Technical problems stopped use of key ContactPoint function

The system holds the details of more than 11 million children throughout England and Wales in a bid to make it easier for practitioners to find out who else is working with a child.

It has emerged that between 2 November and 18 December, ContactPoint was being operated without its children missing education (CME) reporting function.

The CME function is designed to flag up which children are not attending school in a bid to identify any that may be vulnerable.

The situation came to light following a Parliamentary question tabled by shadow children’s minister Tim Loughton.

Clearly the whole thing is far from up and running properly, Loughton said. "The fact that this function was out for six weeks is more than slightly worrying.

"I have never been convinced that this is going to work properly, let alone do what the government thinks it is going to do. I just think it is going to be one series of problems after another."

News of the issue comes on the back of details emerging about a number of security concerns relating to the system.

A series of Freedom of Information requests by The Daily Telegraph revealed there have been at least three apparent security breaches so far in London, Staffordshire and Surrey.

One breach involved two officials at Westminster City Council losing details on children that had originally been stored in an envelope.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, said: "There was an issue with the CME reporting function within ContactPoint – this problem was resolved and a ‘fix’ was issued.

"To suggest no data was available during this period is not true. Local authorities already have existing lists of children missing education that they monitor and we know that they are already successfully using ContactPoint to help identify whether individual children are missing education or not."

"ContactPoint has a vital role to play in helping local authorities work better together and providing that crucial national picture, ensuring no child slips through the net."