Buddies Clubs & Services

Policy on Confidentiality

Information about children/young people is given by parents/carers during registration and some of this may be confidential. 
Parents/carers have access to all records concerning their child/young person. 

A personal child/young person profile/care plan is completed by the parent/carer. The information from these profiles/care plan are then put into the service user’s individual passports. These passports are used by staff as a guide to the child/young person’s needs.  Information is not confidential, but contains helpful facts like ‘afraid of dogs’, ‘allergic to dairy food’ etc.  These passports can be seen by parents/carers and are continually updated and reviewed every 6 months.  

Personal information from external sources - e.g. confidential background on child/family circumstances - is kept in separate secure files.  This is not available to anyone apart from senior management unless child abuse is suspected, when we must by law assist all concerned.

Due to the Data Protection Act only names, addresses and phone numbers are on computer, along with contact numbers for emergencies or social workers.
Parents/carers provide virtually all the information kept and they are told clearly face-to-face what can be accessed by support workers and what is kept in confidential files.
We do not retain large amounts of information on file. Most of the information Buddies Clubs retain is of a help in caring for the children/young people safely.

All information is marked Confidential if required and access is controlled.  Our photocopying is limited to personal profiles for use by staff and consent forms signed by parents as required by law.  No other information is copied.

Parents/carers may underestimate the knowledge required by Buddies Clubs staff regarding language, toileting, eating, allergies etc. of their child/young person.
Buddies Clubs staff should always offer assistance with completing profile forms.  Social workers making referrals are asked to assist with profile forms to optimise use of Buddies Clubs services.  For example, if a child is terrified of dogs we need to know because an outing to the park could need a 1:1 staff ratio or might involve a risk assessment.  All such issues affect the safety of the child/young person and the staffing level required.

Buddies Clubs is committed to working as part of a multi-disciplinary approach to support the children and young people in its care.
Information contained within Buddies Clubs care plans/annual essential information forms may be shared with other agencies (i.e. social work, education etc.) for the purposes of their updating of assessments or care plans.

Buddies Clubs will pass personal information to other professionals without parental knowledge or consent in the remit of child protection.  
Management and Senior meetings must be kept confidential and not shared with staff unless Manager approves information being disclosed to staff.

Staff Confidentiality

Buddies staff must remain professional at all times and any information about any issues relating to Buddies clubs and services must not be shared with anyone else.

It is the policy of Buddies Club that any confidential information shall not be disclosed to any third party out with the organisation

The employee is aware that during their employment they may be party to confidential information concerning children within the organisation. The employee shall not during the term of their employment allow the disclosure of any confidential information (except in the proper course of their employment) after termination of an employee’s employment, the employee is still bound not to disclose any information which is of a high degree of confidentiality.

All confidential information concerning children’s details, records and profiles are only available to the management team and conform to the data protection act.

Staff should not discuss any issues relating to Buddies or Buddies children and young people outside of work, in doing so could result in Disciplinary procedures and termination of contract.

If any member of staff witness this, it is their duty of care to report such actions to the manager as soon as it possible to do so.

Open Access

All parents, carer’s, service users and staff can have access to their own individual file including confidential information held.

Buddies request that the individual concerned request full access in writing and we will ensure that this is accessed within 30 days.