Last reviewed in October 2026.
Next review in October 2029.
RELATED CHAPTERS
Information Sharing: Introduction
Sharing Information About Others Connected to a Child
RELATED GUIDANCE
Disclosure of Information between Family and Criminal Agencies and Jurisdictions: 2024 Protocol
Amendment October 2026: This chapter was updated in line with the information sharing duty.
CONTENTS
1. The Concept of Information Sharing & The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018
Working Together to Safeguard Children states (paragraphs 28-30) that:
No single practitioner can have a full picture of a child’s needs and circumstances so effective sharing of information between practitioners, local organisations and agencies is essential for early identification of need, assessment, and service provision to keep children safe. Rapid reviews and child safeguarding practice reviews have highlighted that
missed opportunities to record, understand the significance of, and share information in a timely manner can have severe consequences for children.
Practitioners should be proactive in sharing information as early as possible to help identify, assess, and respond to risks or concerns about the safety and welfare of children. This may be when problems are first emerging (for example, persistent school absences) or where a child is already known to local authority children’s social care.
Sharing information about any adults with whom that child has contact, which may impact the child’s safety or welfare, is also critical. Operation Encompass places a duty on police forces in England and Wales to notify educational settings, and, where relevant, local authorities, if they have reasonable grounds to believe a child may be a victim of domestic abuse.
Information sharing is also essential for the identification of patterns of behaviour when a child is at risk of going missing or has gone missing, including being missing from education, or when a looked after child goes missing from residential or foster care) or when there is a concern that a child may be a victim of or be drawn into crime. When multiple children appear associated to the same context or locations of risk, or in relation to children in the secure estate where there may be multiple local
authorities involved in a child’s care, it will be for local safeguarding partners to consider how they build relationships and share relevant information in a timely and proportionate way with each other, other local organisations, and other safeguarding partnerships.
The Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) support the sharing of relevant information for the purposes of keeping children safe. Fears about sharing information must not be allowed to stand in the way of the need to promote the welfare and protect the safety of children.
2. The Information Sharing Duty
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 introduced a statutory duty requiring relevant organisations and practitioners to share information where:
- they hold information relevant to safeguarding or promoting a child’s welfare; and
- sharing that information may assist another organisation or practitioner to assess need, make decisions, provide support or take safeguarding action.
The duty applies regardless of whether a statutory threshold has been met and includes early help, prevention and emerging concerns. Information may relate to the child or another individual connected to the child.
The duty supports established safeguarding arrangements, including Operation Encompass, under which police share information with schools and educational settings following domestic abuse incidents where a child may have been affected. This enables timely support to be put in place and reflects the principle that information should be shared where it may promote a child’s safety, welfare or wellbeing.
The duty provides a legal basis for sharing relevant information and confirms that concerns about consent, confidentiality or statutory thresholds should not prevent appropriate safeguarding information being shared.
The duty applies to organisations including local authorities, health services, police, education providers, early years settings, youth justice services, prisons and probation, and primary care providers.
Further information
Working Together to Safeguard Children
3. Definitions
For the purposes of this procedure:
- Child: Any person under the age of 18.
- Relevant Persons: Organisations and practitioners subject to the statutory information sharing duty.
- Recipient: An organisation or practitioner receiving information.
- Requestor: An organisation or practitioner requesting information.
- Relevant Functions: Functions relating to safeguarding and promoting a child’s welfare.
- Safeguarding and Promoting Welfare: Activities aimed at preventing harm, identifying need, protecting children and supporting their wellbeing and development.
This includes contextual, historical, partial and pattern-based information where relevant to safeguarding concerns.
Further information:
- Statutory Guidance: Information Sharing to Safeguard Children and Young People (Department for Education)
- Working Together to Safeguard Children
4. Exception: Detriment to the Child
Information should normally be shared where the duty applies. An exception exists only in rare circumstances where a practitioner reasonably believes that sharing information would cause greater harm to the child than not sharing it.
Examples may include:
- placing a child at immediate risk of harm;
- seriously undermining a police investigation;
- breaching a court order or Family Procedure Rules.
Lack of consent, fear of complaints, uncertainty about data protection, or practitioner discomfort are not valid reasons for withholding information.
Any decision not to share should be clearly justified and recorded.
Further information:
5. Explaining Information Sharing to Children and Families
Where appropriate and safe to do so, practitioners should:
- explain why information is being shared;
- explain what information will be shared and with whom;
- be clear about the limits of confidentiality;
- avoid implying that consent is required where it is not;
- listen to and acknowledge any concerns raised.
Discussions should be clear, proportionate and appropriate to the child’s age and understanding.
Before sharing information, practitioners should consider:
Relevance
Is the information relevant to safeguarding or promoting the child’s welfare?
Benefit
Could sharing help another organisation assess risk, provide support, make decisions or take safeguarding action?
Detriment
Would sharing create greater harm to the child than not sharing, and can any risks be mitigated?
Further information:
6. What Organisations MUST Do if They Hold Relevant Information
Organisations must:
- share relevant information where the legal criteria are met;
- consider and respond to information requests promptly;
- share only information necessary for safeguarding purposes;
- comply with data protection requirements;
- ensure appropriate security, governance and access controls are in place;
- use information only for lawful safeguarding purposes.
Further information:
7. What Organisations SHOULD Do if They Hold Relevant Information
Organisations should:
- act promptly and proactively;
- keep records of decisions to share or not share information;
- provide sufficient context when requesting information;
- inform children and families where appropriate and safe;
- consider the child’s wishes and feelings;
- use agreed safeguarding information-sharing processes;
- provide feedback to partner agencies where appropriate.
Further information:
8. Sharing Information in Emergency or Urgent Cases
In emergencies, information should be shared promptly where necessary to protect a child or others from harm. Practitioners may need to act without following normal processes but should ensure decisions remain proportionate and are recorded appropriately.
Further information:
9. Sharing Information Across Boundaries
9.1 Within England
Relevant organisations should share safeguarding information across organisational and geographical boundaries when doing so may assist another organisation to safeguard a child. The absence of a formal data-sharing agreement should not delay information sharing where the duty applies.
9.2 Devolved Nations
Safeguarding concerns should also be shared with organisations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where necessary. Although these organisations are outside the statutory duty, information can still be shared where there is an appropriate legal basis.
10. Common Misunderstandings About Information Sharing
10.1 Data Protection
Data protection legislation supports appropriate information sharing for safeguarding purposes and should not be viewed as a barrier. Organisations must identify an appropriate lawful basis for sharing and comply with key principles including:
- data minimisation;
- accuracy;
- accountability;
- security; and
- transparency.
Special category and criminal offence data can be shared where legal requirements are met.
Further information:
10.2 Consent and Trusted Relationships
Consent is generally not required when sharing information for safeguarding purposes. Practitioners should not present information sharing as optional where there is a legal or safeguarding basis to share.
Transparency remains important, and families should be informed where appropriate and safe to do so.
Further information:
10.3 Confidential Information
The information sharing duty provides a statutory basis for sharing confidential information relevant to safeguarding and promoting a child’s welfare without consent where the legal criteria are met.
Practitioners may also request confidential information where it is necessary to support safeguarding decision-making.
Further information:
10.4 Right to Privacy and Family Life
Children have a right to privacy and family life. Any information sharing must therefore be necessary, proportionate and focused on safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child.
11. Sharing Information About Others Connected to a Child
The information sharing duty applies to information about any other individual connected to a child where relevant to the child’s safety or welfare. Where the terms of the duty are met, information about any individual – a peer or an adult – within a child’s life must be shared.
For more information see the chapter on Sharing Information About Others Connected to a Child.
12. Sharing Information with Other Recipients
The statutory information sharing duty applies only to organisations and practitioners covered by the duty. However, it may sometimes be necessary to share information with other organisations, professionals or individuals where this is required to safeguard or promote a child’s welfare.
When sharing information outside the duty, practitioners must identify an appropriate legal basis, comply with data protection requirements and consider any obligations of confidentiality.
12.1 Sharing with Voluntary and Community Organisations
Information may be shared with charities, private healthcare providers, community groups and other organisations where necessary and proportionate for safeguarding purposes. Equally, organisations outside the statutory duty are encouraged to share relevant safeguarding information with statutory safeguarding partners.
13. Key Life Stages and Transitions
13.1 During Pregnancy
Although the information sharing duty applies only from birth until age 18, practitioners should consider risks, needs and safeguarding concerns during pregnancy so that appropriate support can be planned at the earliest opportunity.
13.2 Transition into Adulthood
The statutory duty ceases at age 18. Organisations should ensure appropriate arrangements are in place when children move into adult services, particularly where ongoing support needs exist, including for care leavers and young people with SEND. Effective information sharing can assist continuity of care, support and assessment.
14. Practical Information Sharing Arrangements
14.1 Local Protocols and Agreements
Safeguarding partners should maintain clear local protocols and information-sharing agreements setting out what information will be shared, by whom, for what purpose and through which systems. Arrangements should be reviewed regularly and supported by appropriate data protection assessments.
14.2 Information Flows
Information should reach the right people, through the right route, at the right time. Local arrangements should:
- cover all relevant safeguarding partners and agencies;
- support information sharing from early help through to child protection;
- identify clear processes for routine, urgent and emergency sharing;
- ensure staff understand local reporting routes;
- provide oversight, feedback mechanisms and incident management processes; and
- maintain appropriate information security standards.
14.3 Strategic and Routine Sharing
Safeguarding partners may agree routine or regular information-sharing arrangements where this supports the identification of need, emerging risk or safeguarding concerns. Examples may include attendance, persistent absence or other agreed indicators of vulnerability. Any routine sharing must be lawful, proportionate and regularly reviewed.
15. Caldicott Guardians
A Caldicott Guardian is a senior person responsible for protecting the confidentiality of patient and service-user information and enabling appropriate information-sharing. The Guardian plays a key role in ensuring that the NHS, Local Authority Social Services Departments and partner organisations satisfy the highest practicable standards for handling patient identifiable information.
15.1 Caldicott principles
The eight Caldicott Principles are:
- Justify the purpose(s) for using confidential information;
- Don’t use personal confidential data unless it is absolutely necessary;
- Use the minimum necessary personal confidential data;
- Access to personal confidential data should be on a strict need-to-know basis;
- Everyone with access to personal confidential data should be aware of their responsibilities;
- Comply with the law;
- The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality
- Inform patients and service users about how their confidential information is used
- See Eight Caldicott Principles (Department of Health and Social Care)
See also Children’s Social Care: Improving Case Management Systems – (gov.uk)
Every local Health Service and Children and Young People’s Directorate has its own Caldicott Guardian, to provide advice and guidance on appropriate information sharing.
16. Domestic Abuse Disclosure Scheme
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), also known as “Clare’s Law” enables the police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner’s or ex-partner’s previous abusive or violent offending. This scheme adds a further dimension to the information sharing about children where there are concerns that domestic violence and abuse is impacting on the care and welfare of the children in the family. See more Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme Factsheet (gov.uk).
Members of the public can make an application for a disclosure, known as the ‘right to ask’. Anybody can make an enquiry, but information will only be given to someone at risk or a person in a position to safeguard the victim. The scheme is for anyone in an intimate relationship regardless of gender.
Partner agencies can also request disclosure is made of an offender’s past history where it is believed someone is at risk of harm. This is known as ‘right to know’.
If a potentially violent individual is identified as having convictions for violent offences, or information is held about their behaviour which reasonably leads the police and other agencies to believe they pose a risk of harm to their partner, a disclosure will be made.
A disclosure can be made lawfully by the police under the scheme if the disclosure is based on the police’s common law powers to disclose information where it is necessary to prevent crime, and if the disclosure also complies with established case law, as well as data protection and human rights legislation. It must be reasonable and proportionate for the police to make the disclosure, based on a credible risk of violence or harm.
17. Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme
The Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme (CSOD) is designed to provide members of the public with a formal mechanism to ask for disclosure about people they are concerned about, who have unsupervised access to children and may therefore pose a risk. See more here Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme (gov.uk). This scheme builds on existing, well established third-party disclosures that operate under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA).
To apply see Sarah’s Law (Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme, Sussex Police)
Police will reveal details confidentially to the person most able to protect the child (usually parents, carers or guardians) if they think it is in the child’s interests.
The scheme operates in all 43 police areas in England and Wales. The scheme is managed by the Police and information can only be accessed through direct application to them.
If a disclosure is made, the information must be kept confidential and only used to keep the child in question safe. Legal action may be taken if confidentiality is breached. A disclosure is delivered in person (as opposed to in writing) with the following warning:
- that the information must only be used for the purpose for which it has been shared i.e. in order to safeguard children;
- the person to whom the disclosure is made will be asked to sign an undertaking that they agree that the information is confidential and they will not disclose this information further;
- a warning should be given that legal proceedings could result if this confidentiality is breached. This should be explained to the person and they must sign the undertaking’ (see Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) chapter).
If the person is unwilling to sign the undertaking, the police must consider whether the disclosure should still take place.
18. Age Assessment Information Sharing for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children
The issue of age assessment in social work with asylum seeking young people remains controversial and has been something that Children’s social care have struggled with since the millennium. The ADCS Asylum Task Force has worked with the Home Office to provide two new jointly agreed documents, as detailed below.
See also:
Age Assessment Guidance and Information Sharing Guidance for UASC (ADCS). This includes an Age Assessment Information Sharing Pro Forma and Aage Assessment Guidance.
These documents are offered as practice guidance, by way of assistance to local authorities and their partners. The use of the proforma and consent form is voluntary. The content does not, nor does it seek to, be binding on local authorities. It is simply a recommended approach.
19. Further Information
Information Sharing Duty: Statutory Guidance for Safeguarding Organisations and Their Practitioners
A 10 Step Guide to Sharing Information to Safeguard Children (Information Commissioner’s Office)
UK GDPR Guidance and Resources (Information Commissioner’s Office)
ICO Statutory Data Sharing Code of Practice
Lawful Basis Interactive Tool Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO)
10 Step Guide to Sharing Information to Safeguard Children Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO)
A Guide to the Data Protection Principles (Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO))
Disclosure of Information between Family and Criminal Agencies and Jurisdictions: 2024 Protocol
Children’s Social Care: Improving Case Management Systems (Department for Education) – guidance for local authorities on improving case management systems for children’s social care services
Guidance on Reporting Safeguarding Concerns in a Charity (gov.uk)
