Illegal Council Activity?

[Allusernamestakenbutthis]

Is it illegal (for this thread I will ask is it unreasonable) for a civil servant to take information from a well-meaning phone conversation and then incorrectly call and convey it to a another member of public therefore causing considerable damage to the family? Obviously I cannot disclose what the conversation was about only that it was brief, ambiguous and 100% well meaning (and could be proved if recorded) and has been dramatically distorted by a civil servant. This has caused considerable damage to the whole family as they have implied it is a certain family member but not revealed/ incorrectly suggested who it is. Legal action is being considered, so any comments from a legal point of view much appreciated.

I wouldn't think it would be illegal unless they had guaranteed your anonymity or they had deliberately (rather than accidentally or through misunderstanding) given a false impression to the other party.

For example, if Person A phones social services because they are concerned that Person B is abusing her kids, I would expect that person B would be investigated and be informed of Person A's claims. Otherwise there is nothing to prevent someone making malicious and false allegations.

This is too vague to say anything about it. But if you’re going to complain or take legal action, be clear on terminology - civil servants work for central government, and you mention the council in your header. These are local government employees. There are different governance schemes for each of them.

Someone more knowledgeable will, no doubt, come along. When I was a Civil Servant (two different departments) I had to sign the Official Secrets Act so passing on information gained as part of the job to someone else not within the department would be illegal.

Someone on the Council would not necessarily be a Civil Servant, though, so this might not apply in your case.

Presumably this is a suggestion of some sort of abuse within the family. I’m guessing someone made an allegation and a social worker has started to investigate that with an attempt to maintain anonymity. Not my direct field of expertise but if something is reported it’s almost impossible to investigate without speaking to anyone.

Impossible to advise whether the actions were reasonable/illegal without more info but PP are right: local government (council) employees are not civil servants.

It's a bit vague as you cannot specify what type on information.

But yes, in general this should not happen, or rather, should nit happen without good reason. Information which you receive in the course of your duties should be used only for the furtherance of those duties.

So it really does depend on individual circumstances, and whether the following action is one which normally happens.

If it was an error, it may or may not be criminal (again depends on what it is) but it will very likely be a disciplinary/retraining issue

It might be a breach of Data Protection laws, but it depends on the circumstances. You are probably better off posting this in the Legal section.

I’m guessing a social services report was made, social services have rung to investigate and now the proverbial has hit the fan.

I suspect there is no recourse.

Without the actual context, it's really hard to say whether the council has done anything wrong.

Its impossible to say from the vague information you've provided. If it's about serious safeguarding matters, it was perhaps perfectly legal and defensible; if something else, maybe you have a case

No enough information to give a view but if the call was ambiguous maybe the person taking it misunderstood and acted in good faith.

Completely impossible to say. You need to seek real life, professional advice.

As has been stated local council workers are public sector workers not Civil Servants and have their own codes of conduct. Depending on the issue it may be quite right that someone acted upon information.

Too vague to say. Sorry. Get legal advice.

Sounds like you are referring to Social Services maybe? They wouldn't be civil servants.

Civil servant or local government?
Civil servants are covered by various clauses but if, hypothetically, Joe Public called to say person A was doing something illegal and C Servant passed that information to the relevant dept then that's fine (obviously) if C Servant Rand his aunty Doris it's a different matter.

I don't know what regulations are in place for local government (as you mention the council) or Social Services (who I presume are covered by similar regulations to local govt as they are employed by trusts I think?)

But, as others have said, of J Public has made an allegation or passed on info then whoever received the info isn't going to be able to sit in a hedge with binoculars.

How does the member of the public that the person who received the call know that the info has been distorted? They must have spoken in turn to the anonymous caller? Who can't be that anonymous in that case!

And if safeguarding of a child is involved, then (quite rightly) virtually everything goes out of the window, as the central tenet is
"Is the child safe now?"
Yes= look into the allegation
No= do what's necessary to make them safe and quickly.

Just to further clarify, if this relates to a council employee, the official term is 'Local Government Officer', speaking as one who has had to tick the box on many a passport verification.

There are national codes of conduct for LGOs (see the Local Government Association website, and gov.uk) but the council will also have its own.

If you actually believe an officer has acted improperly (and not that you just don't like their actions, the outcome, or any unintended consequences), your remedy is to make a complaint through the council's complaints process, the LGO (Local Government Ombudsman) will not consider cases unless you have exhausted the council's own process.

@Scorpio no, with a few notable exceptions, Social Services departments are simply part of councils. Trusts are generally commissioned parts of the NHS.

Nothing to do with safeguarding and not social services related. I better check if the person involved is a civil servant.

Can you make up a scenario which clarifys it a bit more. For example is it like calling up environmental health to report hygiene concerns in a cafe and then that officer calls his friend the manager and says that there has been a report that the kitchen is full of cockroaches and is filthy. Or is it same situation but environmental health instead of calling his friends went through the correct channels, say sent a letter /did a visit to check on claims?

It's quite simple, do they work for the council or central government?

Your post is too vague. But I am guessing that you phoned up wanting 'advice' about something that was either illegal/dangerous/safeguarding issue without it going any further.

Public sector workers generally have a duty of care to the public and are meant to follow up reports of this nature. It it with the intention of protecting people who cannot protect themselves. This can mean doing it against the wishes of the reporting person. But I would expect them to have told you this in your conversation.

Other agencies ie council, social services, police etc regularly share information between one another where there is deemed to be a risk and they need to take action. So if you told your social worker your DH was beating you up, they would most likely tell the police and vice versa.

FWIW, depending upon who you spoke to, a lot of conversations are recorded and/or documented. So I would expect there to be a record of it somewhere.

Civil service: www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/departments/

This is far too vague to be able to comment on, there are lots of scenarios where it would be absolutely acceptable to pass information on and lots where it wouldn't.
Also as other PP's have said, if they work for the local authority they are not civil servants. If they work for DWP, HMRC, DEFRA or similar then they are.

Tricia, ah ok. I was civil service, my mum local govt but wasn't sure where SS come in.