Child protection database plans revived
A fresh £8.6m initiative to co-ordinate NHS and social services data to improve child protection has been announced by the government.
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ContactPoint to close on 6 August
The controversial children’s database ContactPoint is to be shut down on 6 August, the government has announced. In a written statement, education minister Tim Loughton said the government was fulfilling its long-standing commitment to close the database. ContactPoint was launched by Labour in January 2009 to provide demographic data on every child in the country, […]
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ContactPoint to be replaced
The children’s database ContactPoint is to continue to operate in a scaled down version while the government decides what should replace it. The Department of Education has told local authorities that the government intends to end ContactPoint “as soon as is practicable”, but that ministers have decided to carry on with the database in a […]
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ContactPoint to be scrapped
The controversial children’s database ContactPoint is to be scrapped by the new government, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have revealed.
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ContactPoint ‘suffers security breaches’
The children’s database ContactPoint has suffered at least three security breaches since its launch, according to an investigation by a national newspaper. The Daily Telegraph has reported that Freedom of Information Act requests submitted to local authorities already running ContactPoint revealed security breaches in three local authorities last year. The newspaper said its investigations found […]
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Unite calls for better IT training
Health visitors believe they are not getting enough IT training on their local electronic patient record systems, according to a union survey. A poll of 530 health visitors and school nurses conducted by Unite/Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association found that 310 had access to local electronic patient record and 92% of those had received […]
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ContactPoint roll out confirmed
The national roll-out of the children’s database ContactPoint is to go ahead from later this month, the government has announced. The Department for Children, Schools and Families said the national rollout of ContactPoint was on track and that practitioners across England could start to be trained and to access the system from late October. The […]
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Professionals start using ContactPoint
Up to 800 health, education and social care professionals are to start using the national children’s database ContactPoint from today, the government has announced. The Department for Children, Schools and Families said selected professionals based in 17 local authorities in North West England, together with staff working for the charities Barnardo’s and KIDS, will be […]
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Conferenced in
Work stops again on ContactPoint
The introduction of the national children’s database ContactPoint has been suspended after local authority staff discovered loopholes in the system designed to protect the most vulnerable young people. The Department of Children, Schools and Families said it had “paused” the flow of data into ContactPoint from sources such as the child benefit database after local […]
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