Key legal and ethical considerations when conducting a friendship and peer assessment.
Friendship and peer assessments are about building safety, enhancing child welfare and protection. They are not about crime control or surveillance. During a friendship and peer assessment, you should continually reflect on whether the young person’s rights and needs are being prioritised, while remaining alert to the influence of blame-based or behaviour-management agendas.
Conducting a friendship and peer assessment is likely to involve an interference with the Article 8(1) of the Human Rights Act – the right to private and family life – of all/some of the young people within the peer group. A local authority can interfere with this right in line with Article 8(2) of the Human Rights Act if the assessment is conducted for the purposes of protecting a young persons’ health, and/or to assist the local authority in protecting the rights and freedoms of others affected by that peer group.
However, in addition to ensuring this objective is met, the local authority will need to publish its policy on friendship and peer assessment work – clearly communicating to the public the conditions under which this activity may happen. It needs to make clear agreements that would need to be in place for assessment information to be shared with wider stakeholders (such as health or education services) who will be engaged to support members of the friendship group following the assessment.
Further arrangements will also be required for the secure storage, retention and destruction of information held on friendship and peer assessments, and agreements in place for the conditions under which young people and parents must be notified (or not).
Remember: The information shared with stakeholders about the assessment findings must be confined to that which is required for the partnership to safeguard young people in the assessment in relation to the issues faced by the group. Information that is unrelated to this purpose cannot be shared.
The document below recaps key legal and ethical considerations. Make sure these are in place before you begin and considered throughout the assessment process.
