Information Sharing
Information sharing is vital to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults.
A key factor identified in many Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPR’s) and Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) has been a failure by practitioners to record information, to share it, to understand its significance and then take appropriate action.
Fears about sharing information cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the need to safeguard children or adults at risk of abuse or neglect. Practitioners should not assume that someone else will pass on information which may keep a child, young person or adult safe.
From September 2026 there is a new stautory duty to share information in the interests of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children - you can find the full guidance here. This places a clear legal expectation on multi-agency partners to share information relevant to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
We have produced a slide deck you can use to brief your teams which you can find here.
The ICB have shared a flow chart to aid your decision making and that can be found here.
We have also adapted a one page guide - with thanks to South Gloucestershire Children's Partnership for sharing this resource.
If you make any changes to referral processes or other paperwork and wish to raise awareness of this, or update a form on our website please email us at SVPP@wiltshire.gov.uk
In Safeguarding Fortnight 2026 we have added an additional session to discuss the new duty, and Working Together 2026 - you can find full details on the Learning Hub.
Wiltshire Information Sharing Charter
The Wiltshire Information Sharing Charter (WiSC) assists in the lawful and integrated sharing of information between partner organisations for the residents of Wiltshire.
WiSC aims to provide the foundation for the sharing of personal information between partner members in the public, private or voluntary sector organisations. This is achieved by common commitment to principles and processes which support fair and lawful sharing of personal information to enable partner organisations to meet their statutory obligations, and in doing so, to facilitate integrated service provision across the county, and delivery of improved service provision for our residents.
Further information