Children’s support and safeguarding information

When working with you, we ask you to give us a variety of information.

• your name, address and date of birth
• your needs and circumstances
• when and where staff met with you
• what the meetings were about and what happened in them
• what other people that you know have given to us
• what other services that may be working with you have given us
• professional opinion of staff supporting you

We use this information to make sure that

• the staff supporting you have accurate, up-to-date information to help them decide the best possible support for you
• there is an accurate record when we review your support
• your concerns can be properly looked into if you have a complaint
• you only have to give your information once

Sometimes we have to share information about you without asking your permission. This could be:

• for legal proceedings when a court order is made
• if there is a risk of harm or abuse to you or other people
• where you are unable to give consent at any time, for example because of a physical or mental health condition
• to assist the authorities with the prevention or detection of a crime or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, or the assessment or payment of tax

We will tell you if we need to share your information without your permission, unless telling you will harm a police investigation or put you or someone else at risk.

We have a legal duty to keep information about you and the children in your care confidential and secure. If we need to share information about your or your children we will

• tell you why we need it
• ask only for what we need, and not to collect too much or irrelevant information
• protect it and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t have
• let you know whether we share it with other organisations to give you better services, and whether you can say no
• make sure we don’t keep it longer than necessary

You can ask to see the information we hold on you or the children in your care under the Data Protection Act 1998.