1.An electronic copy of your disclosure policy regarding individuals who have raised concerns regarding the safety and well-being of children who are being protected by social services or children who have had contact with social services in your area. I would be grateful if you could send me a copy of that policy or point to where I may find, it if it has been published.
Confidentiality is very important and each agency ensures that the information shared is relevant and proportionate, it is always important that the consent of the parent is given to any enquiry to enable information sharing within the MASH, an exception to this would be should seeking that consent place a child or others at increased risk.
All relevant policies are available on the Devon Children and Families Partnership website.
Practitioner policy and guidance is available on Devon Procedures Online.
Details of how we process personal data according to Data Protection laws in these circumstances is available in the following :
- Child Protection Privacy Notice
- Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) Privacy Notice
- Missing Children Privacy Notice
- Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)Privacy Notice
2. An electronic copy of your safeguarding policy regarding individuals who have raised concerns regarding the safety and well-being of children who are being protected by social services or who have had contact with social services in your area. Such policy regarding the safety of the individuals raising concerns themselves
Please see the response to the previous question.
3. Specifically, whether the personal details of individuals- including first names and surnames- who have raised concerns regarding the safety and well-being of such children are shared with
a. the children themselves or
b. their carers
4. How many times from January 14th 2014 to date your department has shared the personal details- including names- of any individual who has mentioned concerns about the safety and well-being of children within your area with
a. the children themselves or
b. their carers
If a referrer has not specifically asked to remain anonymous, it is a judgement call taken by the manager dealing with the referral, but it would not be “normal” practice to share the details of a private individual making a referral, though in some circumstances it may happen or be apparent. If the referrer was a professional or acting in a professional capacity, it would be normal practice to share their/their agencies information as appropriate to ensure the safeguarding of the child or children in question.
We do hold information about the number of Childrens Act 1989 Section 17 – Children In Need – and Section 47 – Child Protection – referrals and may hold information about who the detail of the referral has been shared with but to locate, retrieve and collate that would require a manual examination of hundreds of case files, with an estimate of the time needed well in excess of the 18 hours allowed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Section 12 – Cost of Compliance, therefore the information is exempt.