1. The document provides an introduction to key concepts around working with families, including balancing family privacy with promoting welfare. It outlines learning objectives on the Children Act 1989, Human Rights Act 1998, and Data Protection Act 2000. 2. Participants discuss reasons why freedom and privacy are important for those working with children and families. The document then provides context on legal precedents establishing civil liberties and limiting state interference in private life. 3. Key concepts around confidentiality and information sharing are debated, including the importance of written records for accountability. The challenges of balancing privacy, welfare and legal duties are explored through examining relevant British legislation and case law.

1. Working
with
Families

2. Learning Objectives
1. Contrast family privacy policy with promoting
welfare policy including the ‘ten principles of’
and S.17 of The Children Act 1989.
2. Introduction to The Human Rights Act 1998,
in particular Article 8; Right to Family Life.
3. Introduction to Data Protection Act 2000.
4. Debate the concept of ‘confidentiality’ and
record keeping.

3. Last Time
• We explored ‘parenting’. In doing so we used
what might be called a ‘bottom up’ approach:
We based our presentations of the research
that we read.
• In this session we shall use an alternative
method a ‘top down’ approach: We will come
up with some ideas before we undertake the
research.

4. In your groups
• Spend 10 minutes discussing why those who
work with children and families must be
mindful of ‘freedom’ and ‘privacy’.
• Can you have ‘freedom’ without ‘privacy’; can
you have ‘privacy’ without ‘freedom’?
• Make a list of your reasons. (You will need this
list later)

5. Entick v Carrington [1765]
A leading case in English law
establishing the civil liberties of
individuals and limiting the
scope that the ‘state’ can
interfere in ‘private life’

6. The Details
• In 1762, the King's Chief Messenger Nathan
Carrington, and three other King's messengers, went
into the home of writer, John Entick "with force and
arms" and seized Entick's private papers. Entick was
arrested. The King's messengers were acting on the
orders of Lord Halifax "to make strict and diligent
search for . . . the author, or one concerned in the
writing of several weekly very seditious papers”. Entick
sought judgment against Carrington and his colleagues
who argued that they had acted upon Halifax's
warrant. A jury returned a special verdict finding that
the defendants had broken into Entick's home "with
force and arms”.

7. Perhaps summarised by: An
Englishman’s home is his…

8. However,
As English law has proceeded in a ‘liberal’
tradition protecting an individual’s right to
freely make business contracts and hold
property, some individuals in society have
not had the same equal rights before the
law, significantly because they did not hold
property.

9. Did you know:
• There has been a long tradition in England that
only very wealthy males had the right to vote.
• The situation was ‘improved’ by the Reform Act
1832 giving 1 in 7adult land owning males the
right to vote.
• This increased to all men aged over 21 and
wealthy women in 1918.
• Both men and women aged over 21 could vote by
1929.
• The voting age was reduced to 18 in 1969.

10. Do you think that we take
our ‘rights’ and ‘freedoms’
for granted…?

11. At around the same time, over the last
150 years
E-X-P-A-N-S-I-O-N
Of
The
Welfare State
Report on Social Insurance and Allied
Services (1942) : The Beveridge Report.

12. The ‘state’ needs
to do more to help
people!
The ‘state’
interferes with
our freedoms
and privacy!
Where do you stand?

13. • Over the years, one can see how each side of
the state debate has gotten in front but then
slipped behind again.
• This can usually be seen in the balloon like
expansion of the services followed by
contraction (cuts) in services.
• However, in general there has been an
increase in legislation, policy and powers
relating to state intervention into
family/private life.

14. The Children Act 1989
Read excerpt 1: The 10
Principles of the Act.
Discuss and write of the
pack whether you think the
principle ‘protects’ privacy
or ‘invades’ privacy?

15. What about s.17 The Children Act 1989
duty
It shall be the general
of every Local Authority
to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within
their area
need
who are in
; and so far as is reasonably
consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of
such children by their families, by providing a range
and level of services appropriate to those children’s
needs.

16. Read Excerpt 2:
The Daily Mail, 2013,
“Social Workers to
Meddle in Every Family
Home”[what do you think?]

17. The Human Rights Act 1998
Read Excerpt 3: Making Sense of Human Rights.
What are
1. Absolute Rights
2. Limited Rights
3. Qualified Rights?
What is Article 8 about?
What is a ‘public authority’?

18. Confidentiality
Read the Stephen King quotation
on the front of today’s pack: What
do you think it means?
“No one likes to see a government
folder with his name on it.”

19. Confidentiality
• Read excerpt 4 – Information
sharing, confidentiality and
consent.
• List the seven golden rules for
information sharing? (try to
summarise each one into five
words).

20. Consent to information sharing
• What is consent?
• Why is consent important?
• Can children give consent

21. For next time: Read Excerpt 5:
Thompson (2009), Written
Communication
1. Why is written information important?
2. Why is ‘working from memory’ difficult?
3. How do written records make us
accountable?
4. What does Thompson write about
‘relevance’?
5. What does Thompson write about ‘fact and
opinion’?

22. Summary
1.
2.
3.
4.
Contrast family privacy policy with promoting
welfare policy including the ‘ten principles of’
and S.17 of The Children Act 1989.
Introduction to The Human Rights Act 1998,
in particular Article 8; Right to Family Life.
Introduction to Data Protection Act 2000.
Debate the concept of ‘confidentiality’ and
record keeping.

23. Final thought
When I worked as a Social Worker
the head of children’s services
said to me, “If it isn’t written
down recorded – then it
never happened”.
What do you think this means?
(Do you agree?)