The idea that agencies shouldn’t work in isolation but collaborate has been a formally recognised approach since the 1980s, yet one serious case review (SCR) after another cites poor information-sharing between agencies as a factor. It was a prominent feature of the Baby P case. A less-well-publicised case from 2013 into the death of a two-year-old girl at the hands of her 19-year-old stepfather found that while the agencies alone couldn’t have prevented it, there were misunderstandings between professionals, a need to clarify conversations, and duplications of recording procedures.
In less extreme situations, poor information-sharing can also have unwanted consequences. In one case, a disabled child had multiple appointments with different professionals at one centre because staff wrongly believed they were unable to share information about his condition.
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