To better help vulnerable people it is often necessary for parties in the social domain to work together. This raises questions: how can we help people and protect their privacy? Can we share data or not? Clear choices and good agreements are badly needed. The publication 'Privacy in the social domain: the hat issue' offers directors, policy officers and lawyers in the social domain the tools they need.
The publication was prepared by the Exchange of Personal Data and Privacy (UPP) track of the Social Domain Program, with the cooperation of VNG, Netherlands Institute of Psychologists (NIP), Divosa, the Dutch Association of Educators and Educationalists (NVO) and the Professional Association of Professionals in Social Work (BPSW).
"Municipalities are often insufficiently aware of the different hats that social domain professionals such as neighborhood team members have to deal with," says Léon Sonnenschein, UPP program manager and one of the authors of the publication.
As a result, they often unintentionally saddle professionals with tasks that have opposing legal regimes. This happens, for example, when a professional has both the role of a care provider and an aid recipient (see box). Consequence: professionals make their own considerations about which framework they apply, but are uncertain about the rules.
'This is also not the job of the professional, but of policy makers and management,' Sonnenschein said. It is a persistent issue, he knows. 'With this publication, we want to encourage directors in the social domain to set this up better.'
So is there now widespread unlawful data sharing in the social domain? 'Most professionals act with common sense and in good conscience,' Sonnenschein said. However, he suspects that opportunities to share data are not being utilized. For example, professionals think that privacy laws prevent them from sharing information, when in fact they can. This leads to a lack of confidence in their actions, which sometimes prevents people from receiving proper help. But it also happens that municipalities ask for too much data from professionals with professional confidentiality.'
Part of the publication therefore addresses the question: when does legal professional secrecy apply? How do professional codes play a role in the performance of college duties, and what this means for what municipalities can and cannot ask of professionals? The publication also includes an overview of reporting rights, reporting and information obligations for professionals, for example in cases of domestic violence.
Selina Brondijk, legal advisor on privacy at the municipality of Amsterdam, is pleased with the publication. 'Dealing with privacy is not a checklist: every resident has a different dynamic in terms of problems. That is why it is wiser for municipalities to provide professionals with an assessment framework. This contains the questions that you need to ask yourself as a professional in order to be able to make the right assessment for data processing.'
The publication provides clear guidelines for such a consideration framework. Much needed, thinks Brondijk. Because a lot is still unclear for professionals, especially those who link youth aid to complex family problems. The publication also pays attention to the mandating of neighborhood teams by the board. You have to get that right, especially if you outsource municipal tasks to providers.'
For the City of Amsterdam, the publication comes just at the right time. Amsterdam is going to organize Wmo services and debt assistance from a single neighborhood team. This will allow professionals in the social domain to offer better help to people and families with stacked problems.
'People, no matter how needy, have a right to expect the municipality and providers of assistance to handle their data with care,' Brondijk said. 'Professionals ask for rules, but no case is the same. These days, as a professional, you have to be able to deal with that responsibility. While you also have to be able to just do your job.'
Based on the principles in the publication, policymakers and lawyers in the social domain can create a kind of field instruction, Brondijk said. 'In addition, training professionals is the motto through case discussions, webinars and peer review.'
'It is certainly not the intention that municipalities "send professionals into the woods" with this guide,' Sonnenschein emphasizes. 'Professionals are now often unnecessarily caught between what the municipality or district team organization asks of them, and what their professional code requires of them. This can only be solved if municipalities take responsibility together with organizations in the social domain and organize the work better. Only then can they make clear to professionals which work falls under which task. Which rules then apply, and how they can switch between tasks.'
What is the cap issue?Since the decentralizations of government tasks, employees in the social domain often perform multiple tasks. To each "cap" may fit a different legal framework for processing personal data. The hat problem arises because the legal framework for referral to assistance is different from the framework for assistance itself. As a result, discussions often arise around vulnerable households between social worker and municipality about whether or not they are allowed to share data. An example. A mother and a child report to a neighborhood team with a question. An employee of a youth assistance organization provides freely accessible youth assistance in the form of a good conversation. But the worker can also refer the child to specialized youth care. The first task is subject to the professional secrecy of the youth worker. However, the second task is performed by the employee on behalf of the municipality, for which different rules apply. Does the data fall under the professional secrecy of the youth aid worker? Then a duty of confidentiality with exceptions applies. However, part of the work falls under the tasks of the municipality. For this, the employee is allowed to share data with other parties if this is necessary to properly perform the allocation tasks. The legal professional secrecy of the youth welfare worker does not apply to this. A professional always takes his professional code into account. But this is different when providing assistance than when directing assistance. |
View the publication 'Neighborhood teams and the cap issue' here
Source: Social Domain Program
