Police called in after sensitive childcare records found dumped in South Yorkshire field

A number of confidential documents were discovered by farmer Tim Braithwaite at the entrance to one of his fields in Cadeby Lane near Sprotbrough yesterday.

The children’s records were among a number of items flytipped in a gateway leading to the field.

Sharing details on Facebook, he said: ”Someone fly tipped this in our field - it’s from a local childminder and contains files of sensitive information regarding the children they used to look after.”

Among the rubbish was a white folder marked “contracts and child records.”

A document in one of the dumped folders relating to medical policy is headed “Little Puffins Childcare.”

On discovering the folders, Mr Braithwaite contacted South Yorkshire Police and Doncaster Council and the rubbish – which also contained a number of children’s toys – was swiftly removed.

One Facebook poster said: “Wow, that’s a serious GDPR issue if that has child details in it.”

Another said: “Oh dear. Major issues here. Could even be a safeguarding problem.”

It is not known when the rubbish was dumped or who by.

There are few details relating to Little Puffins seemingly in the public domain.

We are attempting to contact the childcare provider for comment.

Flytipping has increased massively during the coronavirus lockdown, with Doncaster Council dealing with a far heavier workload than normal during the crisis.

Because household waste centres are currently closed, many people have taken to dumping their rubbish in country lanes.