Consent to Information Sharing
SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER
This chapter includes information on how to obtain consent for information sharing purposes, recording that consent has been gained and additional links for further details on information sharing within Section 5.
AMENDMENT
In November 2024, this chapter was updated.1. General Principles
An assessment of a child/young person's needs under Section 47 or Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 will require information from partner agencies.
This guidance only applies where seeking consent will not:
- Place a child/young person at increased risk of significant harm; or
- Place an adult at risk of serious harm; or
- Prejudice the prevention, detection or prosecution of a serious crime; or
- Lead to unjustified delay in making enquiries about allegations of significant harm to a child/young person or serious harm to an adult;
- Contradict the wishes of a young person that HCC considers Gillick Competent to give or refuse consent (seeking legal advice as appropriate).
If the practitioner judges the child/young person to be Gillick Competent and therefore competent to give consent, their consent or refusal to consent is the one to consider even if their parent or carer disagrees.
In all other instances, and at the earliest opportunity, you will obtain written consent to share information.
Sharing information across Children's Services is not a breach of the Data Protection Act or the Haringey Judgement. The information being shared should be the information necessary for the purpose for which it is being shared and only shared with the person or people who need to know.
2. Obtaining Informed Written Consent
Written consent is preferable as there can be no dispute later as to whether consent was given. However, this is not always available especially at the very beginning of Children's Services involvement.
It is essential that whether consent is written or verbal it must be informed. Informed consent means that the person giving consent needs to understand why information needs to be shared, who will see their information, the purpose to which it will be put and the implications of sharing that information.
See also: Consent Form (CS0442F1).
3. Obtaining Consents
3.1 Parental Consent
If a contact or a referral is received that meets the team's threshold and it is not clear that consent (written or verbal) has been obtained from the parents, then the team accepting the contact / referral must call the parents and get informed consent.
3.2 Third Party Verbal Consent
Professional contacts/referrals made using the online referral portal require necessary consent for the contact/referral to be accepted by Hertfordshire Children’s Services. This includes information sharing between professionals. The levels of achieved consent are clearly recorded in the contact/referral through tick boxes and are the responsibility of the referring professional.
If the contact/referral progresses to a child and family assessment, the practitioner must gain additional consent from parents to complete information sharing / safeguarding welfare checks.
3.3 Anonymous Referrals
The responsible practitioner will contact the parents, check if they are aware a referral has been made to Children's Services and inform them that it would assist Children's Services to undertake their duties if they (parents) would consent to information sharing between agencies i.e. GP, Education, Police and Probation.
3.4 Only One Parent Consents
If one parent with parental responsibility consents and the other refuses, then a professional judgment needs to be made about whether it is in the child/young person's best interests that information is requested from an agency. In these circumstances there would be no issue with seeking information about the parent who has consented or the child/young person, but the issue would arise in respect of information relating to the parent who has not consented.
The responsible practitioner will inform the agency that Children Services does not have consent from one parent and why they require the information. The agency would need to apply the Data Protection Act information sharing principals and Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedures Manual, Information Sharing and Confidentiality Guidance when deciding whether to share information.
4. Recording
Whichever form of consent you have (verbal or written) and from whom, it is important that this is clearly recorded on the child/young person's LCS file. The completed Consent Form (CS0442F1) should be uploaded onto Live Link and held in the Essential Information Folder in the child/young person's file and a case note recorded indicating whether consent has been obtained, and the reasons for this decision. It should also state which agencies we have been given consent to contact and which have been refused, and if there is a difference between parent's views and consent.
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