Sharing information

[Elephant23]

Hi all.
I had an incident at the child minders a year ago. Sw was in volved it was my fault. The case is closed. My little one is moving to preschool. CM has said she will be sharing the incident with the school. Is this correct.. I don’t think it is. But I don’t know if I can do anything about it.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Elephant23,

Welcome to the parents’ forum and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am the online adviser at Family Rights Group. I hope that the following advice and information is helpful to you. You can click on the links in my post to take you to more relevant information.

You say that children’s services were involved a year ago and that the case is now closed. Your child is moving to pre-school and the childminder has told you that they will share what happened last year with the school. You don’t wish for this information to be shared and want to know if there is anything you can do about it.

A childminder can only share information with a school without your consent if there are safeguarding concerns about your child. If there is a concern that your child is at risk of harm then the childminder would have a legal duty to share relevant information with the school (and other services such as children’s services). This is made clear in government statutory guidance called Working Together to Safeguard Children.

From the information you have given does not seem that your child is currently at risk of harm, and as children’s services have closed their involvement it seems that they do not believe that your child is at risk of harm. Therefore the childminder may be breaching data protection laws (GDPR) by sharing information with the pre-school without your consent.

I would suggest that you discuss this further with the childminder and if you remain unhappy then you can contact OFSTED and submit a formal complaint if necessary. See HERE for more information on the government website about doing so.

I hope that this is helpful. If you have questions about children’s services involvement then please feel free to contact us again on the forum. You can also call our free, confidential adviceline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm) to speak in person with an adviser. We also have a webchat which is currently open on Monday and Thursday afternoons.

Best wishes,
Suzie

[Elephant23]

Hi Suzie
Thank you for replying
I’m currently waiting on the rest of the SAR report on the case before I make a complaint. I believe LA didn’t handle the incident properly. My gs was on a CIN at the time. I was in the process of doing a SGO. They dragged the process out as I wanted to see a rough support plan before committing to SGO. By the Christmas they stopped all support and said I wouldn’t get anything with the SGO. I was devastated not knowing how I was going to cope on just my wage and CB. The incident at the CM was my fault. I felt like I had let my gs down as I couldn't afford to take him places. He would be better off without me. I breakdown and told LA to collect my gs from the CM as I couldn't bear to see him leave. It broke my heart, but I didn't know what to do and no one else to support me.
I regret what I did but was told by LA I wasn't allowed to see or contact my gs. It took them for 4 days to make a decision. They said I abandoned the child and I had caused him trauma? CM has had I'm for 2 years and loves it there. A sleepover was amazing to him!
I wasn't given the opportunity to have my voice and explanation on file. There isn't any context to what happened. So to anyone reading it. It looks cold, like I just decided one day to leave him on a doorstep??
Now I'm labled with abandonment
I have been turned down for a job because of it. How do I correct it