Hi Lawrence,
I have just moved from being IG Officer for Children's Services at a LA, so I am no longer involved in the project, but I thought it might be worth giving my views on this anyway as I have previously worked in this arena.
I believe that the sharing is to be case by case. I can't for the life of me remember where I read this, but that is my understanding. In practice this will mean that the status of the social care case will effectively determine whether or not the information is to be shared as I will explain below. The legislation relevant is the Children Act 2004, particularly s17, which requires the Children's Trust Board to put together children's plans. Section 10 is relevant because this is the duty for the LA and partners to cooperate to improve the wellbeing of the child.
Where a child reaches the Child Protection stage of the social care system, there must be a risk of significant harm to the child, hence the need to protect. Child in Need status is the one below that on the threshold and that is the one where consent for involvement, and further info sharing is required. At CP stage, because it is understood that there is a risk of significant harm, there is a need for all professionals to share the information that is relevant. In practice the parent will be told who the information is to be shared with (unless to do so would present a risk to another adult or child), and the sharing would then take place. *If* consent is sought (and it probably isn't), and is refused by the parent/young person, if they have been placed under a Child Protection Plan it is more than likely that the sharing would be deemed necessary in the child's interest to protect them from harm.
Looked After Children are either escalated from CP status (I include in this those children to whom the risk is so great that they are moved straight into care), or in some rare cases, the parent gives them up to care/adoption. Depending on the legal status of the child, the LA may even have parental responsibility for the child, and therefore the ability to decide.
In summary, I believe that the threshold chosen (CP and LAC cases) have been so chosen because the risk of significant harm to the child has been reached, and therefore information can be shared. In addition, the system is only going to flag the status of the child, which may in practice already be known in any case depending on the health professional involved e.g. health visitors and GPs, Community Nursing Team, Learning Disability Nurses etc. should already have been informed via the case working. Health are a key member of the team around the child. A&E need to know that there is a CP plan, or that the child is LAC because this could have a bearing on identifying potential abuse, or require them to inform the LA that the child/young person has presented for example.
The difference with this system to the now defunct ContactPoint is that ContactPoint was sharing information about all services involved with the child from universal to statutory, and this (plus the requirement for DWP to feed address data) meant that additional legislation was necessary. Because the social care status being recorded is that of the statutory involvement, I believe this gives the gateway necessary under the Children Act 2004.
I was a strong supporter of ContactPoint, and I personally don't feel that this "new" system goes far enough. This is a case of reinventing the wheel but reverting to an earlier more basic model!
Sorry for a slightly lengthy response!
Best wishes,
Michelle
Michelle Peel
Information Manager
Transport for Greater Manchester
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