Swindon Council children in care files left 'lying around'

The papers were found at Toothill Farm where a youth club meets

Paperwork giving details of young people in the care of Swindon's children's services has been found at a youth club.

The documents were found at Toothill Farm, which was used as an office by Swindon Borough Council four years ago.

Youth club secretary Mavis Read said she found them "lying around" while clearing out an upstairs room.

The council said it had a "clear policy" on handling personal files and an investigation was under way.

"It's quite shocking this sort of stuff should have been left just lying around in a public building," Ms Read said.

The club secretary alerted her local councillor Stephanie Exell after initially finding a number of USB drives on 15 September.

Two days later, she found the children's files.

"There was one folder about LGBT children, one about NEET, one about 'not easy to reach' children," Ms Read said.

Councillor Exell removed the documents and returned them to the council.

"I was very concerned to see the documents," she said.

"I did not read them - the worry is that these documents contain very personal information about real people and their lives," Ms Exell added.

A council spokesman, in a statement released to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, said: "We have a very clear policy on how to manage personal and confidential information and we have engaged and trained staff extensively on this issue.

"We are investigating what happened in this case.

"We would like to thank the individuals for returning the material to us and for bringing the matter to our attention."