RCGP Safeguarding toolkit
The aim of this toolkit is to enhance the safeguarding knowledge and skills that GPs already have to enable them to continue to effectively safeguard children and young people, as well as adults at risk of harm.
Part 5: Information Sharing and multiagency working
What does ‘information sharing’ in a safeguarding context mean?
Sharing information in a safeguarding context means sharing relevant personal information about children and adults that multi-disciplinary and multi-agency professionals and agencies hold. The information is shared in order to safeguard children and adults from abuse and neglect.
Information can be shared in a variety of ways such as: safeguarding referrals, safeguarding reports, letters, emails, clinical IT systems, verbal discussions and multi-agency processes such as multi-agency risk assessment conferences (MARAC), muti-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) or public protection arrangements Northern Ireland (PPANI).
Information sharing can range from documenting safeguarding concerns in a patient record, to seeking advice from a practice safeguarding lead, to providing a detailed report for the purposes of a safeguarding conference.
The information that general practice can provide can be very wide-ranging. Further detail on relevant information that general practice can provide can be found in Part 3 of the RCGP safeguarding toolkit in the sections: ‘Top tips for making a child safeguarding referral and writing safeguarding reports’ and ‘Top tips for making an adult safeguarding referral and writing safeguarding reports’.