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Listen
Section Two: Information Sharing
All children and young people involved strongly supported the following two proposals:
- Everyone working with children has to work together
- Organisations have to help children and young people who are having problems
Groups then discussed; the positive and negative points associated with talking to one person compared to a number of people; who they would want to talk to; how they would feel about different organisations sharing information about them; and what sort of organisations they would agree to having information about them.
There was a universal consensus across events that, should children and young people need to portray their problems and views to adults, they would greatly prefer to talk to one adult who would take a written record and share it with the other people that need to know, rather than talking to a number of different adults on a number of different occasions:
"I would rather tell one person that I trust and they can explain everything that I said to the other people that should know" Young Person - Event 1
"You should talk to one person because then you will get to know the person and you will be happier talking to them" Young Person - Event 1
A number of professionals were nominated as the most desirable person to talk to. Key worker, social worker, support worker, doctor, youth worker, sports coach, were all suggested. However, there was an emphasis on the point that this person would need to know the young person well and be someone that they could trust and depend on. As such, it was agreed that it would be impossible to choose one person for all children and young people. The proposal was put forward by a number of groups that children and young people should be able to select the professional they felt comfortable talking to:
"It would be good to talk to one person but it would have to be someone that would actually do something" Young Person - Event 1
"I would want to tell one person as long as I knew who they were telling afterwards"
- How would you feel about people sharing information?
Whilst all children and young people strongly favoured talking with one adult over talking with a number of adults (either together or at different times), there were a number of concerns over the concept of information sharing.
Overall participants agreed that adults would need to share information with other adults and felt that, as a concept, this would be "fine", but only within certain limits and under certain conditions.
The majority of participants felt that information should be shared with other organisations only when:
"I wouldn't like a lot of different people sharing information unless it was really necessary"
- The person/organisation had met them
"I wouldn't like it until I had met the person"
- They are told what was going to be said
"I would want to know who is sharing the information and what is being said"
- They know who will be told
"You would have to be told who will be told"
The final point was considered the most important. For the vast majority of participants this was essential to their support for this proposal.
"It would be good if they could ask you first and explain things" Young Person - Event 3
"It would be good if you were told who is getting information about you" Young Person - Event 5
A number of children and young people felt strongly that information should only be shared with other professionals/organisations once their permission had been gained:
"I would feel like my private life had been invaded if they gave my information without my consent" Young Person - Event 1
"People should only be able to share information with your permission" Young Person - Event 1
A further small number of participants were against this proposal:
"I wouldn't be that happy in case they said something I didn't want them to say" Young Person - Event 1
"No, a lot of people should not know about your personal stuff"
- What sort of organisations would you agree to having information about you?
There was considerable discussion over who participants would be happy for a professional to share information about them with. Whilst numerous professions and organisations were mentioned, a consensus was not reached, rather, it was agreed that it would depend on the individual child or young person. This was underpinned by the view that they would want to know the professional/organisation and to be asked before information was shared.
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