But there have been concerns that there is nothing collating key information centrally in one place. After successive delays, it was rolled out to only 15, users, out of the initial target of , The system was used by doctors, social workers, schools, charities and other individuals involved in the protection of children.
Many said it was useful in tracking children and discovering the truth about the way they are cared for. But civil liberties groups criticised it as intrusive and disproportionate.
They were concerned about keeping information on all of England's children in one place and feared that it was not secure. But it has attracted controversy from the outset, with civil liberties groups, children's campaigners and the Information Commissioner concerned about its scope and role. Richard Stiff, the ADCS chair of information systems and technology policy committee, said confusion over who is responsible for vetting users and policing the system "may allow a situation where an abuser could be able to access ContactPoint for illegitimate purposes with limited fear of any repercussions".
The children's secretary, Ed Balls, who announced the launch of the database today, said it would help those who work with children to "prevent problems escalating". He said recent cases had shown that a lack of "proper and timely information-sharing" could have tragic consequences. Its launch comes after the death of month-old boy Baby P in August , who suffered a catalogue of abuse at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend.
Baby P was on an at-risk register and had been seen some 60 times by social workers, doctors and welfare groups. Balls said: "No system can ever guarantee that all children will be safe but we know ContactPoint will make a real difference.
The Liberal Democrats have called for the "intrusive" database to be scrapped. ContactPoint has been useful in a number of my cases. For example, a health visitor referred a case to me. She raised concerns that the child she was working with may be the sibling of another child — known to our local authority — who had sustained serious injuries. ContactPoint helped me to establish that the child was not a sibling but that they were related. Through ContactPoint I was able to quickly identify and contact other professionals working with the child.
Social worker DCSF, In , the British Government made a decision that the brutal cruelty of her carers against an eight year old girl provided the necessary and sufficient evidence of the wider risks to children from parents in England that required such a gifting of personal freedoms.
None of this is to suggest that ContactPoint was conceived with anything other than the most laudable of intentions. Indeed, the system and its establishment were extensively debated in the House of Commons and House of Lords and have been fully endorsed by all political parties. In conclusion, as both a system and concept ContactPoint is something quite different in the relationship between the individual whether as user of, or practitioner in, social, health, formal and informal education services and the state.
The lives of children and young people will be represented in a 12 table record aggregated from masses of data collected about them from a range of sources and shared beyond the purposes for which such data was originally collected.
The effective operation of the system itself is contingent on a complex system of technical and social relations that:. In doing so, are all children and young people in England more effectively enabled to achieve the outcomes of: being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being?
Accessed October 25, ]. British Government Statutory guidance on inter-agency cooperation to improve well-being of children, young people and their families. Accessed March 12, ]. DCSF ContactPoint: Early Adopter phase. Key learning from practitioner feedback. London: Department for Children, Schools and Families. ContactPoint: Practitioner Feedback. Dowty, T. Hilton, Z. Accessed October 3, ]. Munro, E. Penna, S. Accessed October 18, ]. Acknowledgement: The picture — server farm — is by sugree and is reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.
About the writer : Dr. David Hoyle is a research active leader and practitioner who has worked, and continues to work, in different fields of practice with children, young people and their families. He received an M. On the basis of his practice and research, David continues to develop a systemic critique of the thin rhetoric and sound-bite politics that, in his opinion, has characterised the social and educational policies of successive governments in respect of children, young people and their families since the mid s.
Because every child matters? Last Updated on July 7, by infed. Skip to content Server farm by sugree on flickr ContactPoint is an online database which contains basic information about every child and young person in England from birth to their 18 th birthday. David Hoyle explores the nature of the system — and the critisicisms made of it. Those duties are: to co-operate to improve the well-being of children in the local authority area Section 10 ; and, to co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in the area Section The legal basis for ContactPoint Section 12 of the Children Act enabled the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families to publish regulations which require local authorities in England to establish and operate a database, or databases, that contain information about children and young people in relation to the duties set out in sections 10 and 11 of the Act see above.
A chronology of ContactPoint April 11 th Kevin Brennan — Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Young People and Families — issued a Ministerial Statement to Parliament on changes to the implementation timetable and funding arrangements to support the implementation and management of ContactPoint February 21 st Steady state Vendors of case management systems used by practitioners in social care, health, formal education settings, early years, informal education services and youth justice services to record their interventions with children and young people, have received funding from Government to upgrade their products so they have the capability to inter-operate with ContactPoint.
What information will be held on ContactPoint? The ContactPoint record about a child or young person can contain only information prescribed by Section 12, sub-section 4 of the Children Act a his name, address, gender and date of birth; b a number identifying him; c the name and contact details of any person with parental responsibility for him within the meaning of section 3 of the Children Act c.
However, ministers and civil servants with responsibilities for the IISaM programme have continuously argued that ContactPoint neither compromises nor erodes rights to privacy offered by various legislation, As with all legislation we have sought the necessary advice on the relationship between ContactPoint and the Human Rights Act and the Data Protection Act and are confident that it is consistent with both.
In turn all of this may confirm any previously held prejudices about the system — and their future attitudes to and use of the system Practitioners were found to need to be continuously persuaded that the system was easy to use, and it met generally accepted standards within the professional cultures which underpin the provision of services for children, young people and their families.
Relationships between ContactPoint and the I. The following represent a sample from those views: ContactPoint is a very easy tool to use. Who guards us against the guardians? Whilst outcomes intended for the system are beyond reproach, the means for achieving such ends — the implementation and deployment of ContactPoint — represents fundamental professional, ethical and moral dilemmas both for every member of society in contemporary England and for social and health professions and formal and informal educators.
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