Overview
Introduction
Background
Information sharing and schools
Three questions to guide information sharing
Parental consent
Understanding what to share
Information sharing duty and GDPR
Professional judgement remains important
Information about a pupil who may pose a risk to another pupil
Issues for NASUWT members
Questions to guide workplace reps
NASUWT view on the DfE guidance
Next steps

Overview

The new information sharing duty:

• comes into force on 30 September 2026;

• applies to relevant organisations, including education settings within its scope in England;

• is intended to remove uncertainty about whether a particular child protection threshold must first be met;

• can require information to be shared following a request from another relevant organisation;

• does not mean that all information must be shared;

• does not remove data protection requirements;

• does not generally require parental consent where the statutory duty applies;

• requires information sharing to be relevant and proportionate;

• allows, in exceptional circumstances, for situations where sharing would be more detrimental to the child;

• applies to relevant information about other people connected to a child; and

• sits alongside, rather than replaces, KCSIE and existing safeguarding procedures.

Introduction

From 30 September 2026, a new statutory information sharing duty under section 16LA of the Children Act 2004, inserted by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, will apply to organisations within its scope.

The duty is set out in statutory guidance, Information sharing duty statutory guidance for safeguarding organisations and their practitioners.

The duty is intended to make it clearer when information must be shared to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Importantly, information may need to be shared before a child reaches a traditional child protection threshold, including where information relates to emerging need, prevention or unmet need.

For teachers and other school staff, the new duty should be understood alongside Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2026, local safeguarding procedures and professional standards.

The information sharing duty applies to information that may help another relevant person exercise their functions, including to assess risk, make a decision, provide support or take action to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child.

Where the duty applies, organisations must share information with another organisation or practitioner covered by the duty, including one that has requested it, if and only so far as they consider that sharing may help the recipient’s relevant functions.

This includes to assess need, make a decision, provide support or take action to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child, including when a child potentially poses a risk to others.

The information sharing duty does not apply in extremely limited circumstances where a practitioner, acting on behalf of their organisation, determines through professional judgement that sharing information would be more detrimental to the child than not sharing. Pages 9-11 of the statutory guidance explains this in more detail.

Background

Information sharing is essential to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Information sharing ensures practitioners can build a full understanding of a child’s circumstances, identify need and recognise concerns before they escalate.

It also allows professionals working with children to decide what action is needed to keep them safe and ensure their welfare.

For a long time, practitioners, including teachers and those working in schools, have reported challenges around the complexity of information sharing legislation. This has been particularly unclear where concerns relate to a child’s welfare or emerging need, rather than harm, so it hasn’t reached a formal safeguarding threshold.

The duty intends to make clear that information can and, in some cases, must be shared where it has the potential to help another relevant organisation safeguard or promote a child’s welfare. This includes situations involving early help, emerging needs and prevention.

The duty came into force on 30 September 2026. It does not require schools to retrospectively reconsider every information-sharing decision made before this date, although ongoing concerns or newly identified needs can still be acted upon.

Information sharing and schools

The new duty reinforces the important role that schools play in safeguarding and child protection.

Teachers and other school staff often see changes in attendance, behaviour, presentation, relationships or wellbeing before other services do.

The statutory guidance specifically recognises that schools can hold information which is important in identifying emerging vulnerability or unmet need.

Three questions to guide information sharing

The statutory guidance sets out three important considerations:

1. Is the information relevant?

Does all of the information considered for sharing have a bearing on safeguarding or promoting the child’s welfare? If information has been requested, is there sufficient context to determine relevance?

2. Could sharing help the recipient?

Is the recipient covered by the information sharing duty?

Could sharing information reasonably help the recipient to safeguard or promote the welfare of the child, including when the child potentially poses a risk to others, through exercising their relevant functions including to assess risk, make a decision, provide support or take action to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child?

3. Would sharing be more detrimental to the child?

Could sharing be of greater detriment to the child than not sharing? Are there any mitigating steps that can be taken to reduce risk?

The guidance stresses that this exception should be rare.

Importantly, a parent being unhappy, a fear of criticism or complaint, or a practitioner's general discomfort about sharing are not by themselves reasons not to share where the statutory criteria are met.

Parental consent

The new guidance clarifies that consent is not required where the statutory information sharing duty applies.

Where the duty applies, relevant confidential information can be shared without obtaining consent, provided the statutory criteria and data-protection requirements are met.

Consent to share information is separate from a family’s agreement to receive voluntary help or medical treatment.

The guidance does, however, make clear that transparency is important.

Where it is safe and appropriate, children and parents should generally be told what information is being shared, why it is being shared and with whom.

Practitioners should use professional judgement in deciding when and how to inform families, taking into account any risks that transparency itself may pose.

Understanding what to share

No single professional holds the full picture of a child’s life, or the lives of individuals connected to them. It is only when pieces from all practitioners are put together that a true understanding can be gained and whether that child is or isn’t safe or needs extra help.

It is also important for practitioners to recognise that abuse and neglect do not always happen in isolation.

Where an organisation or practitioner suspect an unknown common factor may be of relevance to the safety and wellbeing of multiple children, efforts should be made to identify what this might be and what information should be shared with other relevant organisations. Appropriate action should be taken where necessary.

The guidance specifically sets out that schools, education and childcare settings hold vital information that helps to identify need at the earliest opportunity.

Through daily contact, schools and childcare settings are often the first to notice changes in behaviour, attendance, health or presentation that may indicate emerging or escalating vulnerability, harm or unmet welfare needs.

Staff should distinguish fact from opinion when recording or sharing information and avoid assumptions based on protected characteristics or family circumstances.

Information sharing duty and GDPR

The new duty does not remove schools’ responsibilities under data protection law.

The guidance states that data protection provides the framework within which information must be shared lawfully, fairly and proportionately.

In practice, schools still need to consider:

• whether the information is relevant;

• whether it is necessary and proportionate;

• accuracy;

• security;

• who needs to receive it;

• the purpose for which it is being shared; and

• appropriate records and governance.

In summary, the new duty requires the sharing of relevant information.

While data protection law should not be treated as a blanket reason for refusing to share relevant safeguarding information, the new duty does not mean that unrestricted access to any information or a pupil’s entire record is allowed.

This also informs schools that when another organisation requests a case file or access to a system, the school should consider whether that is necessary and proportionate.

The school is within its rights to provide the relevant information from the file rather than the entire document.

Professional judgement remains important

The guidance does not create a requirement to share every piece of information about every pupil.

Practitioners are expected to consider relevance, whether sharing may assist the recipient and whether sharing could cause greater detriment to the child.

The guidance also encourages practitioners to seek advice from a manager, safeguarding lead or other appropriate professional where they are uncertain.

Information about a pupil who may pose a risk to another pupil

The duty specifically covers situations where information may help safeguard another child.

For example, information about harmful sexual behaviour, serious violence, exploitation or other concerning behaviour may need to be shared even where the pupil who is the subject of the information is not themselves considered to be at risk.

At the same time, the guidance stresses that children displaying harmful behaviour may themselves have unmet needs or have experienced harm.

A holistic safeguarding response should therefore consider the welfare of all children involved.

Issues for NASUWT members

Workload

The statutory guidance expects organisations to be able to demonstrate accountability and recommends recording decisions about whether information was shared or not shared, including the rationale.

Schools must also have appropriate systems, safeguards, access controls and local information sharing arrangements.

This should not be interpreted as a justification for creating unnecessary duplicate paperwork or requiring classroom teachers to complete additional records that serve no safeguarding purpose.

Schools should also ensure that staff understand the local pathway for information sharing rather than being expected to work out the correct route themselves in every case.

Dealing with requests

Members should follow their school's safeguarding and information governance arrangements.

In most cases, this will mean referring the request to the DSL or the appropriate member of the safeguarding/senior leadership team rather than simply sending information directly.

The fact that another agency has requested information does not mean the school must automatically provide everything requested.

The request should be considered against the statutory criteria and the information supplied should be relevant and proportionate.

Where a request is urgent or concerns immediate danger, members should follow the school's urgent safeguarding procedure and act without unnecessary delay.

If the DSL or deputy is unavailable, this must not delay appropriate action. The DSL should be informed as soon as practicable.

Questions to guide workplace reps

As the new procedures are introduced, school representatives may wish to ask:

1. Has the school reviewed its safeguarding and information sharing policy in light of the new statutory duty?

2. Have all staff been briefed on what is changing?

3. Who makes information sharing decisions in the school?

4. What should a teacher do if another agency contacts them directly?

5. What is the procedure for responding to information requests?

6. How will decisions to share, or not share, information be recorded?

7. What training is being provided to staff?

8. What support is available when staff are uncertain about relevance, proportionality or potential detriment?

9. How will the school prevent unnecessary duplication of safeguarding records and workload?

10. How will the school ensure that information sharing is accurate, proportionate and non discriminatory?

NASUWT view on the DfE guidance

NASUWT welcomes the clearer explanation of when relevant information must be shared to safeguard children and promote their welfare.

The final guidance gives fuller advice on consent, emerging welfare concerns, accuracy and anti discriminatory practice.

These changes should help staff share appropriate information with confidence.

Our consultation response on the draft information sharing duty guidance also stressed that guidance alone cannot resolve uneven multi agency working or shortages of time and resources.

The DfE has added advice on local arrangements and published data sharing agreement templates.

It has not yet provided a practical school specific explanation of how the duty fits with Keeping Children Safe in Education, or set out dedicated support for implementation.

Schools need clear routes, feedback from other services, secure systems and staff who have time and training to use them.

The new anti discriminatory paragraph is welcome.

The guidance does not expressly address the Equality Act 2010 or the Public Sector Equality Duty, or recommend an integrated assessment of equality and data protection impacts.

NASUWT will continue to seek clear accountability for the effects of the duty on different children and families and will monitor members’ experience of its implementation.

Next steps

The purpose of effective information sharing should be to ensure that children receive the right help and protection at the right time.

For teachers, this requires clear procedures, appropriate training, professional support, and manageable systems.

The new duty should not be used to shift responsibility for complex multi agency information sharing decisions onto individual teachers without adequate guidance, time or support.

NASUWT members should contact the Union if they are concerned about how their school is implementing the new duty, or if they are being asked to share information in circumstances they believe are inappropriate, excessive or unsafe.