Research undertaken by Action on Rights for Children (Arch) recommends all local authorities should train staff in the assessment of a child's ability to consent to information sharing.
Last year's government guidance document Information Sharing: Guidance for Practitioners and Managers advised: "children aged 12 or over may generally be expected to have sufficient understanding [to give consent to sharing data]."
But Arch's report states children's competence depends on their maturity, the quality of the information given to them and the child's understanding of the purpose for sharing the information.
The research was undertaken as a result of recent drives towards joining up services, resulting in frontline staff sharing information about children as well as the recent development of the ContactPoint database, which lists the basic information for all children in England.
Other recommendations in the report includes the need for the information commissioner to produce a code of practice for local authorities, setting out the standards for data protection training, giving special attention to the protection of children's data.
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