Policy statement
MCT believe that the safety, wellbeing and protection of all children and adults at risk - who use our services and facilities - is of the utmost importance in all decisions relating to confidentiality of information. Therefore, the appropriate sharing of information between MCT staff is essential for ensuring child and adults at risk safety, wellbeing and protection. Trust is an essential element of safeguarding at MCT, as it enables everyone (staff, children, adults at risk, as well as their parents and carers) to seek advice and support - both inside and outside of the organisation.
Purpose of policy
MCT's Confidentiality Policy is designed to establish the boundaries of confidentiality to enable everyone to feel safe and comfortable in discussing personal issues and concerns. This policy aims to be easily understood by everyone and to establish trust in the boundaries of confidentiality that MCT will adhere to.
Aims of MCT's Confidentiality Policy
What must be acknowledged and understood is that MCT cannot offer absolute confidentiality in certain prescribed circumstances. Therefore, this Confidentiality Policy aims to make clear the situations when information will need to be shared, so that everyone can make informed decisions about who the most appropriate person to speak to - about a particular issue - is.
Policy development
This Confidentiality Policy has been developed - and will continue to be so - through consultation with MCT staff and partner agencies as appropriate. All staff, children, adults at risk, as well as their parents and carers, are informed of this policy through the wide circulation of MCT's Safeguarding Policy Statement and forms the basis of every new starters induction.
Definition of confidentiality
- Example 1
In practice this could be a child asking for their conversation with an MCT staff member to be kept private. If an MCT staff member was to offer absolute confidentiality to a child, they would in effect be offering to keep the content of the conversation completely secret and that they would discuss it with no-one.
- Example 2
In practice this could be an adult at risk asking for their conversation with an MCT staff member to be kept private. If an MCT staff member was to offer absolute confidentiality to an adult at risk, they would in effect be offering to keep the content of the conversation completely secret and that they would discuss it with no-one.
As may be obvious from the above examples, there are actually very few situations where MCT should ever be offering absolute confidentiality. The challenge is always to strike a balance between ensuring the safety, wellbeing and protection of all children and adults at risk; furthering MCT's ethos of trust; and at the same time ensuring that essential personal information is shared to further safeguarding good practice.
Limited confidentiality
The reality is, that in most cases, what MCT can actually offer is limited confidentiality. This means that the content of a conversation might well be discussed with other professionals, but in general this would not identify the person who had made the disclosure. Therefore, MCT staff should always make it clear at the outset of a conversation that there are limits to confidentiality. It should be reinforced that these limits are in place to ensure a person's safety and wellbeing. MCT will always ensure that an individual will be informed when a confidence has to be broken for this reason and they will be involved in the information sharing.