Partnership working and confidentiality

We firmly believe that the most effective way to work with children and young people is in partnership with their parents and the professionals around them, with their full consent regarding the services and support the child receives.

If children ask us to support them without parents or other agencies knowing, we will complete risk and competency assessments to decide whether it’s safe and beneficial to do so. When safe to do so, we will always encourage young people to try and involve parents and other professionals in their support plans at a later date, even if initially we work with children independently.

If you wish to refer a child to Victim Support then we always require consent from the child and, where safe, the parent before referral.

We may not always be able to share everything children and young people say to us in our meetings with you as we offer a confidential service; however, we do encourage and support children to share relevant and important information with parents or trusted adults and will try and include you in the work where possible. Often we will include parents in the working together agreement, which will detail expectations for working together, including consent, confidentiality and safeguarding procedures.

Safeguarding

We will share any information without a child or parent’s permission if we are worried about their safety, or someone else’s safety. When we need to share information in order to safeguard a child, we will always try and discuss with the child and, where safe, the parent the reasons for passing this information on and what will happen next. Sometimes, even if we are not worried about a child’s safety, the best way to help them might be to include other agencies, but in these cases we will always ask the child and, where relevant, seek their parent’s permission.

We collect and keep information about all of our work with children in our secure database. This information is stored safely and protected, and we would never share it without a child’s and, where safe, an adult’s permission unless it was to safeguard them.