Interaction between the education sector and data protection for safeguarding purposes

Due to the Data (Use and Access) Act coming into law on 19 June 2025, this guidance is under review and may be subject to change. The Plans for new and updated guidance page will tell you about which guidance will be updated and when this will happen.

Contents

Data protection law supports you sharing information in education settings to safeguard children and young people. The case studies in this guidance show how data protection interacts with that safeguarding process in a range of scenarios.

Organisations across the UK have also produced guidance and resources to help you. We have included links to some of them here and later in this guidance. Please use the dropdown lists to see information relevant to each part of the UK.

For example, in England, the DfE has produced detailed guidance on safeguarding children and young people in education, and the need to share information. Its statutory guidance Keeping children safe in education states: “Information sharing is vital in identifying and tackling all forms of abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and in promoting children’s welfare, including in relation to their educational outcomes. Schools and colleges have clear powers to share, hold and use information for these purposes.”

The position across the UK

England

The DfE’s Working Together statutory guidance is clear about the importance of information sharing:

“No single practitioner can have a full picture of a child’s needs and circumstances so effective sharing of information between practitioners, local organisations and agencies is essential for early identification of need, assessment, and service provision to keep children safe.”

It also lists legislation and other sources of guidance to help you in your safeguarding work.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, the Department of Education (DE) has produced detailed guidance on safeguarding children and young people in education, and the need to share information.

Its guidance on Child Protection: Record Keeping in Schools states:

"Information sharing is essential for effective safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and the extent of the sharing will be a judgement for schools to make. Any undue delays to share relevant information must be avoided in the interests of the individual."

The DE statutory guidance, Safeguarding and Child Protection in Schools - A Guide for Schools, is clear about the importance of information sharing:

“Sound decision-making depends on the fullest possible understanding of the child or young person’s circumstances and their needs. This involves effective information sharing, strong organisational governance and leadership, collaboration and understanding between families, agencies, individuals and professionals.”

Scotland

In Scotland, the Scottish Government’s Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) commitment promotes action to improve the wellbeing of every child and young person and has a section on information sharing. It states that:

“Scotland must … ensure that the right information is shared at the right time and that those close to children are heard.”

“Sharing relevant information at the right time is an essential part of promoting, supporting and safeguarding the wellbeing of children and young people, including protecting them from neglect or physical, mental or emotional harm.”

The Scottish Government’s National Guidance for Child Protection outlines how statutory and non-government agencies should work together with parents, families and communities to prevent harm and to protect children from abuse and neglect. It highlights the need to share information about child protection concerns at an early stage.

Wales

The Welsh Government’s Education Directorate guidance Keeping learners safe says:

“Information-sharing is central to good safeguarding practice. Information must be shared in accordance with the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, referred to as the UK’s data protection legislation. The data protection legislation allows for the sharing of information and should not be automatically used as a reason for not doing so. One of the exceptional circumstances that provides for information-sharing is to prevent abuse, neglect or harm.”

The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 guidance Working together to safeguard people: Information sharing to safeguard children states:

“Sharing information is an intrinsic part of any frontline practitioner’s job when working with children. The decisions about how much information to share, with whom and when, can have a profound impact on individuals’ lives. Information sharing helps to ensure that an individual receives the right services at the right time and prevents a need from becoming more acute and difficult to meet. Poor or non-existent information sharing is a consistently reoccurring theme in learning from Child Practice Reviews in Wales.”

The Wales Accord on the Sharing of Personal Information (WASPI) is a framework for organisations directly concerned with the health, education, safety, crime prevention and social wellbeing of people in Wales. The Welsh Government encourages use of the WASPI template agreements to support pre-planned data sharing for safeguarding. (Please see the link in our resources section below.)