social services and parental resposability

[laurisa]

my friend is having a spot of bother with the social services and i was just wonder if anyone knew the answer to this question

Can social services disclose privileged information about a case they have on a child to the biological father if he does not have legal parental responsibility? Are they breaking the law if they do so when the mother has specifically expressed that she does not want this information disclosed to him?

any help would be apreciated as my friend has no idea what to do
thanks

[laurisa]

all the information to do with the child and the case with the social services is confidential and only to be disclosed to the parent and people like the school but what they have done is give the info to a man who has not seen or heard from the child in a good 7 years its bassically like they have give the information to a stranger, if a councelor or doctor did this they would get into trouble so why should the SS get away with it?

[ummmm]

So ss were already involved with this child over another matter/reason?

[radiogaga]

I feel the ss informed the father because he is the father, and is names on the birth certificate.
wether you feel this is right or wrong is another issue.

[laurisa]

yes they were already involved, and its not a matter of if she feels its right of wrong its a matter of law and what they are legally allowed to do/not do

[pink-kittens]

You say that SS have 'given info' but what info? Perhaps iof yopur friend posted and not you someone may be more able to help

As the father he has some rights, not to be confused with PR - however, as before see someone who specialises in this type of case
I'm sure SS are well aware of what they can and cannot disclose

Has your friend been to court with this? And remember you only have her side of this, his version may be quite different.
There is certainly an awful lot more ot this than you can know and tell
Time is irrelavant - he is not a stranger in the true sense he is the childs father whether she likes it or not

The best advice you can give your friend is to tell her to see a professional because even you have confused the issue you seem to want to solve by sayng this "the case with the social services is confidential and only to be disclosed to the parent" What parent? If this is what is written in the file then you can hardly blame SS for actually thinking they could tell the father who is 'the parent' - of course you may have typed that incorrectly