Parental Consent

This page provides guidance to professionals about when the consent of parents/carers is required in relation to safeguarding children and young people.

Consent – General Principles

As a general principle consent should always be sought from parents before any safeguarding action is taken in respect of a child. This includes before making a referral or undertaking an assessment or sharing information for example. Consent should:

• be clearly explained to parents – including the purpose, duration and limitations
• be confirmed in writing and recorded on the child’s file. If consent is given verbally this should be followed up in writing at the earliest opportunity
• be transparent – professionals must make clear to parents which organisations they wish to seek information from and who they wish to share information about the family with
• be informed – professionals must be assured that the person giving consent has understood the purpose and has the capacity to consent
• be able to be withdrawn at any time – parents must be advised of this
• be gained again if circumstances change, for example if a new agency is to become involved

The welfare of the child is paramount in all decision making about obtaining parental consent or sharing information

Please note: There are specific laws and guidance which enable information to be
shared without consent, for example Crime and Disorder Act, Terrorism
Act etc. If these might apply to your case please seek advice.

If consent is not given

Where parental consent for any course of action (e.g. undertaking an assessment or sharing information with another agency) is not given, then that action cannot proceed, unless inaction may place the child (or another person) at risk of significant harm (see below). Similarly, if consent is given for an action but subsequently withdrawn, then that action must cease.

If consent cannot be obtained

Professionals must make every effort to gain relevant parental consent before undertaking any safeguarding activity. If professionals do not make reasonable efforts to obtain consent, and there are no child protection concerns, then they will be acting illegally.

However, if consent cannot be gained despite reasonable efforts to do so then professionals must act in the best interests of the child – this may involve seeking legal advice. Under these circumstances the rationale for proceeding without consent must be clearly recorded.

Children’s Social Care – Child Protection

There are circumstances when parental consent in not needed, for example if the case is considered a potential Child Protection issue i.e a child is suffering or suspected of suffering significant harm, consent is not needed if doing so would:

• Place a person (the individual, family member, worker or a third party) at increased risk of significant harm (if a child) or serious harm (if an adult)
• Prejudice the prevention, detection or prosecution of a serious crime – this is likely to cover most criminal offences relating to children
• Lead to an unjustified delay in making enquiries about allegations of significant harm (to a child) or serious harm (to an adult)

Data Protection and GDPR

The Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) do not prevent the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping children safe. Fears about sharing information must not be allowed to stand in the way of the need to promote the welfare and protect the safety of children.

The Data Protection Act 2018 contains ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’ as a processing condition that allows practitioners to share information, including without consent (where in the circumstances consent cannot be given, it cannot be reasonably expected that a practitioner obtains consent or if to gain consent would place a child at risk).

To ensure effective safeguarding arrangements:

• all organisations and agencies should have arrangements in place that set out clearly the processes and the principles for sharing information. The arrangement should cover how information will be shared within their own organisation/agency and with others who may be involved in a child’s life
• practitioners should not assume that someone else will pass on information that they think may be critical to keeping a child safe. If a practitioner has concerns about a child’s welfare and considers that they may be a child in need or that the child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm, then they should share the information with local authority children’s social care and/or the police. All practitioners should be particularly alert to the importance of sharing information when a child moves from one local authority into another, due to the risk that knowledge pertinent to keeping a child safe could be lost
• the GDPR provides a number of bases for sharing personal information. It is not necessary to seek consent to share information for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of a child provided that there is a lawful basis to process any personal information required.

Consent for health care treatment – information from the NHS