Response to Department for Education Information Sharing Advice for safeguarding practitioners consultation

5 September 2023

Dear Sir or Madam,

As the specialist body regulating social workers in England, we welcome the opportunity to comment on the Department for Education’s (‘the Department’s’) revision of non-statutory advice to support practitioners in the duties and decisions they take to share information.

Consultation feedback

We have submitted a separate response to the consultation on revisions to the Working Together to Safeguard Children: Changes to Statutory Guidance, which this guidance relates to.

We welcome the revision of the guidance relating to information sharing that will provide more clarity, is easily understood, and instils confidence to share information appropriately amongst practitioners, including social workers.

Feedback on the guidance

The Seven Golden Rules

We agree with the development of a guide to enable practitioners to share information appropriately. We also welcome the revision of guidance that will assist social workers in carrying out their duties to safeguard the public and to maintain their professional standards.

Legal Framework and Concepts

We welcome a review of the non-statutory guidance in relation to data protection legislation and the provision of advice on the most relevant legal bases for sharing information for safeguarding purposes. To practise as a social worker in England professionals must adhere to our professional standards. The following standards relate directly to working within the law:

• Standard 2.6: Treat information about people with sensitivity and handle confi-dential information in line with the law.
• Standard 3.1: Work within legal and ethical frameworks, using my professional authority and judgement appropriately.

Providing further clarity to social workers and safeguarding practitioners is welcome as it will aid them to maintain their professional standards and effectively protect the public. Further guidance would also be welcomed around the expectations of sharing information before it is asked for.

While the aim of the advice is to instil confidence, we would invite the Department to consider the possibility that the guidance could be referred to in challenges by those who believe that their personal data has been shared unlawfully.

Practitioner responsibilities

A number of our professional standards relate to the professional responsibilities of social workers when working in partnership with other agencies:

• Standard 3.6: Draw on the knowledge and skills of workers from my own and other professions and work in collaboration, particularly in integrated teams, holding onto and promoting my social work identity.
• Standard 3.9: Make sure that relevant colleagues and agencies are informed about identified risks and the outcomes and implications of assessments and decisions I make.

Clarity on responsibilities of practitioners is likely to support social workers to exercise their professional judgement and protect the public in line with the professional standards. We therefore welcome the revision of guidance that will assist social workers in carrying out their duties to safeguard the public, and maintain their professional standards.

General comments

We welcome the inclusion of clarification of the vital need in ‘joining up adult and children’s services for the purposes of safeguarding’. As regulator for the whole social work profession, we recognise the importance of the potential links between the 2 services, especially when working to protect the public. We are therefore pleased to see that this advice may also be helpful for practitioners working with vulnerable adults and adults who could pose a risk to children and young people.

The Home Office recently consulted on a proposed Mandatory Duty to report Child Sexual Abuse. Given that the proposed duty for reporting child sexual abuse may be mandatory it will be important to align the 2 areas (and any associated guidance) so that social workers and other professionals working in a multidisciplinary setting are clear on how guidance will enable them to carry out their duties correctly and effectively.

We’ve also submitted a response to the Department’s consultation on revisions to Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance, and understand that this guidance will sit alongside a future revision of Working Together. We would welcome further clarity on whether the next annual revision of the statutory guidance will include a revision of the information section to bring it in line with this guidance.

I hope the Department finds this feedback helpful.

Yours sincerely

Colum Conway
Chief Executive