Information Sharing Guidance

Information sharing is essential to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. Below are details of the updated Information Sharing Guidance which has been published by HM Government.

Information Sharing Guidance

Information sharing is essential to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. It is important that practitioners understand when, why and how they should share information so that they can do so confidently and appropriately as part of their day-to-day practice.  

The Data Protection Act 1998 is not a barrier to sharing information but provides a framework to ensure that personal information is shared appropriately.

The Departments of Children, Schools and Families and Community and Local Government have worked together to update the HM Government Information Sharing Guidance, originally published April 2006.

This guidance has been brought up-to-date to reflect current policy and extended to cover practitioners working with children and young people and families as well as those working with adults. The guidance is most relevant to those practitioners at the front-line who have to make case-by-case decisions about whether and what to share. The guidance is also for managers and advisors who support these practitioners in their decision making.  

The decision to share or not to share information must always be based on professional judgement about the safety and well-being of the child/young person, in accordance with legal, ethical and professional obligations.

Obtaining explicit consent for information sharing is best practice. Ideally, consent should be obtained at the start of the involvement as part of working with the individual or family to agree what support is required.

Where consent cannot be obtained or is refused, or where seeking it is inappropriate or unsafe, then the question of whether there is a sufficient public interest must be judged by the practitioner on the facts of each case.

The guidance outlines seven ‘golden rules’ for information sharing and provides further information in the form of seven key questions about information sharing to inform decision-making.

You do not always need consent to share personal information. There will be some circumstances where you should not seek consent, for example, because doing so would place a child/young person at increased risk of significant harm; or prejudice the prevention, detection or prosecution of a serious crime; or lead to unjustified delay in making enquiries about allegations of significant harm or serious harm.

More information on when you can share information without consent in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child or young person is available in Solihull LSCB procedures.