You know you are right…

…when people start saying “we need to protect the organisation” after they wrote things into HR records and they never thought that the member of staff may be able to see what they wrote. In the public sector records should be written in a way that recognises that the staff they are about may ask … Read more

Standards are slipping

There does not seem to be any pride in the work that people do – both in terms of factual quality or in terms of the quality of the work itself. If you are implementing new processes or providing advice and guidance in areas from employment law to data protection law, there has to be … Read more

FOI – when is a backlog not a backlog?

It is not a backlog if the ICO has not noticed how many requests are outstanding and only becomes a backlog when the ICO starts to get involved. A 2.5% compliance rate (at times) and 650+ backlog should never have been acceptable and senior management should have been fighting tooth and nail to overcome the … Read more

What next for the NHS?

New government, good intentions but asking for another Darzi report seems a bit meaningless. I hope that they do not see contractors as the “villain” – a lot of us understand what we are doing, are value for money and bluntly, keeping knowledge in the system when permanent staff are looking to leave.

Faith representatives, spiritual care and the NHS

If you have a faith or belief then I have nothing against that. Whether that faith or belief is compatible with data protection legislation is out of my remit. If the law does not specifically say as a faith representative that you can have access to patient records that is a reflection of the uncertainty … Read more