Perth and Kinross social work chiefs have apologised after confidential information about a child in care was sent to a complete stranger.
The young person’s name, date of birth and personal circumstances were contained in a letter intended for the family who are looking after him.
However, the message was mailed to the address of another couple in a different town.
The woman who opened the letter contacted the council straight away and was asked to dispose of it herself.
Perth and Kinross Council has insisted it acted appropriately after the social work department mistake came to light.
But the woman says she is horrified that the authority could have exposed the privacy of a vulnerable child.
“I have family members who work for the council and the police,” she said.
“I understand some of the issues around child protection and vulnerable kids. So I know there might be reasons why a child’s family members aren’t allowed to know where they are staying.
“I hate to think what could have happened if anyone else had been sent this. Or if it had fallen into the wrong hands.”
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The letter was addressed to the woman and her partner at their home in the Auchterarder area.
Inside was an invitation to a meeting to review the child’s care plan. There was also a form for the youngster to complete in advance of the session.
The woman said alarm bells rang right away.
“The child’s full name, date of birth and the fact that he’s in care were all there,” she said.
“It’s not a common name. If you googled it you wouldn’t get a lot of results.
“I could have been daft enough to go on Facebook and ask if anyone knew this boy or his family because I had a letter for them. And then all his information could have got out.”
She called the council’s customer care centre, and the officer who had signed the letter rang her back.
He indicated that it should have gone to a couple with the same name elsewhere in Perth and Kinross.
The man apologised for the error, and said he and his colleagues would get in touch with the right people.
Soon after she was called by another council employee, who told her the letter would have to be destroyed and offered to send out a shredding service.
That’s my fear. That this happens more than once and the information gets into the wrong hands.”
When the woman said she had a wood burner and could just throw it on the fire, she was told that would be fine.
The following day she received another call from the council, this time from someone checking she had actually destroyed the letter.
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The woman insists she has burned it.
However, she says she is now concerned that is happened in the first place – and that the council has taken her assurances on trust.
“If the council had said they wanted to come and look at my camera roll, or they wanted video evidence that I’d destroyed it I’d happily have said yes,” she said.
“But they seem to be happy that this is the end of it.”
She added: “I hope it was a one-off. That’s my fear. That this happens more than once and the information gets into the wrong hands.”
A Perth and Kinross Council spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, due to human error, an invitation to an online meeting was sent to the wrong addressee and we apologise for this mistake.
“This was an isolated incident but we have reviewed our procedures to minimise the chances of any repeat. We are grateful to the unintended recipient for notifying us and taking action to destroy the letter.
“The council responded immediately when informed of the data breach and has acted in accordance with data protection legislation. We take data protection extremely seriously and all our staff undertake data protection training.”
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