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Information Sharing

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 states:

'Effective sharing of information between practitioners, local organisations and agencies is essential for early identification of need, assessment, and service provision to keep children safe. Rapid reviews and child safeguarding practice reviews have highlighted that missed opportunities to record, understand the significance of, and share information in a timely manner can have severe consequences for children.'

The St Helens Safeguarding Children Partnership guidance and Information Sharing Agreement (ISA) is for all frontline practitioners, professionals and managers working with children, young people, parents and carers who have to make decisions about sharing personal information on a case-by -case basis. It also applies, and will be helpful for practitioners working with adults who are responsible for children who may be in need.

Information sharing is essential for effective safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. It is a key factor identified in many child safeguarding practice reviews (CSPR’s) where poor information sharing, has resulted in missed opportunities to take action that keeps children and young people safe.

Legislative Framework and Legal Basis for Sharing Information

The legal basis for sharing information is underpinned by the following legislation, statutory and policy guidance:

The Children and Social Work Act 2017, under which the local authority, Merseyside Police, and Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care Board have an equal and shared duty to work together (in partnership with other relevant agencies) to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in a local area.

  • The Children Act 2004, sections 11 and 16E
  • The Data Protection Act 2018 and The General Data Protection Regulation
  • ICO Data Sharing Code of Practice 2021
  • Crime and Disorder Act 1998, section 115
  • The Human Rights Act 1998 (article 8)
  • The Criminal Justice Act 2003, section 325
  • Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004
  • Working Together to Safeguard Children Statutory Guidance 
  • Information Sharing Advice to practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers 
  • Caldicott Review of Information Governance 2013
  • The Freedom of Information Act 2000

Principles for Information Sharing

The principles set out below are intended to help practitioners working with children, young people, parents and carers share information between organisations. Practitioners should use their judgement when making decisions about what information to share, and should follow organisation procedures or consult with their manager if in doubt.

The most important consideration is whether sharing information is likely to support the safeguarding and protection of a child. You may share children’s data if you can demonstrate a compelling reason to do so, taking account of the best interests of the child

Necessary and proportionate: When taking decisions about what information to share, you should consider how much information you need to release. Not sharing more data than is necessary to be of use is a key element of the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, and you should consider the impact of disclosing information on the information subject and any third parties. Information must be proportionate to the need and level of risk.

Relevant: Only information that is relevant to the purposes should be shared with those who need it. This allows others to do their job effectively and make informed decisions.

Adequate: Information should be adequate for its purpose. Information should be of the right quality to ensure that it can be understood and relied upon.

Accurate: Information should be accurate and up to date and should clearly distinguish between fact and opinion. If the information is historical then this should be explained.

Timely: Information should be shared in a timely fashion to reduce the risk of missed opportunities to offer support and protection to a child. Timeliness is key in emergency situations and it may not be appropriate to seek consent for information sharing if it could cause delays and therefore place a child or young person at increased risk of harm. Practitioners should ensure that sufficient information is shared, as well as consider the urgency with which to share it.

Secure: Wherever possible, information should be shared in an appropriate, secure way. Practitioners must always follow their organisation’s policy on security for handling personal information.

Record: Information sharing decisions should be recorded, whether or not the decision is taken to share. If the decision is to share, reasons should be cited including what information has been shared and with whom, in line with organisational procedures. If the decision is not to share, it is good practice to record the reasons for this decision and discuss them with the requester. In line with each organisation’s own retention policy, the information should not be kept any longer than is necessary. In some rare circumstances, this may be indefinitely, but if this is the case, there should be a review process scheduled at regular intervals to ensure data is not retained where it is unnecessary to do so.

St Helens Safeguarding Children Partnership Information Sharing Agreement & Guidance

Information Sharing: Advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services for children, young people parents and carers (May 2024)