Information sharing about children or young people : University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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Why do organisations collect and share information?

Under the Children Acts of 1989 and 2004, all services and organisations that care for babies, children and young people must share information with one another to protect children.

This is how to make sure that children have the services that meet their individual needs and to identify children and families who need more support.

We usually work with parents/carers and young people when we have consent from you. We will always try our best to share any concerns we may have. At times, however, we may need to liaise with the Local Authority without your consent especially if we are worried about the safety of a child, an adult who is with a child or the safety of those visiting you. We have a legal duty to share this information with the Local Authority who have a duty to follow up any concerns, in order to safeguard children at risk of significant harm (Children Act 1989, section 47) .

Which organisations have to share information with each other?

Health services such as hospitals, and GP surgeries.
Education services such as nurseries, schools, and colleges.
Children’s Social Care / Local Authority.
Community and voluntary agencies (such as “Redthread” which is a youth charity based at UCLH).
Police.

Are there any rules about what information they can share?

Yes.

Information that is shared must be relevant to the child’s welfare, only sharing the information that we need to, to be read only by those caring for the child and be stored securely.

What information does UCLH ask for?

Staff may ask the parent/ carer the following information about their child/ren:

The child’s name, address, and date of birth.
The child’s family history including who cares for and has legal parental responsibility for their child.
The support currently being offered by children’s social care/ local authority to the child or family (or support given in the past).
The health history and any relevant health information of the child and their immediate family and who provides healthcare such as the GP, health visitor or hospital doctor or nurse.

Are there any times when consent to share information is not needed?

In some circumstances consent is not needed when we share information with the Local Authority or the Police, although when it is safe and we are able to, we will let the parents/carers know about our concerns and that we wish to share this.

Some examples of when we may share information without your consent:

If a child is deemed to be at risk of or actual significant harm (section 47, Children Act 1989) and their parents will not give consent for information being shared.
If the courts are involved with a child’s welfare, a judge can order information to be shared.

What if I have concerns about information sharing?

You can speak to a member of staff about your concerns. You can ask to speak to a “nurse in charge” or another person in charge.

If you continue to have concerns you can contact PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) who can offer support, information, and assistance to patients if they have a concern or complaint that staff have not been able to resolve. PALS can be contacted by telephone (020 3447 3042) or email: uclh.pals@nhs.net.

Referrals to the Local Authority

Sometimes families might benefit from extra help from children’s social care/local authority or early help services. All requests and referrals for children’s social care services, whether for early help services or a social work service go to a local authority MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub). This way, they can make sure that children and families get the right sort of help from the start.

Early Help Services provide extra support to children and families where there are levels of need that do not meet the threshold for a social work service. We will seek your consent for an early help referral. Early help and early intervention are forms of support aimed at improving outcomes for children or preventing escalating need or risk.

We may contact the MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub) if we have a concern that a child is at risk of significant harm and may do this without your consent.

The purpose of the MASH is to allow agencies to share information they have on a family quickly in order to get a better picture of any risk to the child or difficulties the family are facing. This then helps social workers in your local area make decisions on how best to keep children safe. On receiving the information from the hospital, each agency (the MASH team is often made up of representatives from Children’s Social Care, the Police, Health services, Probation, Youth Services) will check what information they hold on the child and family and share it with the MASH social worker who will decide on what action to take.

Following information sharing, the MASH manager will refer the child on for a suitable service; this may be an early help service or a child in need service or child protection service from a social worker in the area that your child lives in.