Data Protection Act 1998 is the legislation which requires to record, store and share information correctly. It says that data must be : used fairly and lawfully used for limited, specifically stated purposes used in a way that is adequate, relevant and not excessive accurate kept for no longer than is absolutely necessary handled according to people’s data protection rights kept safe and secure not transferred outside the UK without adequate protection.
There is many different reasons to keep and store informations but once is something written down it becomes a permanent record and it must be good secured. If it is written down should be locked in safe place but if something is entered on a computer should be secured by password and changed regularly. We know different stories when information has been stolen or just left somewhere and lost. The information which we held about our residents are very personal and confidential which means private. Nevertheless we need to share information between us(staff) to keep our resident healthy and safe. The thing is to share the information in the right place and in the right way. If we need to share information with medical reason we should do it in a secluded place and make sure away of other service users which this situation do not concern.
It may happen when we need to share confidential information with other member of staff, GP, parents our service users, police, in court, in media( when someone gone missing). Everyday sharing information help us to organise our work time and help how to work with service users. Handover