Worsbrough Common Primary School and Rising

Stars Daycare

Information Sharing Protocol

Reviewed 15/10/16
1. Aim and Purpose

Aim Sharing Information is vital for early intervention to ensure that children and
young people with additional needs get the services they need. It is also essential to
protect children and young people from suffering harm from abuse or neglect and to
prevent them from offending.

Purpose To give practitioners in contact with children & young people the confidence
to apply a systematic approach to information sharing by:
Understanding what to do; and
The most effective ways of sharing information, if they believe a child or
family may require particular services in order to achieve positive outcomes
or are at risk of suffering harm.

2. Legal obligation and relevant legislation

This protocol does not affect or remove any partner agencies statutory and other legal
obligations. All partner agencies should have their own operational policies and
procedural guidance in place to support this multi-agency Information Sharing protocol.

Extract taken from HM Government publication:

Information Sharing: Further guidance on legal issues
Integrated working to improve outcomes for children and young people

The law specifically concerned with information sharing:

The Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention of Human Rights
Common law duty of confidentiality
Data Protection Act 1998

Pieces of legislation which may provide statutory agencies and those acting on their
behalf, working with children, young people or families, with statutory powers to share
information:
The Children Act 1989, sections 17, 27 & 47
The Children Act 2004, sections 10 & 11
Education Act 2002, sections 157 & 175
Education Act 1996, sections 13 & 434(4)
Learning and Skills Act 2000, sections 117 & 119
Education (SEN) Regulations 2001, regulations 6 & 18
Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000
Protection of Children Act 1999
Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, section 20
 Local Government Act 2000, sections 1, 2 & 3
Criminal Justice Act 2003, section 325
Crime and Disorder Act 1998, section 17, 37, 39(5) & 115
National Health Service Act 1977, section 2
Health Act 1999, section 27
The Adoption and Children Act 2002
Working Together to safeguard Children 2015
Keeping Children safe in Education 2015
Dealing with Allegations of Abuse against teachers and other staff 2012
The Prevent Duty 2015

Key points and consent

The school and Daycare subscribe to, the principles set out in the DfES Information
Sharing: Practitioners Guide, and encourages practitioners in Barnsley to work to these
principles using the following key points:

Explain openly and honestly at the outset what information will or could be
shared, and why, and seek agreement except where doing so puts the child
or others at risk of significant harm.
The childs safety and welfare must be the overriding consideration when
making decisions on whether to share information about them.
Respect the wishes of children and families who do not consent to share
confidential information unless in your judgement there is sufficient need
to override that lack of consent.
Seek advice when in doubt.
Ensure information is accurate, up-to-date, necessary for the purpose for
which you are sharing it, shared only with those who need to see it, and
shared securely.
Always record the reasons for your decision whether it is to share or not.

This protocol is to be read in conjunction with individual agencies information sharing

operational policies and procedural guidelines.
3. Information Quality and Security

When sharing information it is the practitioners responsibility to ensure that the

information is:
Factually correct
Accurate
Relevant
Current
Transferred in a secure manner
Shared when there is a legitimate purpose for you or your agency to share
the information

When receiving information it is the practitioners responsibility to ensure that:

There is a clear record of where the information was sent from
It is stored securely
The reliability, validity and accuracy of the information is confirmed
Receipt of information is sent

This protocol does not supersede any policy, protocol or guidelines partner agencies
currently use.

The schools Wellbeing Principle or member of the nurture team will contact childrens
previous school to acquire additional information and record this contact on the childs
conversation log and individual record sheet.
Where ever possible the nurture team will carry out a home visit on children transferring
in from other schools.

4. Complaints

It is acknowledged that complaints about information sharing are likely to be raised by

families, children and young people as well as partner agencies.

The agency initially receiving the complaint would record relevant details and in the first
instance inform the agency that the complaint related to. This should happen within 3
working days and the recipient may be the information sharing champion or the relevant
complaints department.

At all times, the complainant will be kept up to date with any developments relating to
the complaint.

If a complaint was not satisfied with the initial response from the agency concerned
then the agency would invoke their formal complaints procedure.

Any agencies receiving inaccurate information will need to be advised of the correct
information to allow for records to be amended.