Why relying on ‘consent’ as the basis to share information may not be appropriate

You should only ask for consent when this will genuinely affect whether the information is shared, and you will be relying on consent as the lawful basis for sharing information. It is important that you do not give the impression that you are asking for consent if there is a lawful basis for sharing the information without consent and you have decided to share the information in the best interests of the child or young person.

You can still seek a child, young person or families’ views on sharing their personal information and use that to inform your decision making. Relying on a lawful basis other than consent does not preclude you from seeking their views.

It is appropriate to ask for consent where information sharing would enable a child, young person or family to access support that, while possibly helpful, is entirely optional.

UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets a high standard for consent and, in most cases where there are child protection concerns, consent is unlikely to be an appropriate lawful basis to rely upon as it requires that individuals have real choice and control about the processing of their personal data. Relying on ‘consent’ as the lawful basis is not appropriate if, for example, refusal to give consent would prejudice a criminal investigation or might lead to serious harm to the child. Furthermore, due to the power imbalance between a child or families and the authorities, it would be difficult to demonstrate that consent was freely given. In matters of child protection, it is therefore likely that reliance on consent would be the exception and not the rule.