A childcare recruitment agency has been forced to disclose a confidential reference about a nursery nurse on its books after losing a nine-month battle to withhold the information.
The nursery nurse had taken her case to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to force Tinies Childcare to let her see a reference from a former employer after she became suspicious that it was the reason why she was being turned down for
a number of jobs.
The employer had made it clear to Tinies that she did not want the information disclosed.
Under the Data Protection Act, individuals have a right to find out what information an organisation holds on them, including references from previous employers.
Tinies had argued with the ICO that the reference should remain confidential because employers should be able to speak candidly and might otherwise be deterred from providing vital information where children could be put at risk (News, 1 February 2007).
Last week the ICO ruled that, in this case, Tinies must let the nursery nurse see the reference because it did not think that this would deter the nursery manager from giving full references in the future.
However, the ICO, acting on its powers under the Act, said each case should be judged on its own merits. This means references can still remain confidential.
In the letter to Tinies, the ICO said that the Commissioner's decision did not mean that all references must always be disclosed. It added, 'Cases such as these must be considered on their merits and on the facts of each individual case. If in a particular case there was a realistic risk that a referee or other individual might suffer serious damage or distress as a result of disclosure, then this would be a significant factor in the consideration of whether any such disclosure was reasonable in all the circumstances.'
Tinies said that by fighting the case, the agency had avoided a 'blanket policy' on disclosure of childcare references.
Ben Black, director of Tinies, told Nursery World that the ruling had reassured him that, particularly in the case of parents giving references for nannies, 'where we say that we treat this in confidence, we would pretty much feel confident that we would not have to disclose it.'