Information sharing

Information sharing covers the proper governance of information sharing practice across South Lanarkshire Council and its partners. Sharing information between the Council and external people/organisations or even internally between Services and Resources is vital to the provision of certain services but it is also important to maintain a certain degree of security to guarantee the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information resources.
There are times when information sharing may involve confidential information. This is information to which the Council wants to restrict access because of an obligation or a risk of harm to the Council or someone else’s interests. For instance the Council and its partners need to work effectively and efficiently together to tailor services to the individual needs of its customers and service users.
Consequently, it is essential that care is taken when sharing confidential information especially where this involves sharing personal information about our customers, staff and other stakeholders. It is our duty of care to ensure that we adhere to the highest quality of standards and that our protocols meet with legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  
There is general policy on the sharing of confidential information as a whole. Employees will receive instructions as to what is confidential information and what can be disclosed and to who as part of their duties. The decision as to what is confidential and what that information can be used for is a matter for the Resources or Service that holds the information.
However, no matter what part of the Council is involved, confidential information will always include private information about people. This information (or personal data) has special protections in terms of the data protection. These rule go much further than just the legal duty to keep information confidential.

In order to ensure that the Council complies with its duties in terms of data protection, the Council has introduced a Data Sharing Policy which was communicated to employees via Personnel Circular 27/16. This Policy sets down the matters that need to be considered and the steps taken before any decision to share personal data is made, what must be done whilst and after the information has been shared.
Data Sharing can take place on either a systematic (planned) basis or an ad hoc basis (a response to a specific request) and the Policy sets down where considerations differ.
An example of data sharing and the arrangements that must be put in place is the Lanarkshire Information Sharing Protocol.

If you are involved with any decisions regarding for what personal can can be shared, what can be shared and the arrangements that need to be put in place to allow for the data sharing to be compliant with data protection, you must make yourself aware of the contents of the Policy. Please note that the Policy is supported by a Learn on Line Course (which is part of the suite of courses on data protection) called Data Sharing. You should have completed this course as well before deciding upon data sharing.