I recently attended a conference that focused on the sharing ofinformation about children and young people between agencies. Thissubject has been highlighted by recommendations made by both Lord Lamingand Sir Michael Bichard, following worst-case scenario tragedies.
It's a thorny subject and it raises dilemmas for those of us workingwith looked-after children. On the one hand, safeguarding isparamount.
On the other, where does information sharing stop? And what do childrenand young people think about it, and do we care?
The conference featured speakers from different disciplines. All of themtalked about their own agencies take on the subject and about the needfor a cohesive approach.
It was all really interesting but I reared in my chair when one speakersaid something like: "Forget the shilly-shallying on this, let's justshare the information and get on with it." Oh yes? Whatever happened tothe right to privacy? Or about consulting with children?
I was relieved to hear another speaker talk about what children thinkabout all this. It worries them. They want to be protected, but theyalso are concerned about who gets to know what and about how safe thesystems are.
This was reflected when the new child index database details wereannounced.
It may well be what ministers refer to as the "step change" needed, butwe'll need to wait and see. In the meantime, children are reporting thatthey don't want information to be held on a database, for fear thatabusers may be able to hack into their files. How scary must thatfeel?
We're all going to have to learn to work within this new system, and itis going to create professional and moral challenges. We need to be ableto explain to the children we work with that confidentiality won't meanthe same in the future as it has before.
And for those most at risk, who rely on a confidential service and willonly use it if they trust us, that might be a "step change" too far. Andwhat do we do then?
