The
British Medical Association has joined other health professionals,
teachers, youth organisations and human rights groups in warning
against changes to confidentiality rules when advice and
information is given to young people on sexual matters in a joint
statement issued today.
Some local authorities have already adopted protocols that
require professionals to conduct personal assessments on all
under-18s believed to be in sexual relationships, to share
information about those relationships with others and to make
police checks on young people and their partners.
The Information Commissioner is investigating a complaint from
Action on Rights for Children (ARCH) that the police will hold all
enquiries that they receive about young people on ‘soft’
intelligence files.
According to the statement, signed by the British Medical
Association, ARCH, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers,
Liberty, the Family Planning Association and many others:
"We fully appreciate that the aim of the
Government and [Area Child Protection Committees] is to
afford young people the fullest possible protection against
exploitation and abuse. We share that aim unreservedly; however, we
believe that these protocols will actually damage the health and
wellbeing of young people."
ARCH sent a copy of the Protocol of the London Child Protection
Committee to the ICO. In reply, Louisa Stillwell, Senior Guidance
and Promotion Manager with the Information Commissioner's Office
(ICO), wrote that the ICO is not against the concept of data
sharing where this is in the best interests of a child or young
person – and the Data Protection Act is not a barrier to sharing in
such circumstances. However, she added, "we also recognise that
there should be ways to do this which offer a proportionate
response to the risk to individuals and this Protocol seems to go
beyond this proportionate response."
The ICO is contacting the London Child Protection Committee and
others involved with the Protocol.
However, the practitioners are also extremely concerned that the
protocols may soon become Government policy when it brings out the
new version of the national guidance, Working Together to
Safeguard Children.
The protocols are already reflected in a draft of this guidance
which will be distributed nationally when finalised. The
practitioners caution that any change in current levels of
confidentiality could have serious consequences for the health of
young people, and for the public health.
