The government has launched a consultation on regulations for its proposed electronic database of children aged 0 to 18.
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) aims to set up an Information Sharing Index by 2008 with a list of information on every child in England covering the name, address, gender and date of birth of the child, the name of the child’s school, GP, the name and contact details of other practitioners providing services for the child and the name of the lead practitioner if appropriate.
The aim of the index is to allow practitioners working with children to identify and contact one another easily and quickly to enable better sharing of information. Those expected to use the index include GPs, health visitors, school nurses and accident and emergency staff as well as social services teams.
The proposal is that it will be able to be accessed by professionals working with the child including GPs, health visitors, school nurses and social workers plus appropriate professionals in education, youth offending and some voluntary services.
The index will also include a facility to allow practitioners to indicate to others that they have information to share, are taking action, or have undertaken an assessment, in relation to a child
The regulations will provide a legal framework for the operation and maintenance of the framework and will cover:
- what information is included in the index and making it clear that the index cannot contain any other information;
- people or bodies required or allowed to submit data to the index;
- how long information can be kept on the index;
- ensuring accuracy of the information held on the index.
The DfES says further details about the operation, security and maintenance of the index will be set out in statutory guidance. Consultation on the regulations closes on December 14 and the DfES plans to create initial index records from national data suppliers in early 2007 and deploy the index to early adopter local authorities next summer
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