A COUNCIL admin error saw personal details of parents of children with special educational needs sent out to hundreds of people.
The data breach happened last Thursday when a spreadsheet containing the private information of 47 parents was sent out to 310 people on the council’s family information service mailing list. This included names, addresses, email and telephone contact details.
The information was taken from a council consultation about bringing in a third party organisation to give parents of SEND children a voice in council decision making.
Parent Jonathan Wainwright, whose seven-year-old son William has special educational needs and attends Greenacre, is disgusted at the data breach.
He said: “The immeasurable fact is the breaking down of trust and how do you measure that?
“It is a group of people who are parents to vulnerable children in the borough who are facing huge amounts of change. There is new legislation in place and parents are supposed to be part of strategic decision making and the very organisation that is supposed to head up that trust has totally eroded it.
“This is the straw that put the camel in A and E.
“Parents have said to the council ‘good luck on us filling anything out again’.”
A council spokesman said it has contacted all parents affected and apologised for the incident.
He said it was ‘unfortunately’ caused by an administration error resulting in the spreadsheet containing personal information being attached by mistake.
The email gave details of the next steps following the consultation and also details of the next update meeting for people to attend, should they wish. The attachment was from an internal email, confirming which parents had already been contacted.
The council spokesman said: “We continue to learn and put safeguards in place to minimise these types of incidents.
“Please be assured that data breaches at Barnsley Council are taken very seriously. In this case we’re undertaking a full investigation and will work with the Information Commissioner’s Office to make sure all data we hold about individuals is safe and secure.
“We really value the support and input of parents and carers as we continue to develop support services for children with SEND in Barnsley.”
The matter has now been referred to an outside body. The spokesman added: “Even though we were not obliged to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, we have precedent for being proactive in these circumstances and we’ve self-referred as a matter of good practice. We’re also carrying out our own internal investigations.”
