Information Sharing
C - Jargon Buster
THE CHILD AND FAMILY COURT ADVISORY SERVICE (CAFCASS)
CARE LEAVER (See also Children Leaving Care Act 2000)
CAREERS EDUCATION & GUIDANCE FRAMEWORK (CEG)
CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES (CAMHS)
CHILDREN ACT 1989 (See also S17 & S47)
CHILDREN (LEAVING CARE) ACT 2000
CHILDREN MISSING EDUCATION (CME)
CHILDREN WITH ADDITIONAL NEEDS
CLIENT IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION
COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL CARE INSPECTION
COMMON ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK (CAF)
CONFIDENTIAL (PROFESSIONALLY SENSITIVE) DATA
CONSENT (See also Explicit Consent & Implied Consent)
THE CHILD AND FAMILY COURT ADVISORY SERVICE (CAFCASS)
The Child and Family Court Advisory Service was established in April 2001. It is a non-departmental public body for England and Wales and brings together the services that were previously provided by the Family Court Welfare Service, the Guardian ad Litem Services, and the Children’s Division of the Official Solicitor.
CARE LEAVER (See also Children Leaving Care Act 2000)
A young person who has been looked after by a local authority and is moving from care into living independently in as stable a fashion as possible – there is a National Care Leavers’ Week celebrated every October.
A care order is a court order (made under section 31 of the Children Act 1989) that places a child compulsorily in the care of a designated local authority, and enables the local authority in whose favour the order is made to share parental responsibility with the parent(s).
Following an assessment that a child needs to enter care and become looked after, the social worker must ensure that the child’s needs (and the services to meet those needs) are set out in a care plan. A care plan should be drawn up before the child becomes looked after, or in the case of an emergency entry to care, within 14 days.
CAREERS EDUCATION & GUIDANCE FRAMEWORK (CEG)
Careers education and guidance gives young people at Key Stages 3 and 4 the skills, knowledge and understanding to manage their own lifelong learning and career development, feel positive about them selves, improve their motivation, raise their aspirations and take responsibility for their career plans, set goals, show initiative, use information and guidance, make plans and decisions, use self-presentation and negotiation skills, and cope with transitions.This is a common term that is used in a number of contexts and by a number of agencies. It describes a formal meeting attended by all those involved in the provision of care or services to a child or family, often but not necessarily involving the individual or family members, in order to reach a shared agreement on how best to move forward.
The Caldicott Principles were the result of the ‘Report on the Review of Patient-Identifiable Information’ by the Caldicott Committee, Department of Health 1997. The Caldicott Principles (justify the purpose, only use personal identifiable data if strictly necessary, only use the minimum of personally identifiable data necessary, access should be on a strictly need to know basis, everyone should be aware of his or her responsibilities, know and comply with the law) apply in addition to the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 and a Caldicott Guardian can be appointed to ensure that the principles are respected and acted upon.
An overarching protocol that defines the principles to be applied when organisations share information with others
For the purposes of the Children Act 2004, ‘child’ means a person under the age of 18 - and also any person aged 18, 19 or 20 who has been in care (since the age of 16) or who has a learning disability. For the purposes of the National Service Framework, children are defined as less than 19 years of age. But section 105 of the Children Act 1989 (like the Children Act 2004) defines a child as ‘a person under the age of eighteen’. This definition accords with that set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that ‘every human being below the age of eighteen’ is a child. For the purposes of the Education Act 2002, ‘children’ means ‘persons under the age of 19’, while the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 defines a child as a person under the age of 14 and a young person as someone aged 15 to 17. There are other definitions: health and safety regulations relating to the workplace, for example, define a child as someone who is not over the minimum school leaving age, and a young person as anyone under 18. Over the years, these variations have led to the use of the term ‘children and young people’ (as used in the Green Paper Every Child Matters) as a ‘catch-all’ phrase that covers most definitions under the law. Another compelling reason that the term ‘children and young people’ is often preferred is that many teenagers under 18 strongly dislike being referred to as children.
CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES (CAMHS)
The child and adolescent mental health services refers to the broad concept of all services that contribute in some way to the mental health care of children and young people, whether provided by health, education, social services or any other agency OR to the more specialist services.Child protection is the general term commonly used to describe work with children who have been identified as suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm - in other words, children requiring protection from harm. Under section 11 of the Children Act 2004, key people and organisations have a responsibility to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children when carrying out their functions. All agencies are required to comply with local child protection procedures.
A child protection conference is a formal inter-agency meeting convened following a Section 47 Enquiry.
This is a detailed inter-agency plan for a child whose name has been placed on the child protection register.
Every local authority is required to maintain a register of children in its area who are thought to be at continuing risk of significant harm and therefore in need of protection by the authority. This is known as the Child Protection Register. The requirement to maintain a register is set out in government guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999). There are four categories of abuse for recording the type of significant harm from which a child is thought to be at continuing risk. These are neglect; physical abuse; sexual abuse; and emotional abuse. Children can be registered under more than one category. The decision to register a child’s name will be taken at a child protection conference.
CHILDREN ACT 1989 (See also S17 & S47)
This Act is based upon the belief that children and young people are generally best looked after within the family, with both parents playing a full part and without resort to legal proceedings. The welfare of the child and young person is the paramount consideration. Courts will not make orders regarding children and young people unless the parents are in fundamental disagreement - about where they should live, what sort of contact they should maintain etc - or if there are concerns about their welfare. Parents are encouraged to seek agreement wherever possible. Children and young people should always be consulted (subject to age and understanding) and kept informed about what will happen to them. Court decisions about their future upbringing should be responsive to their needs. Parents and the children's and young people’s wider family circle (grandparents and other relations) should continue to have a role to play in their even when they are living apart from them. Courts must have regard to a prescribed Statutory Checklist of the factors to be taken into account in deciding the future of children.
This Act provides the legislative spine on which the reform of children's services is based. It aims to improve and integrate children's services, promote early intervention and bring together professionals in multi-disciplinary teams in order achieve positive outcomes for children and young people and their families. The new legislation is accompanied by the launch of a major strategy document Every Child Matters: Change for Children, which is intended to set the direction for the major programme of change in the delivery of children's services. Some of the main provisions of the Act (relevant to the work of the Connexions Service) provide for a Children's Commissioner, a new duty on agencies to co-operate to improve the well-being of children and young people, a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and a power to set up a new database with information about children. Section 10 and 11 of the Act places a duty upon agencies cooperating and the need for them to practice information sharing – with the aim to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people.
CHILDREN (LEAVING CARE) ACT 2000
The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 imposed new duties on local authorities to provide services and support to looked after children in and leaving care. The Children (Leaving Care) Act Guidance and Regulations describes the broad legislative and good practice framework that shapes the delivery of services to young people leaving care, to ensure that they receive the necessary range of services and support to meet their needs as they move towards greater independence. The Act places a duty on local authorities to support young people until at least age 21 (or longer if they remain in a programme of training or education). From age 16, all care leavers must have a ‘personal adviser’. This could be the young person’s current social worker, or a personal adviser from the Connexions service co-located with the leaving care service or working as part of a multi-agency leaving care team.
Although all children have needs, the term ‘child in need’ has a specific meaning defined by the Children Act 1989. The Act placed a statutory duty on local authorities to ‘safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need’. That is…unlikely to achieve or maintain, or have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision of services by a local authority.
CHILDREN MISSING EDUCATION (CME)
This is a term used to refer to all children of compulsory school age who are not on a school roll, nor being ‘educated otherwise’ and who have been out of any educational provision for a substantial period of time (usually agreed as four weeks or more.
The Children Act 2004 introduced, for the first time, the role of an independent Children’s Commissioner for England. The Commissioner, whose general role will be to promote awareness of the views and interests of children, was appointed in March 2005; children and young people were directly involved in the appointment.
The Children’s Fund is a central part of the government’s strategy to tackle the disadvantages and inequalities that derive from child poverty and social exclusion. The aim is to prevent children falling into drug abuse, truancy, exclusion, unemployment and crime, and to raise aspirations and prevent underachievement. The Children’s Fund is managed by local partnerships that make decisions about which projects to fund in their area.
A children’s guardian is an independent person appointed by a family court to represent the rights and interests of a child in court proceedings. Children’s guardians work for CAFCASS (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service). They are qualified and experienced in social work with children and families, but are independent of local authority social services, the court and everyone else professionally involved with the case.
Children’s Trusts bring together all services for children and young people in an area, underpinned by the Children Act 2004 duty to co-operate, to focus on improving outcomes for all children and young people. Most areas will have a Children’s Trust by 2006, and all areas by 2008. They will seek to change the behaviour of those who work every day with children, young people and their families so that children and families experience more integrated and responsive services, with specialist support embedded in (and accessed through) universal services. Practitioners will work in multi-disciplinary teams and be trained jointly to help tackle cultural and professional divides; they will use a lead professional model where many disciplines are involved. They will be supported by integrated processes - like the Common Assessment Framework.
CHILDREN WITH ADDITIONAL NEEDS
Children with additional needs are a broad term used to describe all those children at risk of poor outcomes as defined by the Green Paper, Every Child Matters. Key groups include those identified as being ‘in need’ under the Children Act 1989, those with special educational needs under the Education Act 1996, disabled children, those with mental health difficulties, and others whose needs may not have been formally identified but who may be at risk of poor outcomes.
Children with complex needs have a number of discrete needs - relating to their health, education, welfare, development, home environment and so on - that require additional support from more than one agency. Their needs are often chronic and may be life-long.
A child safety order is made by a court and applies only to children aged under 10. It can be applied to a child who has committed an offence, who has breached a child curfew, or who has caused harassment, distress or alarm to others. Under a child safety order, a social worker or officer from the youth offending team supervises the child.
A statutory requirement set out in the National Curriculum in Key Stages 3 and 4 that reflects the need to ensure that pupils have a clear understanding of their roles, rights and responsibilities in relation to their local, national and international communities. The three strands in the programmes of study to be taught are knowledge and understanding about becoming an informed citizen; developing skills of enquiry and communication; and developing skills of participation and responsible action.
This can be a child (see Child), a young person (see Young Person) or their parent/guardian/carer according to the context of the statement within which it appears.
CLIENT IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION
Information relating to a living individual, including their image or voice who can either be identified from that information on its own or from that and other information available.
COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL CARE INSPECTION
The Commission for Social Care Inspection was launched in April 2004 as the single, independent inspectorate for all social care services in England, including children’s services and incorporates the work formerly done by the Social Services Inspectorate.
COMMON ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK (CAF)
The Common Assessment Framework was introduced in March 2005 as an assessment tool that can be used by the whole children’s workforce to assess the additional needs of children and young people at the first signs of difficulties. The framework provides a mechanism that any practitioner working with children can use (or have access to) to identify unmet needs, so as to prevent a child’s needs becoming more serious. It is intended to provide a simple non-bureaucratic process for a holistic assessment of children’s needs, taking account of the individual, family and community. Information will follow the child so that a picture builds up over time. It will encourage greater sharing of information between practitioners (where consent is given) and reduce the number and duration of different assessment processes that children and young people historically have had to undergo.
COMMON CORE
The Common Core describes those areas of expertise that everyone who works with children, young people and their families (including those who work as volunteers) should be able to demonstrate. It defines skills and knowledge across six areas of expertise: effective communication and engagement with children, young people and families; child and young person development; safeguarding children and promoting the welfare of the child; supporting transitions; multi-agency working; and sharing information.
The common law provides that where there is a confidential relationship, the person receiving the confidential information is under a duty not to pass on the information to a third party. This duty is not absolute and so information can be shared without breaching common law duty if the information is not confidential, the person to whom the duty is owed has given explicit consent or there is an overriding public interest in disclosure or sharing is required by court order or other legal obligation.
This is information not normally in the public domain or readily available from another source and thus will have a degree of sensitivity and value and be subject to a duty of confidence.
CONFIDENTIAL (PROFESSIONALLY SENSITIVE) DATA
This is information outside of that defined as ‘sensitive’ by the Data Protection Act 1998 but perhaps has been defined by “partner organisations” as being of a personal and sensitive nature. Examples of this include client characteristics, opinions or assessment data; for example history of abuse, care history, financial status, school attendance problems and substance misuse.
Connexions is the government’s frontline support service for all young people aged 13 to 19 in England. Through multi-agency working, it provides integrated advice, guidance and access to personal development opportunities to help remove barriers to learning and progression, and ensure young people make a smooth transition to adulthood and working life. It is a universal service. Personal advisers play a lead professional role. They provide advice on careers and lifestyle issues, as well as barriers such as homelessness and drugs; and they refer young people to specialist support where needed. Connexions is managed by 47 local partnerships that bring together all the key youth support services. Partnership boundaries are the same as those of the Learning and Skills Councils. Connexions has a key focus on reducing the proportion of young people aged 16-18 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). Connexions will be part of the services delivered under the responsibility of Children’s Trusts.
Connexions Direct is a supporting arm of the Connexions service that uses new technology to provide information, advice and support to young people aged 13 to 19. Young people can search for information themselves on the Connexions Direct website, or contact an adviser by telephone, adviser on-line, e-mail or sms. Qualified advisers are available to respond 365 days a year. The service integrates with the 47 local Connexions partnerships, and advisers are able to refer young people to their local partnership for face-to-face support, as necessary. The website also provides quick and easy access to up-to-date information on learning, careers, health, relationships, rights, money and other issues.
CONSENT (See also Explicit Consent & Implied Consent)
This is an agreement freely given by a client to an action based on the knowledge and understanding of what is involved and its likely consequences.
An agreement requiring a signature confirming that a client has given consent to share data with, or between, specific organisations or individuals. This can be withdrawn or withheld without notice or reason. For those under 12 years or otherwise classed as unable to give consent, the appropriate parent/guardian/carer can sign on their behalf.
Core group is a term used in government guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999), to describe those practitioners and family members who develop and implement the child protection plan. The named key worker has lead responsibility for the work of the group.
Counselling aims to help young people by allowing them a space and context in which to discuss and explore (with a counsellor) any problems that may be causing them to be upset, distressed or confused. However, counselling is a generic term that covers a number of different approaches; the approach adopted by an individual counsellor is likely to reflect the type of training that he or she has undergone, and the context in which the counselling takes place.
This Act concerns the strengthening of the various aspects of the criminal justice system including: - increased rights of appeal by the prosecution - greater obligations to disclose details of a defendant's case - increase in police powers to impose conditions on bail - major changes to the rules of evidence relating to previous convictions - the increase of police powers and the extension of drug testing and treatment provision. Section 325 of the Act details how agencies (including Connexions) have a duty to co-operate within the criminal justice arrangements laid down by the Act.
An Executive Agency of the Home Office established under Part V of the Police Act 1997 that enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially that involve children or vulnerable adults.
In addition to this Act placing a statutory duty on chief police officers and local authorities to work together to develop and implement a strategy for reducing crime and disorder, the Act also makes provisions for disclosure and sharing of information in any case where it is necessary or expedient for the purposes of any provision of this Act.
Page updated: Friday, December 8, 2006 11:37 AM
