ensure that the information is: Factually correct Accurate Relevant Current Transferred in a secure manner Shared when there is a legitimate purpose for you or your agency to share the information When receiving information it is the practitioner’s responsibility to ensure that: There is a clear record of where the information was sent from It is stored securely The reliability, validity and accuracy of the information is confirmed Receipt of information is sent This protocol does not supersede any policy, protocol or guidelines partner agencies currently use. The school’s Learning Mentor will contact children’s previous school to acquire additional information and record this contact on the child’s induction sheet. Where ever possible the Learning Mentor will carry out a home visit on children transferring in from other schools. 4.
Complaints
It is acknowledged that complaints about information sharing are likely to be raised by families, children and young people as well as partner agencies. The agency initially receiving the complaint would record relevant details and in the first instance inform the agency that the complaint related to. This should happen within 3 working days and the recipient may be the information sharing champion or the relevant complaints department. At all times, the complainant will be kept up to date with any developments relating to the complaint. If a complaint was not satisfied with the initial response from the agency concerned then the agency would invoke their formal complaints procedure. Any agencies receiving inaccurate information will need to be advised of the correct information to allow for records to be amended.