Information sharing: inter-agency principles

Scotland must … ensure that the right information is shared at the right time and that those close to children are heard. The starting point for any decision must be how to best protect relationships that are important to children - The Promise, the report of the Independent Care Review

Sharing relevant information at the right time is an essential part of promoting, supporting and safeguarding the wellbeing of children and young people, including protecting them from neglect or physical, mental or emotional harm.

The Promise Plan 21-24 is the first of three plans providing Scotland with a clear outline of the priorities and actions required to Keep the Promise by 2030. Within this first set of priorities to be implemented by 2024, Scotland must be committed to ensure that:

“Organisations with responsibilities towards children and families will be confident about when, where, why and how to share information with partners. Information sharing will not be a barrier to supporting children and families.”

This guidance is intended for practitioners and managers in services that work with children, young people and families and focuses on information sharing. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) provide detailed guidance on all aspects of data protection compliance for all sectors, including Data sharing: a code of practice as well as Data sharing and children.

Processing of personal data by law enforcement organisations for specific law enforcement purposes (e.g. the Police investigating a crime) is outside the scope of this guidance.

These procedures refer to information or data - this refers to personal information about living, identifiable people. This guidance promotes lawful, fair and proportionate information sharing that complies with all relevant legal requirements, by clarifying:

• The circumstances in which information can be shared with another organisation;
• The considerations that need to be taken into account to ensure sharing information with another organisation is appropriate; and
• The importance of involving children, young people and families in the decision to share information with another organisation.

Sharing relevant information is an essential part of protecting children from harm. Practitioners and managers in statutory services and the voluntary sector should all understand when and how they may share information. Practitioners must be supported and guided in working within and applying the law through organisational procedures and supervisory processes. Within agencies, data controllers and information governance/ data protection leads should ensure that the systems and procedures for which they share accountability provide an effective framework for lawful, fair and transparent information sharing. Where appropriate, data sharing agreements must be in place.

Where there is a child protection concern, relevant information should be shared with police or social work without delay, provided it is necessary, proportionate and lawful to do so. The lawful basis for sharing information should be identified and recorded.