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Information Sharing and Consent

Effective sharing of information between practitioners and local organisations and agencies is essential for the early identification of need, assessment and service provision to keep children safe. Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews have highlighted that missed opportunities to record, understand the significance of and share information in a timely manner can have serious consequences for the safety and welfare of children. Assessments and information relating to safeguarding of children needs to be available to share across agencies to aid decision making.

To ensure effective safeguarding arrangements: 

  • all organisations and agencies should have arrangements in place that set out clearly the processes and principles for sharing information. The arrangement should cover how information will be shared within their own agency/organisation and with other agencies/organisations which may be involved with the child
  • practitioners should not assume that someone else will pass on information that may be critical to keeping a child safe. If a practitioner has concerns about a child’s welfare and considers that they may be a child in need or that the child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm then this information must be shared with the local authority/children’s social care or the police. All practitioners should be particularly alert to the importance of sharing information when a child moves from one local authority area to another.

Information sharing and Consent

Practitioners should aim to obtain consent to share information but should be mindful of situations where to do so would place a child at increased risk of harm. Information may be shared without consent if a practitioner has reason to believe that there are good reason to do so and that the sharing of the information will enhance the safeguarding of the child in a timely manner. When decisions are made to share or withhold information practitioners should record the rationale for the decision and with whom the information has been shared and the reasons why.  

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

Practitioners must have due regard for the relevant data protection principles which allow the sharing of personal information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 [external link] and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) [External Link].

To share information effectively:

  • practitioners should be confident of the processing conditions under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR which allow the storage and sharing of information for safeguarding purposes including information which is sensitive and personal and should be treated as ‘special category personal data’
  • where practitioners need to share special category data they should be aware that the Data Protection Act 2018 contains ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’ as a processing condition which allows practitioners to share information. This includes allowing practitioners to share information without consent if it is not possible to obtain consent, it cannot be reasonably expected that a practitioner gains consent or to gain consent would place a child at risk.

Fears about sharing information must not be allowed to stand in the way of the need to promote the welfare and protect the safety of children which must always be the paramount concern. There are some common misconceptions which may hinder effective information sharing. Here are the facts:

  • the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR do not prohibit the collection and sharing of personal information but rather provide a framework to ensure that personal information is shared appropriately.
  • consent is not necessarily required to share personal information. Wherever possible you should be open and honest and seek consent about why, what, how and with whom information will be shared. When you gain consent to share information the consent should be explicit and freely given. However, there may be circumstances where it is not appropriate to seek consent such as gaining consent would put a child at risk or an individual cannot give consent or to obtain consent is not reasonable.
  • personal information can be shared between organisations provided that the purpose for which the information would be used is compatible with the purpose for which it was originally collected. In the case of children in need or children at risk of significant harm it is highly improbable that the legislation would be a barrier to sharing information with other practitioners
  • the Common Law Duty of Confidence and the Human Rights Act 1998 do not prevent the sharing of personal information.
  • IT systems can be useful tools to share information; shared data enables practitioners to make informed decisions about safeguarding children.    

Practitioners should be proactive in sharing information as soon as possible. It is essential for the identification of patterns of behaviour when a child has gone missing, when multiple children appear to be associated with the same location of risk or within the same context or in relation to children in secure estate where there may be multiple local authorities involved in a child’s care.

We know that a common theme in Safeguarding Reviews (Child and Adult) is communication between agencies and the issue of sharing information. Darlington Safeguarding Partnership has implemented an Information Sharing Protocol, which aims to support and enable improved communication and information
sharing between partner agencies across Darlington in line with the legal framework and best practice guidance.

Further information is set out in the Partnerships DSP Information Sharing Protocol [PDF document]

You will also find additional guidance published by the DfE - Information Sharing Guidance for practitioners providing safeguarding services for children, young people, parents and carers.  The guidance (revised May 2024) explains some of the complexities of 'consent' and why it can cause confusion.   DfE - Information Sharing Guidance [external link]

The Partnership has also developed a Learning briefing on Information Sharing [PDF Document] and there is a video podcast to support practitioners in understanding when to share information which is crucial for the effective safeguarding of children and adults but also to improve decision making;  You Tube Video [external link]