What is confidentiality? Developing practice relating to young people

Sharing information needlessly is an invasion of privacy. Adults are justly indignant if something that they have talked about in confidence is passed on without their consent. However, information between professionals is often shared without the consent of the young people concerned. Many are already distrustful of adults when it comes to sharing confidential information and this is confirmed when something young people have expected to be treated confidentially is shared between adults without permission being sought For those working in agencies providing services for children and young people, attitudes to confidentiality can vary from those who have clear policies or codes of conduct to those who are totally unaware of the legal position. This then creates tensions between professionals and can often make working together difficult for many and impossible for some. In 1996 the Stratford District Children's Services Development group decided to consider issues of confidentiality as they affected different agencies working with young people. Two years on they launched 16 principles for sharing information that are acceptable to all the agencies and to the young people using them, based on shared good practice. This paper presents an account of the process of establishing those principles with particular reference to the part played by young people. © 1999, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC