STRICTLY confidential and sensitive information about school children has been sent to a parent by mistake. Debbie French, of Lammas Way in Letchworth GC, received 237 pages of highly private information from Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) on Saturday

STRICTLY confidential and sensitive information about school children has been sent to a parent by mistake.

Debbie French, of Lammas Way in Letchworth GC, received 237 pages of highly private information from Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) on Saturday, after asking for a copy of her 12-year-old son's school records.

The sensitive papers relate to The Highfield School and Grange Junior School in Letchworth GC and include names of school children with disabilities and details of teachers who have been threatened with disciplinary action.

Much of the correspondence involves senior staff and HCC.

Mrs French said: "All I wanted was Jack's school file and I'm still waiting for the information I asked for.

"This information has nothing to do with me at all. There are things about children in there that I shouldn't know about. It's completely private and parents must feel let down.

"There's information about a child with autism, and there's a detailed witness statement about a child involved in disciplinary action.

"I have information on about 10 different children and I know them all. They live on my estate."

In one council email, a respected pediatrician is named and criticised for questioning the way a school dealt with a child.

The confidential documents also included the minutes of a human resources meeting concerning disciplinary action.

Mrs French said: "It's also got handwritten letters from teachers to other teachers about parents. It's not my business to know.

"Some of it's privileged information from their legal team. It's strictly confidential. It's unbelievable."

Bill Osborne, who runs Ultratec Ltd - a secure data destruction service on Icknield Way in Letchworth GC - said: "The information schools hold is extremely sensitive and confidential. For a pedophile, he's got everything he could possibly wish for.

"People are not paying attention to data. They are only giving it lip service and that mean my information, your information, and our children's information isn't safe."

Mrs French said she contacted HCC to inform them of their grave mistake. "I asked them to investigate but they ridiculed me", she said.

"I don't think they know what they have sent out. I told them I would give it to the media if they didn't get back to me by Tuesday so I have."

She added: "They haven't even asked for the information back. They are not taking it seriously at all. They are in a bit of a mess and it's their own fault."

A spokesman for HCC said: “We have had a further look at the information disclosed. Of the 237 pages that were sent to Mrs French, we know now that there were two documents consisting of three pages which refer to four named children. These should not have been disclosed.

“We are sorry for the error and are taking steps to ensure that it does not happen again. We will advise the Information Commissioner’s Office of the outcome of our investigation, and of the action we take in response to this disclosure.

“We believe that the remaining 234 pages included information from the school’s file which we were legally obliged to send her in response to her request for access to records.”