#8 Safeguarding vs access to information

Now we understand what a Subject Access Request is we started to think about aspects of our audit and the sensitive child protection information we hold – will GDPR result in conflict between the right of access to information and safeguarding practice? Parents can request to see CP information held on their child, but, as safeguarding guru Andrew Hall points out (really worth looking up his website for all things CP www.safeguardinginschools.co.uk/andrew-hall/ ) there shouldn’t be any need to change existing practice about decisions to refuse access to parents where there are safeguarding concerns if it might result in putting a child at risk. He helpfully points us to page 11 of the Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners (DfE, 2015) for further information.