A top lawyer working for Bristol City Council has claimed there was “no systematic monitoring” of the social media of parents with disabled children. Nancy Rollason, head of legal service, faced questions on the fact-finding report she co-authored on council officers collecting social media posts of parents with children with special educational needs and disability (SEND), which cleared staff of any wrongdoing.
She told councillors staff had not systematically monitored tweets of two local mothers, despite new evidence showing many months worth of tweets were collected into a dossier. A previous leak also showed council staff sharing private wedding photos of one of the mothers.
The 10-page fact-finding report was criticised as a “whitewash” by Jen Smith, a mother-of-two whose tweets were collected by council staff, during a meeting of the people scrutiny commission on Monday, September 26. A new freedom of information request shows the council collected tweets of hers from at least January to May this year.
