Accidentally been sent someone's section 7 report..

[Baffled668]

I'm so baffled and confused.
I've received a random WhatsApp from someone whose sent me a section 7 report.. I was too scared to respond as I thought it might be a trap so have immediately blocked this person.

I'm baffled as to a) they've got my number.. I'm very very careful who I give my number to.

And b) why just send a random section 7 report..im going through the family court myself so it just seems so bizarre.

From what I can see the person whose sent me the report is the person named in the report. I haven't read it as it's got so much personal information in. I just wanted to see the name of the person in case I knew them.

What would you actually do??

What’s a section 7 report?

It's a welfare report prepared by a social worker for use in the family court.

I recently received a report from a social worker to the non resident father about contact at a Center.
A friend of mine actually works for the children’s social services to she enquired and they’d sent the report to me accidentally (obv) but the other parent had given them my contact details as I run an scout group and the child used to belong to the group.
There were several issues that I then complained to the managers about..
1- receiving the email with all their personal details in (I hadn’t known about them having social care involvement)
2- the parents giving my details out without my permission
3- the child had left our group 2 years previously..

If I were you I’d report it as it’s a big breech of GDPR for you to receive it. You can go online to the local councils website and report it.

"From what I can see the person whose sent me the report is the person named in the report. "

In that case just leave it.

Well I think the mother named in the report is whose sent the report to me. But I literally have no idea who she is. She's not someone I recognise or have any knowledge of. That's why I'm so baffled.. But the coincidence is that I'm going through the family court too.. So I just don't understand. There was no message or anything. Just a WhatsApp with the section 7 attached.

I'm more concerned about how she got my number than the report as I've just deleted that. Would never read that as we will be having a section 7 later in the year and would absolutely hate if that happened to me. Its just having my number that's the most concerning thing.

Have you considered replying and asking?

Nope I was too scared.

Surely she’s just sent it to a wrong number rather than actually having your number?

Was it not just that she’s mistyped the number in rather than having your number?

But it's just baffling. No message, nothing just a section 7 report attached.. And also the coincidence as well..
It could be a wrong number. But seems v bizarre.

A family member experienced this and it turned out 2 separate reports were sent to the opposite parents. So the parents had each others, the social worker had mixed them up. Huge mistake.
It just so happened the children went to the same school and so parents vaguely knew each other.

If its the person the report is about I think they're forwarding onto someone and mistyped the number. The whole court thing is a coincidence.

I'd ignore it.

I am a data protection officer. I suggest you: a. reply saying you have received it in error, you have deleted it, and please delete contact details from your database and all systems; then b. Delete it and move on.

Maybe read it in case it somehow mentions you or your children or your ex partner or some other associated family member. What if for some reason someone has forwarded it to you to tip you off to something?!

Does this person live in the same area as you?