How TMO can help you in meetings

I had a fabulous weekend. last week. On Saturday I took my first ever trip to Twickenham to see a rugby international.  England vs Scotland: the last match of this season’s Six Nation’s Championship.  We were seated alongside the 5-yard line just before England try line in the first half (where all the action was) and the Scottish try line in the second half (where all the action was).  The final score, with an English, try just seconds before the final whistle was 38-38.

In the second half, England Captain Owen Farrell clashed with Scotland’s Darcy Graham in what looked like a rugby incident.  However, the referee turned to the TMO (Television Match Official) and the various different camera angles replayed the incident in slow motion up on the screens.  In slow motion, the challenge looked far worse than it had in real-time and showed a shoulder-first collision.  Scotland was awarded a penalty, and Farrell was lucky not to have received a yellow, or red card.

 After the match, although he was not drawn on the incident he did acknowledge that the team’s emotions were not as well in control as they could have been.

 “We should have been in control of our emotions more than we were in that second half,”

 It has got me thinking about all the times I’ve sat in a meeting where I’ve been feeling emotionally charged, and have struggled to think straight and in some cases even remember everything that has been said or even correctly interpret what has been said.

 What many people don’t realise is that it is perfectly OK for a parent to covertly record a meeting for their own purpose.  Lots of people are worried that by doing so they might be breaking some law or feel they need to seek permission to record the meeting and don’t feel confident to do so.  However, this is not the case.

 So, what is allowed?

 You can covertly record a meeting for your own personal use.  The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 regulates covert recordings made by public bodies such as local authorities. However, there is no law that prohibits a member of the public from covertly recording a conversation or a meeting of which they are apart.

 What about GDPR? (Data Protection)  Whilst this applies to organisations, it does not apply to individuals.  There is an exemption in the legislation which allows the processing of data “by a natural person without any gainful interest in the course of its own exclusively personal or household activity.”  Furthermore, guidance from the Information Commissioner states that if a meeting is about an individual, any minutes will be data about that individual.  So, if the meeting is about your child, it is personal data about them, and not about any of the professionals within the meeting.

 How might you use a recording?

 The most helpful way to use a recording is to review it after the meeting to see if you missed anything at the time.  In the same way, as TMO can help to see an incident from different perspectives, listening back to the meeting can help you to ‘hear’ it differently from when you were in an emotional state.

 You can transcribe the meeting, or use it to write notes of what was discussed and actions that were agreed, which can then be shared. 

 In the unfortunate event that you find yourself in a situation where an official record of the meeting substantially differs from your understanding of the meeting, you can inform the authority or tribunal that a recording exists and you will make it available if they wish.  Courts can request the recording be made available, however, only courts have the ability to do this.

Recording meetings is just one of the ways you can help yourself with advocating for your child.  I have a number of other Tips’n’Tricks that I recently shared with my tribe. I thought you all might like it too, so here it is. Enjoy.

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