Information sharing
1 October 2006 - Responsibility for supporting 'integrated working' implementation moves to Children's Workforce Development Council
Sharing information is vital for early intervention to ensure that children and young people get the services they require. It is also essential to protect children and young people from suffering harm from abuse or neglect, and to prevent them from offending.
In Every Child Matters (December 2004) the government made a commitment to produce clear guidance for all children's services practitioners on information sharing. The guidance below support practioners in sharing information.
Guidance
Information
Sharing: Practitioners' Guide (April 2006)
Endorsement
of the Information Sharing Guidance (December 2006)
A list of endorsements received for the information sharing guidance,
including a selection of comments from the organisations who have provided
them.
Statement
on Information Sharing Agreements and Protocols (March 2007)
Details about why agreements and protocols are unnecessary for
sharing information about individual children.
Following consultation we developed the guidance even further for immediate use by all practitioners who work with children or young people - employed or volunteers, working in the public, private or voluntary sectors. It is also relevant to practitioners who work in services provided for adults, for example mental health services and drug and alcohol services, as some adults accessing those services may have parenting or caring responsibilities.
The guidance comprises three main parts:
- Core guidance - giving practitioners clear practical guidance, drawing on
experience and the public consultation
- A set of case examples which illustrate information sharing
situations
- A summary of the laws affecting information sharing in respect of children and young people
Training
In response to feedback from the consultation we have developed a set of training
materials, including an 'Introduction to Information Sharing' and
'Information Sharing in Practice', which are available for local
multi-agency training, and for use by providers of initial training and
continuous professional development for the children's workforce.
Additional materials include 'Handling Confidential Information', which
is aimed at administrative staff who have access to confidential information on
children and young people, and 'Providing Advice in Information Sharing,
which is aimed at information sharing officers, professional advisers and
trainers.
Further documents
Integrated
Working Factsheets
Includes a factsheet on information sharing guidance.
Better
Information Sharing in Practice
Case studies showing how the function of the lead professional, use of the
Common Assessment Framework and multi-agency working contribute to better
information sharing.
This page was last updated on 02 July 2007
