{"id":34814,"date":"2025-09-21T16:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/34814\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T16:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:19:08","slug":"social-workers-afraid-to-share-information-about-children-due-to-gdpr-concerns-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/34814\/","title":{"rendered":"Social workers \u2018afraid\u2019 to share information about children due to GDPR concerns \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social workers are often afraid to share information about children due to GDPR<\/a> concerns, the chief operations officer of the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) has said.<\/p>\n

Caroline Strong said there needs to be an overhaul of how different organisations share information in cases where there are concerns about a child\u2019s welfare.<\/p>\n

Ms Strong said many social workers, or other stakeholders who engage with children, are \u201cgenuinely afraid\u201d to share information.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften what\u2019s quoted is GDPR, \u2018I collected that information for my purpose, so I now can\u2019t share it with you for your purpose\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand why people are concerned with GDPR but, when it comes to the safety of our children, we really need to stand back and look at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Strong said the \u201clong-awaited\u201d review of the Child Care Act \u2013 which is set to update the State\u2019s primary child welfare and protection legislation \u2013 is expected to introduce measures aimed at improving communication between different agencies.<\/p>\n

She hopes the case of Daniel Aruebose<\/a> \u2013 whose remains were believed to be found on Wednesday following a search in north Dublin<\/a> \u2013 will be a watershed moment in terms of child welfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne would hope\u201d lessons are learned, she said.<\/p>\n

Daniel spent the first year of his life in foster care. He was due to be adopted, but his parents changed their minds and he was returned to them over a gradual period.<\/p>\n

Tusla<\/a>, the child and family agency, ceased its involvement with the case in 2020.<\/p>\n

Daniel was missing for four years, but his disappearance was not noticed until last month. The Department of Social Protection raised the alarm with Tusla, who then contacted garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Ms Strong said the details of this particular case won\u2019t be known until a review, and possibly a statutory inquiry, is completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccountability is important, but it\u2019s more about learning. How do we do better?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people are always afraid of \u2018who\u2019s to blame?\u2019. For us, it\u2019s not about blame. It\u2019s about reflection and saying, \u2018How can we do better? Where are there gaps that we can fill?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Strong said some of these gaps can be \u201cfilled within existing structures\u201d. She said there are \u201cplenty of ways that we can share information appropriately\u201d via a network of people who regularly interact with children such as public health nurses, childcare workers and teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside of Tusla, we as a society have a responsibility to all of our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the Department of Children<\/a> said the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2025 is being finalised and will be published \u201cas soon as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

The legislation will \u201caddress ongoing intersectional challenges\u201d and place \u201cinter-agency co-operation\u201d on a statutory footing, a statement noted.<\/p>\n

The Bill will introduce a duty on Government departments, Tusla, the HSE, the Garda and other relevant bodies \u201cto co-operate with each other, having regard to the best interests of the child\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes collaboration between such bodies in the planning and delivery of services, and the sharing of information and data.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Tusla described Daniel\u2019s death as \u201can unimaginable tragedy\u201d and offered \u201csincere condolences to those who knew and loved [him]\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to engage fully with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na as they continue their investigations, and will provide support and care to those impacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere there is a serious incident or death involving a child open to or previously known to our service, we conduct a review of our engagement, and that review is sent to the National Review Panel. The review relating to Daniel will be given to Minister Norma Foley by the end of this month.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social workers are often afraid to share information about children due to GDPR concerns, the chief operations officer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,23069,27168,61,60,43,53],"class_list":{"0":"post-34814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-daniel-aruebose","10":"tag-gdpr-general-data-protection-regulation","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-tusla"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}