Please help! Breach of confidentiality and data protection breach. Do I need a solicitor?

[Krichy82]

Hi there,
I’m really hoping I can find some answers on here as I’m feeling utterly drained and completely worn down by the whole experience I’ve had with social services involvement. There has been so many instances of blatant disregard of their policies and procedures, bullying, unfounded assumptions, utter fabrications to suit their narrative, complete bias towards my ex partner, lies and underhand behaviours that I can’t even begin to explain from the start as I’ll be here forever.

In the last week or so however there has been a couple of things that have happened which I have angered me enough to seriously consider making a formal complaint however I’m not sure if I have the fight left to go through with all of that.

I may make a separate post explaining my situation in more detail and the numerous problems I’ve faced with them. I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has had similar experience and how they handled the situation, but in the last few days a more serious matter has come to light and I’m really not sure where to turn with this and whether I need to involve a solicitor at this point.

Completely unrelated to all of this, back in December i was assaulted by my neighbour, nothing major but nevertheless it was an assault. Whilst discussing the incident with the police somehow i ended up talking to the officer and told him about what had happened to me when I was 14 and a different incident of sexual abuse also. Now I’ve never spoken a word of this to anyone for nearly 30 years but a couple of years ago It began to surface and has screwed me up. so I guess subconsciously I knew I needed to talk to someone about it and it ended up being that police officer. He was brilliant, he knew how hard I found it and that I didn’t want my family to know yet. The whole thing was recorded on bodycam and I was given crime reference numbers if I wanted to press charges at a later stage. It was left at that and a record was made of it but I made no official statement or reported the matter.

Now skip back to now and the situation with my daughter. For absolutely ridiculous reasons and rather than them admitting their failures in supporting my daughter instead blaming me for everything escalating it to a child protection matter. it was agreed by professionals, MHST therapists, school and children’s services themselves that mainstream school wasn’t achievable for my daughter and she needed a smaller more supportive setting. They’ve backtracked on trying to get her a place at another school, made excuses and even don’t have a clue what’s going on, disregarding my daughters mental health and how traumatic she finds being at school around too many people and the noise. She’s on a priority waiting list for CAMHS which can’t come soon enough. So suddenly I find myself in a child protection conference, without being given the social worker’s report or meeting with the conference chair as per their policy and responsibilities prior to any child protection conference.

Often a police representative attends and provides a report detailing any police involvement the parents may have had in the past that could hold significance in a CP conference. From what I understand the police should pay careful consideration of the information they’re disclosing and that they discuss with the chair before a meeting as sensitive or insignificant information shouldn’t be shared.

Now bearing in mind apparently i should’ve received these reports prior to the meeting according to the social worker. Neither myself or my ex received them before but they told me they were sent to him during the meeting, I don’t know for sure he received them though. I wasn’t sent them the afternoon post meeting, nor the following day despite texting twice requesting them. Wednesday morning I finally received them and I just broke down in panic reading the police report that I know 100% has been seen by the school, the school inclusion team, community nursing team who happened to be a friend of a friend too along with the social worker. I’m not 100% sure whether my ex has received it but it’s been implied both emails were sent Wednesday.

I called the social worker straight away eventually she called back and I explained what happened and asked why was it even written on the report for all to see? Not only is it an incredibly personal and sensitive topic, it bares no relevance to the situation, the purpose was to list any criminal involvement, arrests or warnings of both parents to establish any potential risk we could pose and an incite into our character. What happened to me in the past I’m a victim of not a criminal and it’d not even been made an official police report. It was a confidential conversation with an officer who offered me support and advice. There’s no way it should’ve been included and the social worker was in agreement. I could hear she was a bit concerned as she sent out the reports admitting she’d not actually even read the police report. I explained how I feel humiliated, scared, embarrassed, angry, exposed and massively let down. I’ve struggled to talk about this for 30 years, I don’t want to be forced to explain this to my family as there’s a high chance that if my ex knows about this he won’t hesitate to talk about it to everyone. He has been vile and gets satisfaction by making me upset. The social worker understood why I was upset and
Promised she’d look into it and get confirmation that the email had definitely been sent to my ex as that’s what I’m petrified about most, she promised to call me the following day (yesterday) 4pm, and I’ve heard nothing. Tried to call her twice and sent a text but she didn’t bother to call me back.
Right now I’m none the wiser and I’m so worried. it’s 4:30am right now, I can’t sleep. This will cause so much upset for my family and potentially massive problems if they find out.

I apologise for the long winded post, I wanted to explain as much as i could as I really need some honest opinions and advice on what I should do next. I feel as though there has been a breach of confidentiality or data protection. Should someone be held accountable for this or am I overreacting and have to accept it for what it is. I just don’t feel that’s fair as I shouldn’t be in this position. I really need some advice as I feel lost right now.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Krichy82,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the parents’ forum. I am Suzie, an online adviser responding to you today.

I am so sorry to hear about your adverse experiences and the distress you are feeling following the insensitive sharing of your personal information at the initial child protection case conference.

I can understand that you feel overwhelmed and are considering where to place your focus and decide on next steps.

You explain that an initial child protection case conference was held very recently to discuss your daughter’s educational, mental health and welfare needs. You explain that your daughter is on a waiting list for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). You do not detail the outcome of the child protection case conference. You can read more about child protection conferences and their possible outcomes here.

You are already aware that the social worker’s report should have been shared with you prior to the initial child protection case conference and you should have had an opportunity to meet with the conference chair in preparation for the multi-agency discussion. You have raised these points with the social worker and feel that she has acknowledged that you had reason to be upset about the information sharing. At the time of writing you were awaiting a response. You are also waiting to know whether the sensitive information has been shared with your ex-partner.

It sounds like you are trying to balance your own distress about the way that this information has been shared with a steady focus on your daughter’s needs so that you can remain involved about discussions about her support. Family Rights Group have a guide to working with social workers here which may be useful to you as you consider this setback and how it has affected your trust and working alliance with the professionals involved with your daughter’s support plan.

If you are not satisfied with children’s services’ response when you receive it you could consider making a formal complaint. You can read about the complaints process here. Information on how to make a complaint about the way in which a child protection case conference was conducted is here.
You could also consider making a complaint via the information commissioner’s office (ICO) about the way in which your personal information has been shared by police and children’s services. Details of the ICO complaints procedure are here.

Police complaints procedures are described here.
Liberty have a guide to the law on police information sharing here.

You may find it useful to discuss your situation with an experienced adviser on the Family Rights Group advice line – available from Monday to Friday between 9.30am and 3pm (excluding Bank Holidays) on 0808 801 0366.

The National Association for People abused in Childhood (NAPAC) have a support line on 0808 801 0331 available Monday-Thursday from 10am to 9pm and on Friday from 10am to 6pm. They also offer support via email. You can link to their website here.

As we are approaching a bank holiday weekend and several services will be unavailable I am including information about helplines that will remain open so that you can seek support out of office hours if you want to.

Samaritans are on telephone number 116 123 24 hours/7 days a week, and you can find out all the ways to contact them here. Samaritans are there to help anybody in emotional distress of any kind.

Give us a Shout provide emotional support via text. Text ‘ Shout’ to 85258 – available 24/7. You can link to their website here.

I hope this response is of some use. Please feel free to come back to Family Rights Group for further support if you feel that we can help.

Best wishes,
Suzie