ANy social workers or police?

[Sourtart]

When I was pregnant I had a minor issue with DH and called the police. I was completely unreasonable. But because I called them and had a child they told social services. Someone came over and that was that. Nothing else. No other involvement.

Anyway, say if I had a friend who was a social work and a friend in the police, could they, if they wished to, search any of our names and look up the history?

They could but if they couldn't justify the search and were questioned about it they could be sacked .

I work in the nhs and any information I search has an audit trail so if I'm found to be looking up someone who I have nothing to do with professionally I could get dismissed for gross misconduct

No they'd be fired for it

Interesting. Thank your for your answers. Would a Subject Access Request show up any searches, if I asked for that specifically?

I think if they did this and got caught they'd be in massive trouble. They would be breaking data protection laws. They would lose their jobs and face a massive fine and possible jail.
In this day and age every search made on a computer is traceable and definitely not worth the risk.
Do you have any proof?

I’ve asked my DB (Police). No, they’re not allowed. They’d be sacked for gross misconduct.

You can ring and ask yourself however probably just have to fill in a form for gdpr

in theory they could however if it was discovered they'd face a disciplinary if they were found out.

No, deffo bot allowed without a solid reason and paper trail, as mentioned above

if you think they have then make a complaint and say you believe they've looked at your records. depending on the system that is used it's very easy to.see who has been into a record and whether they have looked or updated it etc

Do you think someone has accessed your records?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: whilst physically possible for them to do so, doing so would be a horrendous misuse of their respective agency IT systems and would render them liable for dismissal for gross misconduct and potentially criminal proceedings.

if I had a friend who was a social work and a friend in the police, could they, if they wished to, search any of our names and look up the history?

Colleagues of my ex (pc) were sacked for doing this, so yeah they could look, but they would definitely be punished for it.

Unless they had a legal and justifiable reason for doing so, of course.

I think it has very possibly been done, yes.

If the incident was recorded as a domestic abuse incident (guessing it may have been as police passed to children's services) then potentially your child's HV or school nurse would have been notified and also the GP, also some areas inform a child's school/nursery. Do you think someone has accessed that information?

Our computer system to access records is called Protocol.
We can type a name in and all the names that match and are in that system appear. However they can on the system for many reasons. E.g. You could be an aunty of some one that access SS or a neighbour or friend that has been mentioned.

To find out information about that person you have to deliberately click on that name. Before it will allow you to access you do have to say why you want to open that case ( e.g. Administration purposes) even after you've done this a warning comes up to remind you of the data protection.
There are serious implications if you look up someone that you shouldn't.

I wouldn't worry OP

There will be an audit trail. A subject access request would now show who had accessed your file. You would have to explicitly ask for that information and explain why.

*would NOT show

I work as an administrator in a social services department. As pp’s have said all searches on our database are recorded.
All records no matter how minor or fleeting are kept, in case they are needed in the future. Legally some records have to be kept for 100 years. It can happen that in your working day you may access someone’s records in error similar name, postal address to someone else you are searching for. Other social services may ask us to check “if someone is known to us” if there is a legitimate reason for that request.
If you believe that someone has information about you that they shouldn’t have or has breached confidentiality you can raise a complaint. Your local council will have a department that deals with this. They will then investigate and can get a record of everyone who has accessed your information. At least this is what would happen in my area.
As good practice it is therefore advisable for me, for example, to never access records of anyone that I know personally but to pass that request onto another member of my team. Ultimately yes any worker could be fired if they went fishing for information.

As everyone else said yes they can. Asking for access to your files will not include who has looked at it. You need to contact csc or the police directly and make a complaint detailing who you think has accessed your information. They would then need to look in to it.

As per pp yes they can but they'd be in big trouble if they did for no reason.

There may be also many reasons why they potentially came across the information by accident, for example if they were on duty at the time and saw that it was an incident that required attendance or action, investigating another case that resulted in a connection to information from your case (for example researching phone numbers from a missing persons call logs and a number was yours.. the incident basic details could possibly be displayed alongside your number.

However they potentially came across the information though, they should never share or disclose that information beyond their professional responsibilities.

Depends. Police can search nationwide for all sorts and hold loads of information under intel. Doesn't need to be a crime.

Ss can only see what's held within their own local authority not nationwide so if you friend doesn't work in the authority you live in they cant see anything.

The incident you described in my local authority would generate something called a contact record. When police attend an address where a child is living they refer it to ss if their is potential domestic abuse. Ss decide what if anything they do about it. From what you describe they made a visit and Nfa'd it. This would generate 2 entries on the database in my area. Can't comment on others.

Domestic abuse or potential - not making assertions here - can potentially be discussed in various forums though. We have a multi agency one monthly I think or might be more regular where families at risk are discussed.

Police and ss work in close knit teams though. Would be really difficult without context to say whether it's been overheard or actually directly searched for.

If these people have said something to you
Which alludes to the fact they may have read your file then that is a direct data breach and a serious offence.

Also we pass over work we have any kind of personal connection to at our own discretion however tenuous!For example i won't accept cases of children at my dc school and am very careful with close neighbours - try and avoid my area altogether! It's not worth the aggro!!

If cases are staff (happens more than you think) then they are either held at a different office and or their files are restricted to certain staff only.

Everything ok op?